CHAPTER 27 - DOING WHAT SHE DOES BEST WITH A LITTLE HELP

SCI ALBION - TWO HOURS LATER

VISITOR’S ROOM 1 

LUTHER

“Mind focusing?” Zaden smirks. “Can always have her…”

“Don’t you dare.” I growl as I pull my eyes off DJ and back to the papers in front of me. “Okay, so these are from the first trials?” I gesture at the folders. She nods, and I open one up. An hour later, I am quietly impressed, but also fuming. If I had taken my head out of my ass and saw what everyone else saw, then I wouldn't be here. “So which was the ice rock one?” 

“The ice...the emancipation. He called him crippled handed, so let him have it.”

“Sorry he’s dead?” I watch her carefully.

“Nope, saved one of us a job and an annoying investigation. Glad it wasn’t one of ours though.”

“Hmm.” I murmur. I sit back and smile as DJ decides to play with the guard's laces. He lets her do it with a chuckle. “So now what? What do you think she’s gonna do with Vance, and will it affect Arch in any way?” 

She looks confused briefly. When she gets it, I smile. They are right, she gets her smarts from me. “No, she doesn’t know about Archie, we think she is head set on getting Justin.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because, all she has had her dessicated heart set on since college is being Mrs Brian Kinney, and now that will never happen…”

“You’d think them being married would be a clue. But all she saw was them, doing it raw within seconds of him arriving back from New York, and in the house with me and the children! Such disrespect! He should’ve used the loft for that lewd behaviour!'” I grin as she gapes at me. “Yeah, she got chatty about their slut-fuck-life!”

“Slut-fuck-life?” She scrambles for her iPad, before looking very pleased. “How chatty exactly?”

“Excruciating detail.” I start to chuckle as does the guard. “I think she might have gotten herself into a bit of a pickle.” 

“A bit?! She is trying to railroad his mayorship by fu...fudge alone knows what,  and...oh, DJ, how have you managed that?!” She snorts as DJ is trying to pull her fingers free. “Well, go sort it then.” She orders.

I hunker down and gently ease her fingers out of the laces. Slowly the cry face melts away, and she grins at me. “Danka Gramp!” She declares, and toddles over to Zaden with a yawn. 

“Go sit on Gramp.” Zaden orders gently, and she turns to me before thumping the seat. “You heard her, sit.”

I settle down and lift her into my lap. She fiddles with the friendship bracelet Arch made for me, not cos he’s gay or nothing! “Dis have dis!” She looks up at me. 

“No DJ, you can’t have that. A very special friend gave it to me, I don't want to take it off.”

“Want!” She asserts.

“Can’t!” I retort firmly, for a second she glares at me before slumping against my chest in silence. “I said no, now leave it alone!” I rebuke her, she stops trying to sneakily untie it.

“Please show Faal how to do that. Never has a man been so weak in the face of the ‘mine’.” 

“I am not!” Faal protests as he moves from the wall he had been leaning against whilst watching quietly. “Okay, I am, but she is just so cute!” We lapse into silence whilst she drifts off. “So your thoughts on what she can do?”

“Oh, she can do plenty. Have you reached out to Grady?” I ask, twirling a curl around my finger.

“Zee is going to see him this afternoon.” Faal winces.

“What?” I frown.

“Wanted to have him.” Zee snickers. “And he's afraid that after all this time in jail, he might pounce…”

“Zaden!” Faal grimaces. 

“It’s true!” She giggles. “Never have I seen a guy so pale when he found that out!”

I chuff a laugh. “When did you find that out?”

“Same time we found out about you.” Her eyes dull a little.

“Because I could, plain and simple. I did it once, then waited six months and nobody questioned it, so I carried on. Fucking shitty, but it is what it is.” I look down at DJ as she gets comfortable. “Sleeps like you did, thumb suck and head on heart.” I feel the guilt bubbling up, but instead of pushing it back down, I let it rise. “I am sorry for hurting you so much, both of you, and I’m not just saying it. I mean it. Guess who came to see me last week?” She shrugs. “Ralph.”

“What for?!” Faal gasps.

“They’re getting married, him and Talon, guess he wanted to rub it in.” I give a wry smile. “I knew he liked her the moment he saw her, and that she liked him.”

“What?” Zee frowns.

“Hmm, that’s why I treated him like that. I was jealous. Although I could and did give her everything she wanted, he gave her the one thing I really didn’t…”

“Respect?” Faal suggests, I nod. “Apology accepted by the way, from both of us.”

“Thanks. Now we...wait, I have remembered something else she said! Sorry, bug!” I whisper when DJ grumbles at the sudden movement. “She and Novotny each said it, but the other way around. If it wasn’t for him they would be a proper family…”

“Yeah, we know that! They both wanted Kinney for their very own…” Zee rolls her eyes.

“No, not him, Hobbs.” 

“Chris Hobbs, the guy that almost killed him?!” Zee starts to pace.

“Yeah, he did the unthinkable...come on, figure it out, what is the one thing they would never expect Brian to do?”

“Fall in love?” Faal stops her pacing and makes her sit down, she shakes her head. “What then?”

“Stop caring?” She starts to nod, I smile but Faal looks somewhat confused. “He had the reputation on LA as the Stud, the unfeeling cad. When Hobbs was on LA with his cronies and stepped up, Brian stepped too. His immediate thought was to protect Justin. He stopped caring about his reputation and reacted to how he felt in that moment, and he didn't do it for them. He told him by the way.”

“Who told who what?” I pull DJ’s thumb out again. She blows a bubble, before slowly putting it back in. “You did that too. Hate thumb sucking, but could not get you to break that.”

“Still does it, especially when she’s not feeling well.” Faal’s teasing gets him a swat. “And it was Hobbs who told Brian and Justin about his conversation with his father. He recorded it.”

“I see. Yeah, so he stopped caring about his reputation, but to them that was who he was. Now with his mayorship, she has everything in her power to derail it. I may be steering in the wrong direction here, but did the late Taylor have anything that he and Vance could’ve used against Justin?” They are both staring. “What? What have I said?”

“Nothing bad, you just asked the right question. He had his birth certificate, with the date changed to make him younger. Brutus spotted it immediately, but can you imagine how Vance could’ve used…” Zee stops and slowly starts to smirk. “...oh that would be awesome if she tried that!”

“That?” Faal asks and reaches for DJ. “You can have her back when the blood starts to flow again.” I snicker, hand her over, and shake my arm out. “She has both our brains, so her head is very heavy!” 

“The one thing she always wanted. Brian as her husband, supposing she spins that? Can you pull up the articles they’ve done, please, Dad?” I take her iPad and scroll through quickly, blinking back the tears. “See if he says anything about her.”

Forty minutes later, I am shaking my head. “Nothing! He talks about Novotny, but not her.”

“Oh, that has to sting!” Zee chuckles.

“Then let’s let her talk herself into armageddon.” Faal decrees.

FAAL

Ten minutes later, we are packed up. DJ is awake and toddling between us. We are heading to the exit and him back to his cell, but I hear her trying to hold it together. “Just go.” I smile at her.

“Hey, wait a second!” She calls down the hall, it is just like in the movies. He turns, for a brief second he hesitates, then thinks fuck it, and opens his arms. She starts to run and almost knocks him over when she body slams him. 

“Ouch!” He groans, then they tumble to the floor, both crying. 

“Mom and Gramp kay?” DJ looks up at me, her face full of concern.

“Yes. Not all the way there yet, but it’s a start.” I reply, and haul her onto my hip. “Tell her we will be in the car.” I say to the guard.

“No problem, boss.” He replies, then winks.

I take one more look at them whispering together and smile, I have to admit that he had a good idea in Brutus, so I followed his lead!