I wheeled out of the parking lot and headed back toward the hotel where we were crashing for the weekend. It wasn’t a terrible drive, just a little over six hours, but I hadn’t been sure which way things were going to go with her father, so we had made arrangements at one of the casinos that was off the Strip to stay for a couple days.
Brysen reached out and curled her hand over mine where it was resting on the gearshift.
“You didn’t have to let him off so easily. Not for me.”
She might think that way now, but after how sideways it turned me to hear about my own dad’s death, deserved or not, at the hands of another, I knew there was no way I could do that to her.
“If he follows through, it’s a win-win. If not, then he can deal with the repercussions and we’ll just move forward like we always do. We’ll focus on your mom, making sure she stays on her meds, gets into therapy, and tries to stay on the path to recovery so you and Karsen have a shot at having at least one redeemable parent.”
I was doing the same thing with my own mother. We weren’t reconciled by a long shot, but with my dad gone and all the money tied up by the government, she had nothing and no one and I couldn’t justify keeping her frozen out. It was what my dad had done to me, and if I had learned anything the last few months, it was that I was going to be many different things, but being like my father was not one of them. I set her up in a condo in the same building the girls and I lived in, and told her that as long as she made an effort, tried to adjust to life in the Point, I would help her out. So far it was hit-or-miss. She was asking for money left and right, but she had also gone out and gotten a job in an office as a secretary to help support herself.
Seeing the conflict it created within me when I was forced to say no to my mom when she was being frivolous, Brysen took it upon herself to be the gatekeeper. She flatly informed my mom that any money she was asking for had to be approved by her first before I would hand it over. My girl had a way easier time shutting Lady Hartman down than I did, and the requests were coming fewer and farther between, and when they did come, it was for actual things she couldn’t afford.
I got to the hotel and reluctantly handed over the keys to the Stingray. I didn’t like to let my car out of my sight after the untimely demise of my Stang. I followed Brysen up to the room and grunted in surprise when she jumped me as soon as the door shut behind us. I put a hand under her ass and she climbed up into my arms and started to kiss me all over my face.
“You’re so hot.”
I laughed and walked with her to the bed. I tugged her hands out of my hair and kissed the center of each of her palms. I was happy that doing right by her made her so happy.
“You still want to be the queen of a kingdom that’s a long shot?”
She giggled and narrowed her eyes at me when I shifted my weight so I could dig into my front pocket. I pulled out the cheap little ring I had found in the gift shop when I had been wandering around talking to Nassir about my plan this morning. It was a little gold crown, tacky and completely ridiculous, but she went silent when I slid it onto her ring finger and told her: “One day I’ll buy you a real crown and you’ll wear it forever.”
She looked at the ring, and then at me, and I saw her eyes get glassy and shiny.
“That’s your boldest move yet, handsome.”
It didn’t feel bold, it just felt right. She felt right—the perfect match to both sides of me—the bored, rich kid from the Hill and the bookie making the city run with blood and illegal money.
“I’m at my best when I’m being bold.” I kissed her pulse where it was thundering under the delicate skin of her wrist, and she settled more fully onto my lap, which had things in my pants getting their own ideas about how we should spend the rest of the weekend.
“That is most definitely true. You know that as long as the kingdom is where you’re at, whatever that looks like is where I want to be, Race. I don’t think it’s a long shot; I think it’s pretty even odds with you, Bax, Titus, and even Nassir there to fight for it.”
I wasn’t sure about that. The outside threat was still an unknown. Bax and I both had plenty to lose now, Titus would always let the lines and regulations of the law confine what he was willing to do, and Nassir was a survivor, so I wasn’t sure that if things started to turn, how committed he was to fighting the good fight. Only time would tell who came out on top, but for now, Brysen was working my shirt up over my head and looking at that little plastic ring like I really had given her a piece of Midas’s treasure. This was where I wanted to be, who I wanted to be, and the Point would just have to wait her turn to take any more of my soul.