Kingston
"Are you ready?" I ask Kaden as I pull up to Andres's house. He flashes me a small smile and nods hesitantly.
"I didn't ask this yesterday, but do I have any siblings?" Kaden asks sheepishly.
"Not that I know of," I respond. Honestly, my brother is pretty responsible, but you never know.
Kaden inhales a sharp breath before opening the back door and steps out of the car. Dario lifts my hand up to his mouth and places a light kiss on my knuckles, showing me his support. I send a grateful look his way before stepping out of the car. Dario does the same and all three of us head up the steps to the front door. The guards send me a nod as the front gate informed them we were coming. I had to lie to the front gate guards and say that Kaden was Dario's cousin and he was just hanging out with us for the day.
Leta, my fathers long time maid and the woman I saw as my mother figure growing up, greets us at the door. She squeals and engulfs me in a bone crushing hug. After several long seconds that feel like an eternity she finally lets go. Her eyes scan over Dario and she looks at me with a smirk.
"You picked a handsome one. You two will make beautiful grandbabies." She smiles. What is it with everyone wanting babies? I'm not a damn vending machine that's just going to pop out babies for everyone's pleasure.
"I'm glad you approve," I chuckle.
"What's all this talk about grandbabies I hear?" My father asks as he descends the stairs. He walks over to Leta placing a soft kiss on her lips.
"I always knew you two had a thing for each other, but when did this happen?" I ask amused.
"About a month ago," Leta grins, "It only took your father twenty-nine years to grow some balls and ask me out?"
"Hey, this is the twenty-first century you could have asked me out, Woman." He defends.
"That would technically be sexual harassment, dumbass. I'm still your employee." Leta rolls her eyes while the rest of us chuckle at my father who is pouting.
We don't mention that it would be the same if he pursued her.
My fathers eyes scan over me, then Dario, then finally they meet Kaden's. He takes a sharp breath and turns to me. "Kingston, sweetheart are you going to introduce your..." My father trails off, not knowing what word to use.
"Nephew," I answer. Dario gives my hand a little squeeze. "Where is Andres?"
My father blanches and tilts his head, his eyes resembling those of bugs. "Holy shit."
"I know, right. It's scary."
My father nods as Leta murmurs, "He's is in his office."
I lead Kaden through the house with Dario, my father and Leta trailing behind. We pass many of my brothers men who give us curious looks.
Arriving at my brothers office I don't bother to knock as I push it open. So much for first impressions. I think as we walk into a gruesome sight. The walls of my brothers office are splattered with fresh red blood and remnants of a brain. Standing over a women's body is my brother. He looks furious with blood splattered all over his once clean white dress shirt.
"Awesome!" Kaden cheers from beside me. With inhuman speed my brother whips his head in the direction of Kaden. He looks confused but his eyes visibly soften. Andres takes out his phone and texts someone. Most likely his clean up crew.
"What are you two doing here and who is this?" He asks me gesturing to Kaden with his hand, swallowing roughly.
"This is Kaden and you know who he is. I can see it in your eyes." I answer. "Go get cleaned up we will be in the living room."
He nods, his eyes linger on Kaden as he leaves the room. I look at Kaden who is staring at the door my brother just exited with an awed expression. "Are you okay?" I ask.
"Never been better," He mutters. I place my arm around his shoulder and say, "Come on, Leta has cookies waiting in the living room." Every morning Leta bakes chocolate chip cookies, covers them, and places them in the living room. I used to steal them every chance I got.
One time my father was out of town so I figured he wouldn't be there to reprimand me if I had more than usual. I ended up eating twenty-two cookies that day and payed the consequence by throwing up. That is also the day I realized karma's a bitch.
*****
"I remember this one time I found Kingston and Andres in her bathroom they had dumped a bag of goldfish in the the bathtub and were screaming "SWIM, BITCHES, SWIM!" Armando was out of town at the time and Andres thought it was a good idea to get his fourteen year old sister drunk off her ass." Leta reminisces.
This is what we have been doing for the last twenty minutes, waiting for my brother to finish his shower. All the stories Leta and my father were sharing are about stupid shit Andres and I used to do.
"Well if you're going to tell that story Leta you have to tell it right." Andres says walking into the room and sitting on the couch. "Kingston was already halfway through the bottle when I found her swinging from the chandelier in her room screaming 'Chandelier' (pretend that song came out way before 2014). Like the good brother I am I merely took advantage of her state and used it as a life lesson."
I roll my eyes, "Ah, yes I cherished that life lesson so much I'm still sober." I say sarcastically.
"You didn't drink for another two years so I must have done something right," He grins cheekily and I throw my half eaten cookie at him. He grabs a cookie off the plate but just as he cocks his arm back to throw my father speaks.
"No, you two are not starting a food fight. This is hardly the time for your childish ways." He says sternly, leaving no room for disobedience.
"Si, Padre." Andres and I say in unison. Andres turns his attention to Kaden who is looking at his hands while he plays with them in his lap.
"Black hair," Andres says, breaking the silence. "Your mother had black hair." Kaden looks up, his eyes widening slightly. "You have her smile, too. This was her when she was your age." Andres takes his wallet out of his jeans pocket and hands the picture inside to Kaden who takes it with shaking hands.
"When Kingston called me this morning saying she had a surprise I wasn't expecting the surprise to be my teenage son I knew nothing about," Andres states, "If my calculations are correct you are fifthteen, yeah?"
"Yeah, almost sixteen." Kaden replies, "How do you know I'm even yours? The grey eyes, the letter, and the necklace are one thing, but don't you want a DNA test or something?"
"Letter? Necklace?" Andres asks in confusion.
"Oh, right um..." Kaden takes the letter and the two necklaces out of his jacket pocket and hands them to Andres.
Andres takes the note from Kaden and reads it. His eyebrows scrunch up as he reads the note and a lone tear falls. He doesn't bother to wipe it away. "My biggest fear when we were dating was what her reaction would be when I told her I was the future leader of the Cruz mafia. She was the purest, kindest person you could ever meet. A real angel, I knew she would hate me, see me as a monster, leave me, I just never thought she'd hide our child from me. No, I don't need a sample of your blood to know you're my son. I can feel it. I don't know how to describe it. I just know."
"Did you look for her?" Kaden asks.
"Of course I did. I had the best bounty hunter in the world look for her." Andres answers.
"And to this day I still continue to search," I add.
"Hmm, that's interesting because I found her." Kaden smirks. All five heads, including mine whip towards a smug looking Kaden.
"How-what?" I ask in disbelief.
"I've spent the last four years looking for her. Crashing at libraries, uh." He pauses to scratch the back of his neck sheepishly, "Manipulating anyone who may have had information. Doing illegal shit for money just to follow any leads I could. I found her a couple weeks ago and then figured I'd find you. I was crashing at the library on Howard when these two guys tried to mug me that's when Kingston and Dario showed up and killed them."
"Damn kid," Dario and I whistle in unison. Leta and my father share a look of disbelief and my brother looks conflicted.
"Is she safe?" He asks.
"Yep," Kaden answers, "And single. Hasn't gone on a single date in fifthteen years." Andres slightly smiles at this.
"She lives in a small town in Oregon. Canyon city under the name Ava Sparks." Kaden says, "Just telling you in case you have any interest in seeing her again."
"Of course I do, but I have more interest in getting to know you."
"We could do that on a plane to Oregon," Kaden suggests.
"I'll call my pilot," Andres smiles.
*****
I'm sorry this chapter sucks. I stayed up all night rewriting this chapter and it just never felt right and I feel like this is the best it's going to get.