It takes me an entire twenty-four hours, before I can look Cutter King directly in his face again. After our night of debauchery in the movie room, I took to Camden’s bed and stayed there, under the covers. The boys both cut me some slack though, and decided to let me come to acceptance of what we had shared on my own.

I spend another three days at the King house, but Cutter doesn’t touch me or watch us have sex again. In fact, half of the time he isn’t there. So Camden spends most of our time together feeding me, fucking me, and teaching me the basics of how to read computer code.

It’s on the fourth day of my King slumber party that my sister frantically calls me.

“Jade!”

“What is it?”

“Where the hell have you been?”

My naughty little king hid my cell phone, and only gave it back to me today.

“I’m sorry,” I say scrolling through my missed calls. Shit there’s like twenty of them. “I dropped my phone in the toilet. It took me a couple of days to dry it out in some rice,” I lie.

“Don’t you make enough money to buy a new phone?”

“Why would I do that when I can just dry it out? Listen, that’s not the point of this call. What was so important?”

“And when your phone was stuck in this bowl of rice, did you go live somewhere else too?”

“What.”

“I went by your place more than once. You haven’t been there in days.”

Busted.

“Okay I’m over at a friend’s house.”

“So you finally made some headway with the twin I take it.”

Camden’s working at his desk on his computer, but I know he’s listening to every word I say. I think the boys have seen Jana all of maybe three times. There’s no way I wanted those two worlds to collide.

“That’s not it, Jana,” I huff. “Could you please just tell me what’s wrong.”

“I’m in trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“The bank wants to take the house.”

“What house?”

“Our house.”

“Dad’s house?” I ask incredulously.

“Yes, Jade. Our childhood home.”

“So let ’em take it.”

“What? Our mother made a life for us in that house.”

“Houses are just bricks. Home is where you make it.”

“Oh would you cut the Hallmark bullshit. Dad’s going to be out on his ass if we don’t do something.”

“He’s a grown ass man. Can’t he handle it?”

“Obviously not.”

“Jana—”

“I know what you’re thinking, but this isn’t me trying to manipulate you into seeing Dad. You don’t even need to talk to him if you don’t want. This is about us doing what Mom would want us to do. She loved him, and she loved that house.”

“All this from someone who barely remembers her voice.”

“That’s a low blow, Jade, even for you.”

I sigh.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. What do you need me to do?”

“Speak with the mortgage company. See if there’s some last rabbit we can pull out of a hat to save the house. I spoke to them a couple of times but they were reluctant to talk numbers and specifics with me, because my name’s not on the house.”

“Neither is mine.”

“No but you’re Dad’s power of attorney.”

“What? No I’m not.”

“You are. I’ve seen the paperwork. It was drawn up years ago.”

“When?”

“When you were living with Tyson.”

“That’s crazy. Can you just do that? Just draw up a power of attorney without telling the person?”

Camden turns his head to look at me.

“I guess you can when it’s your family.”

“All right. I’m not promising anything, Jana. I’ve got drama of my own to deal with. I don’t need his shit too.”

“Just make a few calls.”

“I’ll let you know what happens.”

“Okay.”

After I hang up the phone, I stare at it for a moment. Quiet and reflective.

“You know you have to actually get your hands on a physical copy of that POA to use it. Companies are going to want you to fax it over before they deal with you. They’re not just going to take your word for it,” Camden says.

“What.”

“You’re going to have to go get it from your father.”

“No wait, I’ll call Jana back.”

“No, Jade. What are you afraid of? He can’t hurt you anymore. He’s just a broken down old man who’s losing his house. I’ll come with you if you want.”

“You will?”

“I’m offended you even have to question that.”

“Because I fucked your brains out for a week?” I grin.

“No, baby, because I’ve made it perfectly clear that you belong to me, and I take care of what’s mine.”

“I like it when you call me baby.” I tease as I climb him like a tree.

“Careful, Jade. This chair is old.”

“I said I like it when you call me baby. Not Jade.”

“You do, huh?” He smiles at my playfulness.

“Yep. It’s so much better than itty bitty, or munchkin, or tiny terror, or lima bean, or tiny tot or—”

“I get it. You’re sick of the short jokes.”

“Elementary, Watson!” I throw my hand up.

“Then come here, baby.”

And Camden pulls me in for a long kiss that ends when we both fall out of his wobbly desk chair and onto the floor laughing hysterically.

My anxiety builds as Camden drives to my old neighborhood. He’s adorable though, because he’s trying everything to make me relax. Talk about someone not liking having no control over a situation. He hates that not I’m smiling, or laughing, or busting his balls. I’m just quiet, and he can’t stand a quiet Jade.

“So you grew up about twenty minutes from us.” He tries again at making conversation.

“Uh-huh.”

“I never did get the story of how you and Roman met. You were wrapped up with the drug addict really young right? So it couldn’t have been a romantic connection.”

Look at him digging for gold.

“Your best friend never told you the story? I find that hard to believe.”

“We don’t talk about shit like that, Jade. We just talk about money.”

“Really? He wasn’t like I hit that the other night,” I say in my best Roman impersonation.

“What the fuck!” My king roars. “I specifically asked that bastard.”

“You’re so easy.” I chuckle.

“That’s not funny, Jade.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you the story. It’s not a big deal honestly. I was at a party when I was seventeen. I was there with Tyson. These were his friends, so while he got high with them, I was mostly relegated to kitchen duty. Keeping things clean. Making sure no one was sticking roofies in the girls’ drinks.”

“Nice.”

“I know, he was a shitty boyfriend, but I didn’t know any differently. He was my first one.”

“I’m your first boyfriend.”

“Okay, King Kong, you’re my first.”

“So continue.”

“So anyway, the party was getting out of hand. Everyone was high. The music was loud. The house was trashed. Typical party for those days. Then two guys got in an argument right outside of the house. Total stoners. A knife was drawn and one of them was stabbed in the side. I saw it through the window. I’ll never forget it. The kid who was stabbed was wearing a white wife beater shirt. He fell immediately to the ground. Clutching his stomach. I could see a pool of red blood forming on his side through the shirt. I thought for sure he was dead.”

“Fucked up.”

“Yeah, turn on this block, Cam. It’s a shortcut.”

“Okay.”

“So anyway, the neighbors must have called the cops, and people started scattering. I went looking for Tyson but I couldn’t find him. I thought that he might have been slouched in a corner somewhere high, so I continued to look for him in the house. It never dawned on me that he left me there.”

“Damn.”

“Exactly. So when the police came I was still in the house like an idiot. They took me and a couple of other people in for questioning. Roman just happened to be at the station for something. I never knew what. He was talking himself out of something, throwing Joseph’s name around as leverage, but I could see that they were going for it. I thought maybe Joseph was a high-powered lawyer or something, so I did the same thing with the woman questioning me. They gave me a female cop thinking I’d cooperate better. I told her a little of what I saw which I could tell she didn’t really believe. So then I decided to tell her that Joseph Masterson was my stepfather, and that he would back my story, and that immediately made her stop writing her report.”

“He definitely knows a lot of people. His name rings bell in low circles.”

“What’s your deal with him?”

“I think he knows something about my father’s murder.”

“Really? No offense, but I thought your father dealt in petty crime.”

“Joseph wasn’t always who he is.”

“So you worked for a man you thought had something do with your dad’s murder?”

“I only recently found this out. That’s why I wanted us on our own. There’s nothing I can do about it now, but I certainly didn’t want to continue making money for the prick.”

“Wow.”

“Don’t say anything to Roman, okay?”

“What about the whole we’re a collective speech you gave me?”

“This is the only thing I’ll ask you to keep from him. No matter how much shit Rome talks about the old man, Joseph is his father. His blood. It will change things between us if we tell him.”

“Cutter knows.”

“Cutter knows everything.”

“Oh right, he did tell me you two were interchangeable.”

“Did he?”

“He did.”

“Well, not with everything.” He chuckles.

“No, not with everything.”

“So go on. You said Joseph was your stepdad. Ballsy move with the son in the building.”

“Exactly, it was definitely a hail Mary, but it worked. She told her superior, who pulled Roman to the side and asked him about it. Roman came over to me and gave an Oscar worthy performance. ‘So you’re my father’s other kid I’ve been hearing about?’”

“Hilarious.”

“Yeah and luckily I overheard his earlier conversation, so I knew his first name. So I said, ‘Yes, Roman, I’m your baby sis.’ It was a priceless performance. It took everything for me not to use my Darth Vader voice.”

“You’re nuts.”

“And that was it. He got me out of there, and we’ve been thicker than thieves ever since. He would take me out to eat for my birthday some years. He’d check in on me once he discovered how much of a loser Tyson was, and then when the fights started escalating between us, is when I think he decided he was going to pull me out of there. By hook or by crook.”

“Yeah, I don’t think we were leaving that apartment without you agreeing to working for him and leaving that loser. It wasn’t optional. He was just making it sound like it was.”

“You thought I was a complete nut job.”

“I did and I still do. I’m no bed of roses to live with either. You have to be a bit touched in the head to deal with a King.”

“We’re here,” I announce flatly. “The small one over there with the overgrown bushes.”

Camden parallel parks in front of my childhood home as I look at the dead grass, overgrown bushes, and crumbling steps.

“My mother is rolling over in her grave,” I say somberly.

“No she’s not. She’s happy that you’re here. Let’s go, chipmunk.”

“That didn’t last long. You’re back to your lame short jokes.”

“Oops that was a slip. You’re going to have to give me a minute to get used to using only terms of endearment that you approve of. It’s not in my nature to be so accommodating.”

“Oh, forget it. Let’s go and get this shit over with.”

I turn my palm over, and he grabs it with his own.

As we climb the steps I notice a bulge under the back of Camden’s shirt.

“What’s that?”

“My piece.”

“You brought a gun to my father’s house?”

“You think I’m going to take any chances with you ever again? I don’t give a shit that he’s your father. You two are estranged. He may have gone bat shit crazy in there. Hell, I don’t know. What I do know is that I never go into a situation that I can’t control unprepared. Are we on the same page?”

“Understood.”

“Good, then ring the bell.”