No other words were spoken. None of the other men had stepped in to say a thing, either.
Jordyn barely heard her apartment door open before slamming closed.
Chapter Seven
"Jordyn Dawn Reese. Seven pounds, six ounces. Born in the early hours of the morning of September 2nd, 1992 to a sixteen-year-old Sandra Reese, nee Green, and an eighteen-year-old Roland Reese in Caribou, Maine. Sandra married Roland only a month before their daughter was born, with her parents' consent, of course."
Antony shuffled through another few papers, not bothering to spare his furious eldest son a glance as he continued. "Sandra, from records, quit school and never graduated, nor did she attempt to receive her high school equivalency later on in life. Roland, however, graduated shortly before his daughter was born and worked as a mechanic. During the first two years of the child's life, doctor appointments were regular. She was, at the time, up to date on her shots. The child was reportedly healthy, happy, and on target for her age in regards to motor skills and development despite being born to teenage parents of a lower working class."
Lucian looked up from his clenched fists resting on the family table. "Your point?"
"I'm not finished, yet, son," Antony said quietly.
"Please, don't let me stop you," Lucian muttered, scoffing.
His brothers were there, both silent and stoic in their seats, as was his mother. When Antony called earlier while Lucian was attempting to get some paperwork done for one of his restaurants, he offered to meet his father for lunch and was denied. Antony asked Lucian to the house, and made it clear it wasn't a request.
Now, he knew why.
"Mostly of Irish descent, but there's a bit of German and Italian in there as well."
Lucian rolled his eyes. "Is that what's important, how much Italian she's got in her history?"
"Not for you specifically, but it's important to know, sì," Antony replied calmly. "Sandra, again from records, was always causing some issue. Mostly school reports, things of that nature. She wasn't involved in any extracurricular activities, unless you counted the company she kept. A wild teenager isn't anything to be overly concerned about, but her parents' lack of concern certainly was. She was failing in grades, miserably, reportedly involved in drugs, and was caught on school property engaging with boys. Be aware of the plural, Lucian. It was not one, but many."
Antony sighed, closing the folder in front of him and sliding it down the table for his son to take if he wanted. "It's all there," he told Lucian. "Anything and everything I could find out about her. A little after she turned two, her mother left the state and moved to New York, without her husband. There wasn't a divorce until Roland applied for one years later and was granted it when the papers couldn't be delivered after years of trying."
"And here?" Lucian dared to ask.
Sure, he could have just as easily opened the folder, but knowing his father like he did, Antony probably already had every bit of information memorized.
"Maybe Sandra came here with the intention of starting new, getting away from old habits. Clearly that didn't work, because it wasn't long before she was working in a club, dancing."
"Stripping?" Cecelia asked quietly.
"Call it whatever you want," Antony responded. "From there, it only gets murkier. I don't think it's hard to fill in the blanks, though. Sandra was involved with The Sons of Hell for over a decade. Allegedly, they believed her to be specifically involved with Will Vetta as one of his close female companions."
Cecelia frowned, her motherly concern coming through strong. "Where's the poor girl's mother now?"
Antony didn't look away from Lucian as he said, "Dead. She died of an apparent heroin overdose when Jordyn was thirteen. I should point out it was Jordyn who found her mother and called nine-one-one. Her mother did a damn good job of leaving her previous life behind, because authorities had a terrible time of working out just where this child came from. She was, for all purposes, an orphan. Instead, Ron Daney and his common-law wife took the girl in and became her legal guardians until she turned eighteen.
"Jordyn," Antony continued, drawling out her name slowly, " … unlike her mother, did graduate, had little issues in school, and managed a grade point average well above the norm. Furthering her education would have been in her prospects, and probably an easy feat for her, had she been given the chance. She's worked at that dive for a long while. She still has regular yearly appointments with a doctor."
Lucian felt his agitation rise. This wasn't fair. It wasn't okay for this girl's life to be summed up and placed in a stupid folder for his father to pick through and analyze. It certainly wasn't okay for his family to sit here and listen to it, either.
It should have been done privately, but Lucian knew exactly why his father hadn't done it as so. Relationships affected the family as a whole. Their image, and so forth. It might have seemed petty, but for a family like theirs, it was incredibly important to know who they were letting in.
Problem was, no one had let Jordyn in.
That was exactly why Lucian had the issues he did with this show of his father's.
He assumed he was being careful when he discreetly asked a few of his connections to look into Legs and Leather, their employees, and specifically, a worker named Jordyn. Considering Lucian didn't have an age or last name to go on, what they would find for him was what he planned to go on from there in his own search.
Lucian should have known better. Nothing got past his father. No one asked questions without someone telling Antony, especially if it dealt with the man's sons.
But that's really all it was for Lucian. Just a curiosity. Something that needed fed, and it would go away. At least, that's what he was trying to convince himself.
Antony tapped his fingers to the table, drawing in everyone's attention again. "Things for Jordyn Reese are not as murky as they were for her mother. While in Ron's home, she became romantically involved with his son Gabe. The young man, the same age as Jordyn, had been involved with the MC from his early teenage years. It was expected he would rank high and fast, just like his father did. From what I understood by their insiders, Gabe claimed a sixteen-year-old Jordyn as his by rite of the club's passage with a tattoo of his name and the club's underneath. And she accepted that, for whatever reason.
"That made her untouchable, essentially," Antony explained. "Practically as good as being a married woman to a member in their world. Not for other men to use in any way. It gave her a great deal of leg room and respect. Something that was clearly lost when Gabe died a year ago, as she has barely managed to keep under Will Vetta's radar since the young man's death."
Lucian swallowed the lump forming in his throat, forcing himself to speak. "I-"
"What did you want to know about this girl, son?" Antony interrupted coolly. "Her blood type? A positive. Her religion? She was baptized Roman Catholic, but the finishing rites were never performed, and she's never even had a first communion ."
Antony stood abruptly, making everyone in the room jump but Lucian. "Everything is in that file. Her past, present, and likely future. I will protect you first, Lucian, because you are my son. I would do the same thing for any woman you took interest in just as I have done for this girl. Even if that means making you see what you won't for whatever reason."
"I don't know what it is about her," Lucian admitted in a breath. "She's under my skin."
"Well, get her out. You can't go taking in strays because you feel she relates to your past somehow," his father replied, rather cruelly.
Lucian flinched. "Is that what I am, a fucking stray?"
"No," Cecelia gasped. "Dio, Lucian. Absolutely not. Antony, tell him that's not what he is!"
"He knows he isn't," Antony told his wife. "I don't need to tell him anything."
"Yes, you do! Right now, Antony."
"Tesoro … "
A look passed between Lucian's parents, one he'd been privy to only a few times in his life. It usually meant his father had overstepped some private line only Cecelia and Antony were aware of. Lucian knew it was hard for Antony to balance between being the boys' father, and being their boss. When Cecelia came into play, it became an even more delicate dance. She took no qualms about reminding her husband who was the leader when their front door closed to the outside world.
Like now.
It also served as a reminder for the brothers that a man may have the appearance of power, but a woman who was capable of drawing emotion from him could sway it any way she wanted.
"Antony," Cecelia said lowly, coming to stand from her chair with her palm flat to the table. "Do not make me ask again."
"It's all right, Mamma," Lucian said quietly.
"No, it isn't," Antony replied at the same level. "She's right. I used the wrong words for the situation-terrible ones, frankly. I wouldn't dream of putting you in the same sentence as that label, because you're anything but to Cecelia and me. You never were, Topino."