Kissing her forehead, I wanted to tell her why. Why I was uprooting her life. How everything was about to change. That she was never going to step foot in this clubhouse again, but I couldn’t. She wouldn’t understand.
Hell, I was still having a hard time with it.
In the end, I knew I was making the right decision.
Getting to my feet, I went in search of Roxy. I didn’t have to look far. I found her in Becca’s room, folding clothes into a suitcase.
“Roxy?”
“Tell me you are taking my girls away from here.” she said, tears running down her face as she added more clothes to the growing pile.
“We’re leaving tonight.”
“Good,” she said, grabbing a few of Becca’s favorite books and a stuffed alligator she got while visiting Tennessee. “Don’t tell me where you’re going. I don’t want to know.”
Stepping into the room, I closed the door behind me. “Come with us. Ari needs you.”
“I can’t. Not this time. Dylan and Layla need me here. Besides Ari, they are all I have left. I won’t lose any more of my kids. I can’t,” she said trying unsuccessfully to stop her sobs. Her heart was breaking. Her whole family, her sons, were dead. She knew and instead of grieving as a mother should, she was making damn sure her daughter and niece and nephew stayed alive. The woman was solid gold to the core. Ari couldn’t have asked for a better mother.
“Does King know you’re staying?”
“I told him. He wasn’t happy, but I diapered his ass, he can’t tell me what to do. I will see Remi married and leave with Layla and Gio after the wedding.”
“There may not be a wedding, Roxy. You have to know that.”
“Oh, there will be a wedding. I didn’t plan this shit for nothing. My Remi is getting married. God help anyone who fucks with her day. You boys all think this life revolves around you. None of you ever stop to think of the toll it takes on us. Without us, you boys wouldn’t live to see the next day. We don’t ask for much. Just a man who loves us and maybe a little happiness. Is that so hard for you men to understand? Instead of thinking of us first, you men go about your days as if we don’t exist. That is until you need us to warm your beds.” she said, slamming the lid closed on Becca’s suitcase. Turning to me, she growled. “No more. I swear to God above Baltazar, you better treat my girl better. She deserves better. She deserves the moon.”
I slowly nodded, “Yes ma’am.”
“My Ari is a gentle soul. You protect her, Baltazar. She is going to need you more than she knows. She wasn’t made for this life. She deserves a cute little house with a big yard and a white picket fence. A husband who is home by five every night. A man who adores the ground she walks on. Anything less and you aren’t the man I believe you to be. Understood?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Good,” she said, her shoulders slumping as she sniffed. Walking over to her, I held her as she cried. Roxy was the strongest woman I knew. Golden Balls of steel. Nothing affected her, yet in the last couple of hours, her whole world came crumbling down. She had already lost the love of her life when her old man, Moonshine, stepped in front of Bullseye as he rescued his sister from the clutches of Jekyll, taking a bullet for both of them. Then, to have her sons die in an explosion. Well, even the strongest had their limits.
Now I was taking away her daughter.
Though she seemed eager that I take her away, I knew it was killing her on the inside. I never claimed to know the female mind, but seeing Roxy breakdown was enough for me to realize that even the strongest broke.
She pulled away from me, wiping her eyes as she looked around the room. “I think I have everything Becca will need. Now I just gotta get Ari packed. The poor girl won’t know what she needs, but I’ll make sure she has everything.”
“Please come with us,” I asked once more, even though I knew it was futile. Roxy had made up her mind. There was no changing it. When she looked up at me and said nothing, I just nodded. “Okay. I need to get some things together myself. Will you be okay until I get back?”
Roxy huffed, “Please. I’ve got this. Just make sure you have a reliable vehicle. Make sure the tank is full and Becca’s car seat is in the back. Then come get these bags. Some of them will be heavy.”
“Yes ma’am.”