CHAPTER 2

JOHNNY

This was not how I expected my night to end. But the minute I'd seen the dark-haired beauty hysterically laughing as she slid down the wall in the back hallway of The Lounge, her blue eyes sparkling with mischief, I'd been hooked. I'd known immediately who she was and why she ended up being a cleaner for us. I'd not mentioned that I knew who she was because I hadn't wanted to dim the sparkle in her eyes. I'd not even felt the slap from the woman I'd picked up at Ozone when I'd gone to visit Liam earlier this evening. It didn't even register once I laid eyes on Maya.

My day had gone much like any other day. I'd got up late, had lunch with my Da and Liam. Adam was the one who got up with the sparrows to get to the office by eight. Liam and I only had to be at our clubs late afternoon, but as we got home in the early hours, we usually slept late.

To cut costs after Rhett had been imprisoned and we'd made the decision to go legit, we'd all sold up and pooled our money. That meant we'd had to move back in with Da. Although I think Da enjoyed having us all home.

We'd enjoyed a leisurely lunch, then Liam and I'd gone to our respective businesses to sort out paperwork. This was the bit I hated. I hoped that by the end of the year we'd be able to hire someone to take over the paperwork side, leaving me more time to be on the floor where I was most comfortable.

It was a good night at work with hardly any problems to sort out. After I'd closed up, I'd driven over to Ozone because I knew Liam would be there. He alternated the club he was at every night. Like me, he hopes that we'll be earning enough by next year to hire someone to take on as manager, leaving us with a bit of free time. While there, I'd found myself some company for the evening. Now that I was living back with Da, I couldn't be taking my flavour of the night home with me, so I usually ended up taking them back to The Lounge.

Little did I know that tonight the woman that Liam had hired as a favour to Reaper would come in early and set my world on fire. While I knew who she was, I hadn't yet had the courtesy of meeting her because our hours differed so much. Maya usually cleaned at eight in the morning before moving on to the nightclubs so was done by the time I arrived.

The first inkling that something wasn't quite right should have been the lights coming from the front of the club. I was sure I'd switched them off when I left.

But the woman in my arms had been impatient to get in my pants and hey, who was I to stop her. We'd been well on our way to some hot wall sex when a little voice and a hand tugging at my trousers had interrupted.

At first, I hadn't realised what I was hearing. Eventually the noise had penetrated both my and the woman I'd been about to bang's sexual haze. The woman's eyes had narrowed, unwinding her legs that she'd wrapped around me, allowing them to drop back down to the floor until she was standing.

That was the changing moment for me, as I gazed down into beautiful blue eyes framed in dark lashes, flushed cheeks, and small rosebud lips .

I knew right then, I felt it deep in my soul. I fell hard and fast in love with a cherubic looking little girl and not long after that with her mother when she totally derailed my night and had fun doing it.

Once my distraction for the night was gone, my cheek still stinging from the slap she'd delivered. I'd picked up the little girl and cuddled her close and walked to meet the woman and little boy that I knew would be changing my life. For the better, I hoped.

Helping her up off the floor and taking them to my office, where I'd seen the indecision on her face. Assuring her that I was good with her children staying in my office with me while she finished up.

That she trusted me with two of her most precious beings meant a lot to me, even if she was just in the next room.

Settling back in my chair to get more comfortable, Emy tucked securely against my chest, drooling away. Jackson tucked under a blanket on the couch in the corner of my office. I hadn't missed the suspicious looks he'd given me. It hurt my heart that someone as young as he was already viewed the world in that way .

I'd work on it and show him that not all men were like his father. Oh, yes. I knew all about how his mother had come to work for us via the Crows. Not that Reaper was one for gossiping, but he'd wanted Liam to know some of her backstory.

I knew I'd have my work cut out for me to ensure that she knew she'd always be first in my life. It would be good to do the chasing for a change. It was a challenge I was looking forward to, and I had no doubt in my mind that the lovely Maya was going to make me work for it.

Smiling, I closed my eyes, listening to Maya humming as she went about cleaning. Life just got more interesting. It was about time.