Ryan Renewed: New York Ruthless: Book 5

When I walk back into the kitchen after getting one of our men to drive Hayden home, the atmosphere is tense. Liam leans against the kitchen island while Mikey and Conor sit at the table and Jessie hovers by the window.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“Liam doesn’t want me to have the DNA test done,” Jessie snaps.

I frown at him. “Why not?”

“Because I don’t trust that guy, that’s why.”

“Why not? He was perfectly nice,” Jessie says with a shake of her head.

I walk toward my younger brother and lean beside him. “Whether you trust him or not, the only way to know if he is Jessie’s half-brother is if they do the DNA test. Nobody is asking you to trust him just yet.”

“I don’t see why we can’t just pay him to back off,” Liam snarls.

“Shane just tried that and it didn’t work. He’s not interested in money…” Jessie says.

“Of course he is,” Liam interrupts her. “Why are you so quick to believe everything this guy says?”

“Why are you so quick to doubt him? He could be my family, Liam.”

That seems to flick some kind of switch in my usually placid, at least around her, youngest brother. “We are your fucking family, Jessie!”

“I know that, but he might be my family too, and if he is…”

“And if he is, he’s likely to be a lying psychopath like the rest of them were.”

Fuck kid!

The change in Jessie’s face is instant. I rub a hand over my jaw as I wait for her to tear him a new one.

“My family were not lying psychopaths,” she shouts, her body trembling with suppressed rage.

“Really?” Liam takes a step toward her, his fists balled at his sides and his breathing getting faster and harder. “Your mom didn’t steal you from your real father and lie to you from the minute you were born? And your dad wasn’t an evil, murderous prick?”

“My parents did what they did to protect me,” she shrieks. “And are you forgetting about my little brothers?” She’s crying now and tears run down her cheeks. I watch her unravel and know I can’t stop it because she needs to say her piece. “They were children. Innocent children. They never hurt anybody in their whole damn lives until they were slaughtered right in front of me. Do you know what it’s like to listen to your little brothers screaming for help as a madman slits their throats? And you talk about my father being an evil psychopath!”

Liam shrinks back from her words, as though she’s sliced him wide open with a knife, and I suppose she has, not that he didn’t have it coming.

I have never seen Jessie so angry or Liam so unreasonably stubborn and I don’t know how to fix it. I also know that I can’t – they have to fix this themselves.

We all watch as Jessie storms out of the room like a tiny tornado, full of anger and tears and frustration.

“What the fuck was that?” I ask Liam.

He opens his mouth to reply but no sound comes out and then he closes it again, shaking his head as he sits on a stool at the kitchen island.

Mikey and Conor look at me and then him, and then the door, no doubt wondering if our irate wife is about to come flying back through it to carry on the argument. She won’t though. She was too upset.

I walk to my youngest brother and place my hand on the back of his neck. “What is up with you, son?”

He shakes his head again and refuses to look me in the eye.

“You need to go apologize to her.”

His head snaps up then and he glares at me. “She brought up the fact that my dad was…” He doesn’t finish the sentence. It has taken a long time for him to come to terms with who his biological father was.

“Yeah, after you called her entire family a bunch of liars and psychopaths. That was out of line and you know it. So man the fuck up and go and make it right.”

“Fine,” he snaps as he jumps off the stool. “But don’t blame me if she sets me on fire or something.”

“I’m sure you can handle her,” I smile at him and he skulks off out of the kitchen and me and my two remaining brothers sit down at the island.

Mikey glances at the doorway. “You think I should go check on them? I mean she was pretty pissed?”

“No. Let him handle it.”

Conor gives our younger brother a nudge on the arm. “Don’t take this away from him.”

Mikey frowns “Take what away?”

I chuckle to myself because I know exactly what Conor is talking about.

“He’s about to have make-up sex with Jessie for the first time ever,” Conor replies with a wink.

“Fuck!” Mikey breathes. “They’ve never had a fight before really.”

“Nope,” Conor shakes his head. “Liam is about to see the light, brother, so leave him the fuck alone.”

Mikey nods and takes a seat beside the breakfast bar beside Conor and I pour us each a mug of coffee and join them. “Make-up sex,” Mikey says with a wistful sigh. “I can’t remember the last time I pissed Jessie off enough for that.”

“Mine was two weeks ago when I wouldn’t let her win at poker and I took all of her chips and ate them in front of her,” Conor laughs and Mikey and I join him. Potato chips are the only kind worth playing Jessie for because she doesn’t give a damn about money.

“That’s cold, bro,” Mikey says with a shake of his head.

“Fuck!” Conor has stopped laughing but he is still smiling at the memory. “She had to come to the office to get something. She was so pissed at me. I fucked her over my desk and came so hard, I almost passed out.”

Mikey laughs again while I remain quiet. It was only days ago when I made her pissed on purpose so that she’d act like a brat and I could spank her incredible ass. I can spank her ass without her acting like a brat of course, but it’s always better for both of us if I have a reason.

“What about you, Shane?” Mikey asks.

“Can’t recall,” I lie.

“That’s because all sex with you two is make-up sex,” Conor says with a flash of his eyebrows. “I mean I make her pissed at stupid stuff, but you do it like it’s an Olympic sport.”

“Asshole,” I smile at him.

“Poor Jessie,” Conor says with a grin. “Once Liam realizes how good make-up fucking is, he’s gonna start being an asshole to Jessie too.”

“No, he wouldn’t do that,” I shake my head. “He hates conflict too much, even fake conflict.”

“True,” Mikey agrees.

“Any idea what’s going on with him?” I ask Mikey, who understandably knows his twin better than any of us. “I’ve never seen him like that with her before.”

Mikey sucks in a breath. “He’s still struggling with finding her in Paul’s basement.”

“Really?” I frown. I had no idea and I’m usually in tune with my brothers.

“Yeah. You know he keeps shit to himself and he tries to forget about it, but he’s been having fucked up dreams about it all.”

“For real?” Conor frowns too.

“Yup. If he’s not sleeping with Jessie, he freaks out when he wakes up and she’s not there.”

“Why hasn’t he said anything?” I ask.

“It doesn’t happen all the time and you know he doesn’t like to worry anyone. But he thought she was dead when he found her, you know?” Mikey says with a sigh.

“So the thought of anyone taking her…” I start to say but I don’t need to finish the sentence.

“Yup,” Mikey says before taking a drink of his coffee.

“No wonder he freaked out then.” Conor flashes his eyebrows.

“What do you both think of Hayden?” I take a swig of my coffee.

“Don’t trust him one little bit,” Conor replies first.

“Me neither,” Mikey adds.

“Hmm. Neither do I, but I wouldn’t trust anyone when it comes to her. Jessie seems pretty open to this guy being her half-brother, though,” I say.

“Yup,” Mikey nods his agreement. “And if we don’t support her just because we can’t stand the idea of sharing her with anyone else, then we’re assholes.”

“Kinda,” Conor sighs. “But that still doesn’t mean we have to trust a single thing that comes out of this guy’s mouth.”

“True.”

Conor arches an eyebrow at me. “You gonna ask Jax to look into him?”

Jackson Decker is one of the best hackers in the world. He’s a buddy of ours and he looked into Jessie for me when we first met her and had no idea who she really was. And while Jax is good at what he does, my wife is better. “Are you kidding me? Jessie would lose her shit for real if I did that. She’s perfectly capable of looking into this guy on her own.”

“What if she…” Conor shakes his head and stares at his coffee.

I frown at him. “What if she what?”

He runs a hand over his jaw. “You know that thing where people are having a debate or something, and they only look for the evidence that will support their argument?”

“You think she won’t be objective?” I ask.

“Do you? You saw how she reacted in there. How she smiled when he talked about how they both have a sweet tooth and love baseball.”

“She’s the best at what she does, Con. We ask Jax to look into this guy for us and it’s telling her we don’t trust her. She’ll never go for it.”

“Do we have to tell her?” Mikey asks with a shrug.

“Yes!” Conor and I reply in unison.

“Okay. Just a thought.”

“Let’s see if there is anything else she can dig up and if Hayden gives us any reason to, I’ll broach the subject of Jax taking a look into him too. Okay?”

“Okay,” Mikey and Conor agree.