His eyes moved down to the DVD case Ty was carrying.
“Already told Jonas he’s to stay upstairs but Laurie’s curious. How bad is this shit?” Tate asked when we got close.
“You like gettin’ some from your wife?” Ty asked back when we stopped at Tate.
Tate’s lips twitched and he answered the obvious, “Yeah.”
“Then keep her far away,” Ty replied.
Tate’s amused eyes slid to me, I cocked my head because Ty was not wrong. He was going to have to work hard to get that shit out of my brain the next time we had sex. Lucky for me, he always worked hard.
Tate opened the door and motioned us through. We went in and I’d been there before but, again, even with what was happening, I processed how cool it was and repeated what I did the other times I was there and memorized Laurie’s flair with décor intending to use it myself one day. This was essentially making everything look really, freaking good, purchasing nothing but top quality but underlying it all was comfort for her boys and she decorated in memories, the place was full of pictures.
Laurie’s ass was planted on a stool at the butcher block topped island in their awesome kitchen like she kept vigil there, cell phone on the counter in front of her, laptop open and on, a half full glass of what looked like iced grape Kool-Aid in a super girlie but kickass glass in front of her, her eyes riveted to us the minute we entered and they were visibly curious.
If I wasn’t still seriously grossed out and totally freaked out, it would have amused me to consider super-hot, tall, great body, total man Tatum Jackson drinking from that girlie glass.
Then again, the way Laurie spoiled her boys, she probably had a whole other set they could drink from.
Jonas was flat out on the couch watching TV and he was not curious. Clearly Dad spoke, Jonas listened or, alternately, there was something he was really into on TV.
We exchanged greetings then Tate headed through the kitchen toward a back room saying, “Closed party, baby.”
“Tate –” she started, he stopped, turned, caught his wife’s eyes and shook his head. She looked to me. “That bad?”
“My brain is still burning and if Ty wasn’t holding my hand, I’d be bumping into stuff because I’m temporarily blind,” I answered.
She wrinkled her nose in a “gross” look that, considering she hadn’t seen it, didn’t do it justice.
Tate led us down some stairs, through a room with weight equipment in it, down a hall and into a room he clearly used as an office considering the desk, filing cabinets and office equipment. He already had his computer booted up. He didn’t delay in sitting in front of it and loading up the DVD. Then he set it to go.
Then it went.
“Fuck me,” he whispered, then, not done being horrified and expressing it, “Jesus f**kin’ Christ.”
“Told you, brother. Sick shit,” Ty muttered.
Suddenly, Tate leaned forward, the first impact of what he saw wearing off and he focused.
“Jesus f**kin’ Christ.” He was still whispering.
“What?” Ty asked and I got closer to him, my hand still in his tensing
“Trane,” Tate said.
“Train?” I asked.
Tate’s head turned slowly and he tipped it back to look up at us. “Trane. Trane Keaton. Chace’s father.”
My body locked right beside my husband’s that was doing the same.
“Come again?” Ty asked but the words were tight, forced through his lips.
Tate looked back at his computer monitor. “That’s Misty. Don’t know the brunette.” He looked back at us. “But that is definitely Trane Keaton of the Aspen Keatons. Chace was in uniform while I was on the Force, hadn’t made detective yet and his Dad came around more than once. Hotshot. Shit don’t stink. You didn’t forget him mainly because he didn’t want you to. He was in a Police Department with men who got more testosterone than most and still took his time pissin’ in every corner. Jackass, huge. Dickhead, bigger. Treated Chace like shit, Chace’s choice to bail on Aspen and the good life and live in a small biker town wearin’ a uniform was not Daddy’s favorite thing and he made that apparent.”
Tate turned back to the screen, commandeered the mouse and did what Ty did to take the video to the end. Then he saw Fuller. Then he thankfully closed the video window and turned back to us.
“You suss it out?” he asked Ty.
Ty moved to the desk, rested his fine ass and a hard thigh on the edge of it, foot hanging. I again moved to lean into him and his arm curled around my hips.
“Heard of his perversion, set Misty on him, got ‘im by the balls,” Ty answered as a confirmation he had sussed it out.
Tate nodded but said, “More.”
“Give it to me,” Ty invited.
“I will but I’m also gonna break it down, some speculation in this shit but gotta tell you, Keaton turning to the dark side threw me. He was a straight arrow. Made Frank look crooked. That said, he was no choirboy and I mean that only in the sense that he liked to get him some and he’s a good-lookin’ guy, he had choice and he enjoyed it, including Misty. He didn’t talk about it but I reckoned he might play as much as he liked but when it got down to bein’ serious, no way the likes of Misty Keaton would have his ring on her finger. He might accept a woman who had some experience… some. If he couldn’t bag himself a virgin, though, he would not be settling with a girl of Misty’s array of knowledge. He’s a man who likes control and my guess is, he wouldn’t mind he had to do a f**kload of training seein’ as, when he was done, he’d get it just like he liked it. Just a guess but Chace wanted a quiet life, out from under Daddy’s thumb, white picket fence he earned his own self fencing in a family with two point five kids and a wife who made kickass pies, was the leader of his daughter’s Brownie troop but still gave world class head,” he paused, looked at me and said, “Sorry, Lexie.”
“That’s okay,” I whispered on a grin.
Tate grinned back.
“And?” Ty prompted when Tate didn’t continue speaking.
So Tate continued speaking.
“What I’m sayin’ is, this man was his own man, not his father’s son. He was who he wanted to be. Took balls to walk away from all that. So, him goin’ under shocked the shit outta me. Everyone knows Misty got Chace outta your deal and everyone knows Chace didn’t pretend to like it. Before that, he kept his head down, his nose clean, did his job. Like all the boys, he wanted to stay employed, he looked the other way with shit but he didn’t participate in it. Without family to hold him close, a connection to the community, like Frank has, why he stuck around Carnal and put up with that shit, I don’t know. My guess was, him movin’ on or quittin’ altogether would get him a big ‘I told you so’ from Daddy. Also could be, Fuller’s network was so vast, would be hard to find a job if he left Carnal. I know I didn’t go back into police work after that, bad taste in my mouth. But I had ties to the community, I grew up here, this was home, found a way to stay and earn a living. That said, if Keaton told Fuller and his boys to go f**k themselves and moved clean across the country that would not have surprised me. What surprised me and what I never got was why a man like Chace, his own man, a straight arrow and a man who liked control, buckled regarding Misty then, directly after, entered the inner sanctum.”