Hawk, who's thrown back in a chair and sipping a brew frowns up at us. He doesn't say anything, but he's curious, obviously.
“We went to see Alessa,” says Bear. “Just keeping an eye on her.”
“Wearing that?” Viking nods his head at the hoodie with a grumpy sneer. “Ashamed of the club, all of a sudden?”
It's not easy to piss off Bear, though I like to say I've perfected it, but questioning his loyalty is way up there. Fuck, I don't even do that. His big, meaty fist gets a solid grip on Viking's cut and pulls him right up close. Viking's big, but Bear is a hell of a lot bigger. He rumbles like a fucking earthquake. “Are you going to say that again?”
Viking isn't scared. We know each other too well for that, but he knows enough to concede. “No. I shouldn't have said that. But explain it to me.”
Bear lets him go with a huff. “Just went to see our little girl. If we're going to be around, we need to make sure Alessa knows it. She doesn't want her neighbors freaking out when we show up, so we went incognito. Fuck, that felt weird, though.”
“You look like goddamn clowns in those,” grunts Viking. “She and the baby okay?”
“Fine,” says Bear. “She has a good set of lungs on her and loves playing with beards.”
“And the baby's fine too,” I add.
“Fuck off,” grunts Bear, though Viking's lips quirk.
“So what, you guys went for a booty call without us?” Viking walks over to the bar and reaches over it to pull out a fresh bottle, then waves for all four of us to follow. We head to his quarters where we can speak in private. Being an officer comes with perks, like bigger space. He's got a proper house in South Side, but he rents it out. Too much work just for one person. “We should be unified in how we handle this. I don’t like the two of you skulking off to have your fun and leaving me and Hawk in the dark. We're all fathers here. We all agreed on that, right?” He drops into a well-worn easy chair, and gestures for the rest of us to sit.
Bear and I take the couch, but Hawk remains standing, crossing his arms and leaning his weight against the wall instead. “I thought we fucking did,” he says darkly. “You fuckers going over there being all lovey dovey isn't going to get the fucking point across.”
“What point?”
He grimaces. “Did you fuck her?”
“Nah.” I shake my head, then flash him a grin. “But maybe if her little roommate hadn't come home, though.”
“The baby is what’s important.” Hawk isn't amused whatsofuckingever. With his background, I guess I don't blame him. “I don’t see how you two can act like you want to be a happy family when we can’t trust a word she says.”
“She had reasons.” Bear cracks his knuckles. “I don't agree with them, but I understand them. She was fucking scared. Still is.”
I shrug, wishing I'd grabbed a beer before we left the common room. “We’re not exactly the poster boys for good decisions, either. She made some mistakes, but now we know and we have a goddamn baby. We should be moving forward, not sitting the fuck around and getting bitter.”
“She lied to us.” Hawk's not budging. “If we hadn't tracked her down, maybe we'd never found out. Our own damn kid would never even known we fucking existed.”
Viking takes a long drag off his bottle. “Hawk, what are you really saying? What do you want us to do?”
Hawk grunts, looking down. “I don't fucking know. But it doesn't feel right. Alessa was ready to cheat me—us, all of us—out of fatherhood just because she got her feelings hurt at the gate and it was fucking inconvenient. Like we wouldn’t protect her from any Mafia bullshit. Doesn't she think we can deal with this shit? And even worse, taking her fathers away from Isabella.” For a moment even his stony gaze softens. He's a hard man, but our little girl's already got her hooks in him. Anyone who messes with her is going to be fucked up, permanently.
Viking nods. “Valid. That's a lot of time that we're never getting back and we can’t forget that she had one night with us, and a lifetime with the enemy.”
Bear shifts on the couch, then shakes his head. “Exactly. Why would she trust us? We’re just the bikers who railed her at a party. Her family might suck, but she knows them. I'm not going to fucking blame her for staying loyal to them when she was freaking out. It’s what she does now that’s important.”
“Well, I will. She actively chose to put us out of the kid's life. All of us. I can't just up and fucking forgive that.” Hawk's dark eyes are black under his tight brows, while he rubs his left forearm. There's a tattoo there, a raptor in flight with a shattered chain crumbling around its leg. Behind lies two dead and broken birds, one facing away and one facing out. Of all his tattoos, it's the only one in bright colors. He doesn't like to explain it, but we know why he’s struggling. Outside of our group, he's made of ice and stone, unreadable and unmovable, but the four of us, we're close. There are a lot of years of trust built between us. Even still, for him to be so open means it's hitting him hard.