D.M.S.
Drugs, Money, Sex.
They were a Maori gang, and it seemed A.J.’s babysitter knew them well. It made me wonder who this woman was exactly and where she came from.
The large men all took turns shaking A.J.’s hand when the woman presented him proudly to them, and I silently fumed.
Who the fuck was she to introduce my son to New Zealand gang members like it was nothing?
If I had a living voice, I’d be having words with Lexi—mark my words.
This was not acceptable.
I needed to talk to Happy.
***
Molly
It was difficult for somebody like me to have attachments.
My life was sour, and for the most part, I felt I didn’t deserve the kind of sweet I got from the little monster who had wormed his way into my heart.
I sipped my coffee, watching the boy I had grown to love over the rim of my bright yellow Pokémon mug. His tart expression was obvious. Of course, Lexi noticed it too, but A.J. had been moody for a while now and she didn’t know why.
I caught her searching his face with well-hidden worry. She was desperately trying to find the cause of A.J.’s irritability.
I knew the cause. Part of it, anyways.
Zoe ‘The Cunt’ Braemore.
The little shit who teased A.J., and she baited him with something that should have been off limits. She teased him about not having a dad.
It would explain why A.J. had started to see his dad at night. It would also explain the sudden angst he developed in the mornings before school.
Something told me fucking up a five-year-old was bad form, but what did I know?
I was a hood rat, after all.
I pled ignorance.
The chair creaked when I leaned back in it, lifting my leg to rest an ankle on my knee. I waited a moment, basking in the comfortable silence, before looking to Lexi and stating, “So, I’m gonna pick up A.J. from school today.”
Lexi looked up from the newspaper, a small frown creasing her pretty brow. “What?” She put the paper down. “It’s your day off. You don’t need to do that. What do the kids do for fun these days? Spoil yourself. Go out and get your nails done.”
I glanced down at my chipped black nails before peering back up at her.
When she took in the face I made, she rolled her eyes. “Okay, so don’t get your nails done.” She smiled in encouragement. “Do something reckless and fun. Enjoy yourself, Molly.”
My boy was damn near hyperventilating. A.J. stared into his toast, feeling my eyes on him.
“Nah.” I sipped my coffee. “I have plans for my little boo.” Lexi wanted to protest, but before she could, I asked A.J. “Handsome Dan, you wanna go for a ride with me in Big Red?”
Eyes wide, his fingers went limp, and the piece of toast he held in his hand dropped to the table with a dull plop. “Really?”
I didn’t smile often, but when I did, I made sure I saved them all for this child. This beautiful, pure child who wore his heart on his sleeve. He was too good for this world, and somehow, by fate alone, I was the lucky bitch who got to spend almost every day with him.
Guiding him. Minding him. Protecting him.
It was not a job I took lightly.
I might’ve only been twenty-two years old, but I had seen some shit. That shit had aged me some. It also taught me a whole lot about life and who not to trust. It made me good at what I did, and although there were days when I wished I was never born, I’d go through every single bad day over and over again if it meant I would end up exactly where I was right now.
My thick lips felt wide and uncomfortably stretched. “Hell, yeah.” I paused a sec. “As long as it’s okay with your mom.”
She was focused on me, hard. Her voice, however, remained quiet. “What’s going on?”
Lexi was not a dumb woman. You would never guess it from looking at her, but the shit I’d seen? She’d seen it too. We just wore it differently.
I wore my battle wounds openly.
She wore them as deep-set scars.
You do you, girl.
When she crossed her arms over her chest, I reached over and stole a square of A.J.’s toast, grinning at the way he gasped in outrage. I chewed slowly, and it took me a while to answer. “Nothin’.”
Lexi looked to A.J., concern etched on her features. She was a good mom. It was impossible not to like the lady. I wished I had someone like her on my side when I was a kid doing things a kid should not have been doing. Maybe if I hadn’t seen it myself, I wouldn’t have believed it were possible for a person like her to exist.
She would have fought for me.
She would have fought for me as if I were her own.
A mama bear at heart.
“Please, Mum?” He pulled out the big guns, turning up the adorable a notch by pouting his lips. When he lifted his hands, gripping them tightly under his chin in prayers, I knew she was toast.
Her shoulders fell, and I smiled into the rim of the mug.
Lexi’s smile fell. “Are you sure, Molly?”
I waved her off, standing to take my now empty mug to the sink. “I’ll put the booster seat in the trunk before I take off today. Don’t worry. I’ll keep it under eighty.”
Her face softened mildly. “I know you will.”
She didn’t say this harshly. It wasn’t a threat or a warning.
Alexa Ballentine had complete faith in me.
I wanted to hug her then. I mean, I never would. I wasn’t the hugging type. But I wanted to.
She would never understand what she had given me the day she took me into her household, trusting me with her child. Lexi and her band of misfit friends were healing something inside me that I’d forgotten was long broken.
Rather than show the flurry of confusing emotions running through me, I turned my back on her and made a show of washing my mug. Without facing her, I uttered, “I’ll have the little monster back by four thirty.”
Lexi spoke to her son. “Go put your shoes on and get your school bag, buddy.”
When I heard her come up behind me and when she came into view, leaning her hip on the sink to face my side, I lifted my eyes to meet hers. She all but whispered, “He adores you, you know.”
She could’ve said anything. I didn’t know why she chose to tell me that rather than asking me about the suspicious change of afternoon plans, but I was thankful for it. Thankful for her.
“The feeling’s mutual, Lex.”
Her hand came down on my shoulder and she gave it a light
squeeze before walking away. She reached the hallway, when she spoke again, “I know.”
Something warm and thick stirred in my chest, and I wasn’t sure why, but I felt like crying then.
I rinsed my mug and set it down to dry.
Zoe Braemore was about to learn that even though A.J. didn’t have a father, he had a family who loved him to. And not all families were blood related.
My car squeaked when I pulled in to park directly out front of A.J.’s school. It was barely audible over the loud purring rev of Big Red’s engine, but I heard it and frowned.
I made a mental note to check the break pads when we got home.
Backup hadn’t arrived yet, but he said he’d be there and I knew he would be.
I understood why he was doing me this favor without question.
It was because of A.J.
This kid, this sweet, naïve child, had no idea the connections he had in the underworld or the legacy he held. The son of Antonio ‘Twitch’ Falco, quite possibly the most dangerous man in the world at one point. The godson of Julius “The Law” Carter, a man who was judge, jury, and executioner of the underworld. He called Farid ‘Happy’ Ahmadi, the son of Persian mobster Omid Ahmadi, his uncle.
Together, these men, they were the holy trinity of the underground.
If you got in their good favor, you were golden. Set for life.
Without Julius, I never would have met Lexi. Never would have met A.J. And my life would have been poorer for it.
I owed Julius. Owed him big time.
He knew it. I knew it.
I had no idea how to repay him, and I fucking hated being indebted.
You’ll figure it out.
Well, I’d fucking have to. He’d make sure of it.
The black Hummer pulled up, and although I couldn’t see who was inside, I pushed off Big Red, my ‘74 supercharged Holden Torana SL5000. She was a beauty and all I had left of my mother. One ginormous figure stepped out of the car. He was daunting—I’d give him that.
Hemi spoke, and his New Zealand accent always made me laugh. “Hey, Molly love.”
What it actually sounded like was, “Huy, Molly luff.”
“Hemi.” My lip twitched. “Thanks for coming.”