A Brother's Honor (14 page)

Chapter Fourteen

“G
ood morning, everyone.”

Jace glanced up as Dalton walked into the dining room, smiling all over the place and pulling Hannah in his arms for a huge kiss on the cheek that had her blushing and chuckling. Hannah’s smiles had become almost nonexistent since his grandfather’s death, and it felt good to see her smile again.

“Go on and sit, Dalton, before I take a broom to you,” Hannah warned. “And I baked those biscuits just the way you boys like.”

“Thanks, Hannah, and you are so appreciated,” Dalton said, smiling and rubbing his hands together as he quickly moved toward the table.

“I thought you stayed out all night,” Jace told Dalton when his brother had filled his plate and plopped down in a chair across from him and Caden.

Dalton spread his lips in a silly-looking grin. “I did. I got in less than an hour before you got up. I started to wake you, but Hannah wouldn’t let me. Claimed you needed your sleep.”

He leaned closer and whispered so as not to be overheard by Hannah, who was dusting the furniture in the next room. “I almost told her you had no reason to need more sleep. I’m the one who had been flexing my muscles most of the night while you were probably just curled up dreaming about doing so.”

Jace took a sip of his coffee, deciding not to respond but let Dalton have his glory. Caden wasn’t going to let their brother off that easy. “Still the braggart, I see. One day, you’re going to meet your match.”

Dalton, with a piece of bacon hanging between his lips, grabbed his heart as if Caden’s words had pained him. Jace couldn’t help but smile at the antics. It had always been that way growing up as teens while living here with their grandfather. He was the realist, Caden the idealist and Dalton the airhead who was getting more sex than either of them...or so he claimed.

Richard would sit at the head of the table with a newspaper held up to his face as he scanned the financial section, while Dalton whispered across the table about his sexual escapades and Jace and Caden hung on his every word. Jace always wondered whether the old man’s attention had been glued to the paper or if he had been getting an earful like the rest of them.

Jace checked his watch. “Eat up. We need to be on the road in an hour.”

He didn’t want to admit it, but he felt like a kid about to go see Santa. He made it a point to visit with his father two to three times a year and knew Caden kept in contact even more often than that. Dalton hadn’t seen their father in five years, not since Sheppard had been transferred to Delvers. This would be the first time the three of them would be visiting their father together in over ten years.

“Dad knows we’re coming, right?” Dalton asked before taking a sip of his coffee.

“Yes, I talked to him a few days ago. He can’t wait to see us, especially you,” Jace replied.

Dalton didn’t say anything at first and then he said, “And I’m looking forward to seeing him, as well.”

A short while later, Jace was back in his bedroom, getting a few items he planned to take with him. He knew his grandfather and father stayed in contact and that Richard went to see Sheppard at least twice a month. He wondered if his father had been aware of the condition the company was in. And if he was, what exactly had Richard told him about it? Jace intended to find out.

As he clipped his cell phone onto his belt, he couldn’t help but think about Shana. The thought of her going out on a date shouldn’t be getting to him. All they shared was an attraction, and all he’d gotten out of it was a kiss. But it hadn’t been just a kiss, it had been
the
kiss.

He traced his tongue across his lips, convinced three meals later that he could still taste her on his mouth. She was supposed to be out of his system about now, but things hadn’t worked out that way. He would admit within himself that he wanted her more than ever. And it wasn’t supposed to be this way. His divorce from Eve was like a rebirth for him, and he’d made the promise that the next relationship he got into wouldn’t boggle his mind and he would be able to handle it. But there was nothing about Shana Bradford he felt he could handle. Even when she was wearing those prim, proper and traditionalist suits, she might as well be wearing nothing at all, because he could see beyond all that to expose the sexy woman he knew she was. The woman who was ruthlessly dissecting his libido bit by bit.

There was a gentle knock on his bedroom door. “Come in.”

Caden opened the door and walked in with Dalton following behind. “Ready to ride?”

Jace nodded as he glanced at the two men. His blood. His brothers. “Yes. Come on. Let’s go see Dad.”

* * *

Sheppard stood at the window and glanced out. Delvers wasn’t a bad place if you had to be locked up. In fact, as a trustee, he had more freedom here than most of the guys. Only difference was their sentences were a hell of a lot shorter than his—five years at the max. He had served fifteen years of a thirty-year sentence, making it through the halfway mark.

It was hard being locked up, denied your freedom for a crime you didn’t commit, and then knowing the person who had been responsible was out there somewhere walking around scot-free. His father had asked Sheppard more than once if he had any clue as to who might have wanted to end Sylvia’s life, but he’d admitted honestly that he had been and still was clueless.

Shep had known Sylvia’s secrets even when she thought he hadn’t. His wife had been unfaithful to him, and not the other way around like the prosecution had claimed. Her lover hadn’t attended the trial and, to this day, as far as he knew, Shep was the only one who knew of the affair, other than the man’s wife. She had been the one to expose it to Shep. But he couldn’t even say either of them had anything to do with Sylvia’s death, because at the time they were both out of the country together, trying to rebuild their marriage. He hadn’t felt the need to say anything about either of them to his attorney. The last thing he wanted was to smear the name of his sons’ mother.

“Mr. Shep, I just wanted to come say goodbye.”

Shep turned and looked into Matthew Fontane’s face, a face that looked somewhat different than the one who’d come to Delvers to serve time five years ago. Shep had been at Delvers only two weeks when Fontane had arrived, furious, full of anger and mad at the world. At eighteen, Fontane had been caught in a carjacking ring. The driver had suddenly had a heart attack and would have died if Fontane hadn’t stayed behind to give the man CPR. For that, he’d received a lighter sentence than the others. However, Fontane felt he should have been able to walk free.

The warden had assigned him to Shep’s team, and they had butted heads from day one. But it didn’t take long for Shep—through hard work and determination—to make the young man see the error of his ways. He found Fontane, who had dropped out of school at sixteen, to be a highly intelligent and bright kid who just happened to have a smart mouth and a troubled childhood. Now five years later, while imprisoned, Fontane had gotten his GED and was only a few credits short of having a college degree in criminology. He had already been accepted at Hampton University to finish up his education. No longer was he angry and mad at the world. Today he would be set free, and Shep knew that Fontane would do just fine.

“I’m going to miss seeing you around here, Fontane,” Shep said, smiling at the young man of twenty-three, almost feeling like a proud parent. “But I know you’ll be able to handle anything that comes your way. You’re a born leader for the right side, the side that knows crime doesn’t pay.”

Fontane nodded, and then his smile faded to be replaced by a deep frown. “I hate that you’re being left here for a crime you didn’t commit. That’s the one thing I can’t accept as fair.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, but you have fifteen more years to do. I think if I had to be in here one more day I would have—”

“Found the strength to endure it,” Shep cut in to finish for him. “There was a time when I wondered how I was going to make it, knowing I had left three teenage sons behind, but somehow I found the strength.”

“But it’s wrong. Someone should have found your old lady’s killer by now. He’s free, and you’re in here.”

“I’m willing to do the time,” Shep said somberly.

“Although you didn’t do the crime? Maybe your sons will—”

“No,” Shep cut him off by saying. “They have their own lives now.” What he didn’t add was that he wasn’t sure just what Sylvia was involved in that would make someone want her dead. And he didn’t want his sons’ lives placed in danger because of it. The less they knew, the better. Jace, Caden and Dalton had been and always would be his primary concern.

“There you go, Mr. Shep, always looking out for people. I just wish I could do something.”

Shep’s face creased into a smile. “You can. Do me proud by making something of yourself. Then go out into your community and reach out to another hellion who needs a guiding hand. Give him what I hope I gave to you. A sense of purpose and pride, as well as a belief that you can be better than what those street gangs were offering you.”

Fontane nodded. “Yes, sir.”

Twenty minutes later, Shep was standing at the window on the fourth floor in the library and watched as Matthew Fontane walked out of Delvers a free man. A car that Shep knew was driven by Pastor Luther Thomas was there to pick him up. Luther would see to it that Fontane was acclimated back into society as easily as possible and with strong, positive influences. And Luther would make sure Fontane got the last credits he needed to finish college. Luther had promised, and Shep knew he would keep his word. Luther himself had once been a convict but had been released after being locked up for six years after his attorney fought for and won a new trial. New evidence was submitted that proved it wasn’t Luther’s DNA on the rape victim. The real rapist was already in jail for a series of other rapes.

Luther, even while serving time, had been instrumental in helping Shep retain his sanity during his first year being incarcerated. He had told Shep that when the world gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Being in prison didn’t make you guilty; it just meant the odds had been against you, and when you knew in your heart that you were innocent, you had nothing to be ashamed about. It had not come as a surprise to Shep that, after leaving prison, Luther had gone into the ministry. The man had a way of inspiring people and would be just what Fontane needed.

As Luther’s car departed, another vehicle pulled up. Suddenly, Shep felt a deep pull in his gut as a sense of pride washed over him. He knew just as sure as his name was Sheppard Maceo Granger that his sons had arrived. All three of them.

* * *

Shep managed to grip his sons—all three of them—in a tight bear hug. He needed this. To hold them close and let them feel the love from him...just as he needed to feel it from them. They were the most important people in his life. Period. Always had been and always would be. He thought about them upon waking up each morning and said a prayer for them before going to bed each night. He could deal with the loss of his freedom but could never deal with the loss of them.

He slowly drew back and studied each of their features as love continued to stir his insides. They were men who had grown up without him. Men he was proud of. The old man had done a great job of taking over where Shep had left off. He knew times hadn’t been easy. Richard Granger was from the old school and believed in authority, almost dictatorship. But it was only after Shep had been locked up and had to mingle with men whose childhoods had been so different from his that he could appreciate his father’s tough love. And he figured that one day his sons would grow to appreciate it, as well.

All three had that arrogant-looking Granger chin with the dimple in the center. The Granger cleft, his grandmother would call it. All male Grangers were born with it. Dalton, although the youngest, was still the tallest, and all three looked well and physically fit.

He shifted his gaze from Jace and Caden to Dalton. “I’m so glad to see you, Dalton.”

“Same here, Dad,” his son said in an almost-broken voice. “I wanted to come before now but I couldn’t. There were—”

“Shh,” Sheppard said softly, reaching up to grasp his shoulder tenderly. “I understand. I’ve always understood, Dalton. You don’t have to explain. Come on and sit down.”

The warden had given permission for Shep to be alone in a secluded section of the courtyard with his sons. Normally, touching would not have been allowed, but Shep knew that Ambrose, the prison guard, had basically looked away.

“This place isn’t so bad,” Dalton said, glancing around. “I like it better than that other place.”

Shep did, too. “I appreciate the governor sending me here,” he said. “He figured I could make a difference, and I believe that I have,” he said, thinking about Fontane.

“They trust you here,” Jace observed. “That guard over there might as well not be here.”

Shep followed his gaze. “Ambrose is a good man, a father himself. He has three sons.” He didn’t want to be reminded that Ambrose’s three sons were the same ages Shep’s had been when he’d been sent away.

“Here, Dad. I thought you might want to see these,” Caden said, handing his father a group of pictures taken at the repast following their grandfather’s memorial service. Shep felt tightness around his heart. His father had died, and he hadn’t been there to pay his last respects.

He slowly flipped through the pictures. Some of the people he recognized immediately; others he did not. But then, it had been fifteen years. He lifted a brow at one particular picture and smiled. “Hey, is that little Shiloh?”

Caden’s lips tightened. “Yes, that’s her. I was trying to take a picture of Cameron, and she got in the way.”

Dalton chuckled as he looked down at the photo. “Yeah, I just bet she did. It looks to me as if you had the camera aimed right at her.”

“Well, you’re wrong,” Caden said, narrowing his gaze at Dalton. He reached out for the picture. “I can toss it away and—”

“Toss it away? Why?” his father said, eyeing him curiously. “It was nice of her to attend the services considering how her parents ended up feeling about the family once I was convicted.”