“What? It’s true.” Heidi’s eyes widen. “Axel was terrified of her. She was always finding excuses to touch him and fix his hair and stuff.” She shivers. “So creepy.” Her gaze slides to Charlotte. “She’s done it to my brother for as long as I can remember.”
Charlotte gives her a playful shove. “Why didn’t you warn me?”
Heidi grins and pushes her back. “Some things you need to see for yourself if you’re going to survive as an ol’ lady of this club.”
“Oh, I’ve seen it and it is creepy,” Charlotte agrees. “I tease Marcel about it whenever we’re going to see her.”
Heidi snickers. “God, I love you.”
“At least she doesn’t think you’re in a four-way with your best friend and her husband,” Trinity says.
Hope stares at her. “Assuming I’m your best friend, what the hell?”
“I swear I told you that.”
“I’m pretty sure our husbands would kill each other before we even got started,” Hope says.
“Forget that, who even says something like that?” Charlotte asks.
“Tawny,” Trinity answers
“How long do you think they’ll be down there?” Charlotte asks.
“Rock and Wrath should be coming back tomorrow night,” Trinity answers. “I’m not sure about the others.”
Hope picks at the food on her plate and finally pushes it aside.
Trinity reaches over and places her hand over Hope’s. “You need to eat, Mama Bear. Gotta take in enough calories to feed our precious little snugglebunny.” She cuddles Grace closer and kisses her cheeks.
Hope chuckles and reaches over to run her hand over her daughter’s fuzzy little head. “Snugglebunny, my ass. My nipples feel like she took a cheese grater to them.”
I choke and almost spit out my water. “Maybe I shouldn’t feel so bad I wasn’t able to breastfeed for long.”
Heidi raises her brows. “Really? I couldn’t either. It made me feel so guilty.”
Hope wraps her arm around Heidi, pulling her close. “You had a lot of stress in your life then, Heidi. Nothing to feel guilty about.”
“I know. Still.”
“Everyone makes a big deal out of it,” I say.
“Yup,” Heidi agrees. “I made it about two months, so it’s not like I didn’t do it at all. But her doctor still made some comment about Alexa not having all the benefits of the natural immunities in breastmilk. I wanted to crotch-punch her.”
“Ugh. Find another doctor, Heidi,” Charlotte says. “That’s crap.”
“She’s good otherwise, but yeah, I didn’t care for her attitude.”
As if our conversation made her tummy growl, Grace lets out a cry.
Hope holds out her hands. “I swear she’s trying to suck my soul out through my nipples.”
We all laugh even though I think Hope was only partially joking.
“I’m going to feed her upstairs, so I can pass out when she’s done,” Hope announces.
Trinity jumps up and grabs Hope’s bag. “I’ll carry this stuff, you carry the precious.”
After they leave, I crane my neck to peer out the window. “Are you sure your brother’s okay hanging with the littles?”
Charlotte waves her hand in the air. “I think so. He’d let me know otherwise.”
“Carter is the sweetest,” Heidi says. “I wish he’d consider getting a bike so he could patch-in.”
Charlotte’s already laughing and shaking her head. “Never gonna happen.”
We all startle at the sound of a bike entering the parking lot. Heidi frowns. “I think that’s Z’s bike.”
“How can you tell?”
She shrugs. “After a while, you just know.”
“Go see your man while you can,” Charlotte encourages. “Who knows how long this stuff with downstate will go on.”
Heidi follows me outside and scoops Alexa up for a hug. I make my way over to where Z’s backing his bike up against the wall.
“Hey, buddy!” Z shouts as Chance races over. He picks him up and swings him around. “You being good for your mom?”
“Yup!”
A hug and a few quick questions are all the tolerance Chance has. He asks to be set down and goes back to playing with Carter and Alexa.
Z shakes his head. “Guess Carter’s more interesting.”
“No, they’re—”
“I’m kidding. I’m glad he’s having fun. I want him to be happy here.” He reaches out and pulls me close again. “I want you to be happy here.”
“I am,” I answer without thinking. It’s true. I’m never lonely, that’s for sure. At the same time, everyone also seems to respect my privacy. I hadn’t managed to make any girlfriends in California, so hanging out here has been entertaining.
“What’s going on? Is everything okay? Is Sway all right?”
“Lot of stuff I can’t talk about right now. Sway’s still in critical condition, but it looks like he’s going to make it.”
“Well, that’s good.”
He rocks his head from side to side, suggesting he has his doubts, but doesn’t contradict my statement. Given the few things I’ve learned about Sway from the girls, this doesn’t surprise me.
“Is everything else okay?”
He shifts his gaze away. “A lot of stuff in the air. Some business I need to handle for Sway.”
“Doesn’t he have his own VP?”
Z snorts. “Yeah, but he’s not really in good standing at the moment.” He glances at his phone. “Actually, I need to get going. I was sort of in the area and wanted to see you.”
I reach up on tiptoes and pull him down for a kiss. “Thank you.” Something about knowing he’s thinking about us even though he has so much to do hits me hard. I wrap my arms around him tight and just hold on for a minute.
Thirty-Three
Z
Murphy slips on his black leather gloves and glances over at me. “What are you carrying inside?”
I shrug and pat the holster under my cut. “Glock.”
“Jesus.” He reaches under his seat and pulls out a slim ball peen hammer. “I’m going old-school.”
“Nice.” We both also have hunting knives strapped to our belts. “I hope you’re also carrying?”
“You really need to ask?”
Weapons-wise, we’re good.
Before showing up, I’d asked around about DeLova’s second debtor. Malone ran some seedy-looking bowling alley inside Sway’s territory. Murphy and I decided to approach the guy right before closing.
“You ever feel shitty about this?” Murphy asks as he’s tucking his ginger hair under a knit skull cap.
“Lotta clubs were built on this.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s not what I asked.”
I blow out a breath. I don’t waste a lot of time worrying about the feelings of people outside the club. Protect and provide for my club at all costs. Kings Forever, Forever Kings.
That’s how it’s always been.
“Aren’t you the one who loves jumping in a ring and beating the shit out of guys?” Murphy’s kidding himself if he thinks we all still don’t know he’s taking on underground fights here and there.
“That’s different. They
signed up for it and know what’s coming.”
“Trust me, people who borrow from DeLova know what’s coming if they don’t pay up.”
“True.”
“I don’t love it,” I admit. “If it makes you feel better, I hear the guy’s a dick.”
“Whatever. Let’s get it done and get out of here.” He taps the hammer against his palm a few times before tucking it in the side pocket of his jeans. “I don’t only mean this. I mean taking orders from DeLova. Why’s it our fucking problem if some dickweed owes him money, you know?”
“That, you can take up with Sway.”
“Poor fucker.” Murphy shakes his head. “You know it’s gonna be a long time until he’s back to normal.”
“Please. That motherfucker will probably outlive us all.”
The bowling alley’s dead quiet when we swagger through the front doors. I take a second to flip the lock and turn the sign to ‘Closed.’
Malone’s a bigger dick than I thought. Stupid too. He ducks down under the counter and comes up with a shotgun.
And we haven’t even said hello yet.
Murphy, and his balls of steel, charges the guy, whips the shotgun out of his hands, and cracks him in the face with it.
The whole incident takes less than two minutes.
Murphy racks a shell into the chamber and points it at Malone—now rolling around on the floor.
“His jaw still working?”
Without taking his eyes off the guy, Murphy shrugs. “Shouldn’t have pulled a gun on us.” He lashes out and kicks Malone in the stomach. “Just here for a friendly chat, pal. No need to get trigger happy.”
“Easy, brother,” I warn.
Murphy backs up until he’s standing next to me, but keeps the gun aimed at our target.
“Stand up,” I bark.
The guy groans and rolls to his knees. Steadying himself on the counter, he stands and spits blood.
“You pull a gun on everyone who walks through those doors?” I ask. “No wonder you got no customers.”
“What do you want?”
I do the whole ‘you got a payment for me?’ thing and he does the predictable ‘I need more time’ excuse.
Christ, how the fuck does Sway put up with this bullshit? I’m already fucking bored.