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was younger, when my dad would take Will and I to Austin to see Sonny. So I'd never had that typical overprotective older brother situation as a kid until he got old enough to drive himself, and by that time, Dad was long gone.
     
    Sonny Taylor, whose mom hated Curt Taylor with a magnitude that led her to move out of state the moment Son graduated high school, did care for me. He loved me in his own way, and he knew my facial expressions.
     
    So when I walked into his house, still more hurt than pissed off over what I'd overheard that afternoon, he'd caught onto the clues like Sherlock Holmes.
     
    And now I was a little worried to tell him because I'd promised to quit lying. Apparently, I'd run out of get-out-of-lying passes when I didn't tell him they'd found more cells in my arm.
     
    "Iris, tell me," he insisted.
     
    Crap. He never called me by my first name.
     
    I blurted the tiny story out, feeling like a kid again who wanted her mom or dad to make things better.
     
    The words rode a boomerang in my head over and over again. The moment I'd gotten to Sonny's house, it all hit me straight in the solar plexus.
     
    The guy was just a dick. An ass who didn't know how to get past the things that made us all up —t he good and the bad.
     
    When I was in the hospital, any of the times—all of the times—I'd met so many people who just couldn't let go of the anger. The resentment. Frustration with the hand they got dealt. I mean, I got it. I did. If anyone understood what it was like to think that life was unfair, I'd probably won the award a few years in a row.
     
    But at some point, you had to get over it. I didn't want to be a bitter old lady the rest of my life.
     
    Now I was stuck working for a bitter, mean, happiness-sucking leech.
     
    "It's not a big deal, Son. Whatever. I don't care what he thinks."
     
    Liar. Liar. Big, fat liar.
     
    Sonny's lips twisted in a way I'd only seen once before. Barely restrained anger hid beneath the thick layer of his red-brown beard. "That fucking dumbass," he ground out. He cocked his head to one side, and then the other. A deep breath blew out from between his lips. "I'm gonna knock his teeth in."
     
    He was being completely serious. So, so serious about defending my honor, I couldn't help it.
     
    I started laughing.
     
    "It's fine." I snorted. "Son, it's really fine. Knock his teeth in another day." I laughed again. "Or maybe once I find another job, okay? Then you can bust all his teeth and his kneecaps for all I care."
     
    Those hazel eyes that were an exact replica of mine, narrowed. And then he quirked a little smile. "His kneecaps too?"
     
    I shrugged. "Why not? Call him a friggin' idiot wh ile you do it."
     
    Sonny shook his head, full out grinning by that point. "To think I used to call you a good girl. My little sis telling me to break someone's kneecaps. You might make me cry, Ris." He leaned forward across the armchair I was sitting in and ruffled my hair. "Th a tta girl."
     
    I s norted and batted his hand away.
     
    His face sobered a moment later, his gaze serious. "Nobody talks to you like that, you hear me? I don't care if it's another member of the MC or some asshole on the street. If somebody takes their anger out on you, I'll beat the shit out of them."
     
    Lord. Where had he been when I was fifteen and got made fun of? I pushed the thought out of my mind and nodded, settling in just to make him feel better.
     
    "Yes, father." I gave him a little smile. "Quit stressing, would you?"
     
    By the way his jaw clenched, you could tell he wasn't exactly happy with staying quiet but he didn't argue against me.
     
    "Fine, but wear whatever the fuck you want, kid. Wear a three-piece suit just to piss him off," he grunted. Sonny leaned forward again to mess with my hair until I swatted at him.
     
    He stood up, grabbed his phone out of his pocket and disappeared down the hall that led toward his bedroom, silently.
     
    Wait ...
     
    Sonny wasn't the silent