Chapter 11

Static

Stretching, I walked down the stairs the next morning. It was late morning and there were quite a few brothers and families milling around. Lock had spoken to the women last night and asked them to take a few days off work, if possible. That would give us time to take care of the shit we needed to and come up with a schedule that allowed us to have someone escort them where they needed to go.

Thankfully, Gwen already took time off since the kids still weren”t feeling well. I”d checked in on them earlier. Gwen looked exhausted from nursing the children all night, but Jordan and Sloane were already there and were taking over for the next few hours, so Gwen could sleep. They didn”t need my help, so I left them all alone.

I was nearest the door when a knock sounded. Frowning, I went and opened it and looked down. ”Hello.”

”Hello, Sir.” There was a little girl standing there, her dark hair in two braids, with jeans and a t-shirt on. Her face and hands were already grubby even though it was only about ten in the morning.

”Can I help you?” I asked, eyebrow arching when she lifted her hand. I took the photo from it. Now both eyebrows were up.

”Do you know Boone Sutton?”

”Uh...Toxic?” I called out, still staring down at the photo of Toxic. He looked quite a bit younger, but it was clearly him.

”What?”

”I think he”s my daddy.”

I looked over at the man who”d just walked up. The shock on his face was complete and all-encompassing.

”My mommy told me my daddy”s name was Boone Sutton and that he lived here.” The little girl blinked up at us with innocent eyes.

A thump made me glance over, then down again. Toxic was sitting on his ass on the floor. I wasn”t sure if he was still drunk from the night before, or if the news had literally knocked him off his feet. ”Who”s your mother?” he asked, his face ghost white.

Jecht walked over and licked the back of his neck, making Toxic shudder in response and shove the dog”s nose away.

Giggles broke through the silence of the clubhouse and I glanced over my shoulder. Taylor and Gabby were trying to stifle their laughter, and Priest was shaking his head, his arms crossed over his chest. Everyone else was watching this shit show play out.

”Quit trying to give him a heart attack, girls. Judy, if you want to stay and play with my girls, get in here. Is your mom still out there?” Priest asked.

”No,” Judy said, slipping past us and giving Toxic a million-dollar smile. ”She already went home. She said to say thanks for letting me stay the night, though.”

Gabby and Taylor had come out of hiding and I watched in amusement as Butcher slipped Gabby some money.

”Told you it would work,” Butcher said.

Toxic was staring at them in shock. ”Wait. So she”s-”

”She”s Taylor”s friend from school,” Priest answered. ”You”re not her father. His name is Jim and he works over at the dump.”

The relief on Toxic”s face was so palpable I almost felt it myself.

”Jesus f-”

Priest cleared his throat.

Toxic swallowed the word and glared over at Butcher. ”Don”t ever do that to me again, you asshole! Shit, I”m sober now. Like really sober.” He ran a hand through his hair. I”d never seen him look so stressed out.

”Pay back for making me be your wingman with the grandmother,” Butcher said with a smirk.

”Dick,” Toxic muttered, but there was a grin growing on his face. ”At least I don”t have a granny trying to jump my coc-”

”Toxic,” Priest snapped. He looked over where the three girls were staring at him.

He cleared his throat. ”Chicken. Jump on my chicken.” He checked to see if the girls accepted the change in word. When they didn”t immediately start asking questions, he wandered off, probably to order five years’ worth of rubbers online.

”Should she be staying the night?” I asked Priest, pointing toward Taylor”s friend.

”Yeah, we”re letting the girls have this one last sleep over. Who knows when they”ll get the next one.”

I nodded in understanding. The kids here were cooped up a lot because of everything that was going down. The women, too. Thankfully, the women were taking it well and helped the kids adjust. We did our best, too, but there was only so much we could do when safety dictated our every move.

I walked over and sat next to Butcher. ”Where”d you get the photo?”

Butcher snorted. ”Cynic sent it to me.” He took it from me when I handed it to him.

Chuckling, I shook my head. ”You”re a devious bastard.”

”It was too easy.” He shrugged and got up, clapping me on the shoulder. ”Let”s go get a drink.”

”It”s too early for a beer,” I told him.

”I need something to keep me busy until tomorrow night,” he insisted.

Spending the next few hours killing time with alcohol was easy enough. Toxic eventually ordered his condoms and came out to join us. We started up a poker game with the girls and I grinned as I watched Toxic and Butcher teach Priest”s girls, and their friend, the most efficient ways to cheat. Taylor was already pretty adept at it, but they were teaching them to deal from the bottom of the deck.

Movement caught my eye, and I stood up as Gwen came down the stairs. I went up to her and took notice of the exhaustion still on her face. Frowning, I reached out and rubbed my thumb lightly under her eye. There were faint bruises there, telling me she hadn”t gotten much sleep. ”Are you alright?” I dropped my hand away from her face, realizing what I”d done. Every eye in the place was on us.

She smiled at me. ”I”m fine.”

She hadn”t flinched away from my touch. I was counting that as a huge win. There was a time I couldn”t reach for her without her shying away. Who could blame her? Her piece of shit ex-husband had nearly killed her.

If Jordan hadn”t been there that night and ran in to help, Gwen—and mostly likely Sean and Grace—would be dead. Just thinking of what could have happened if Gwen and Jordan hadn”t put up a fight against that fucker made rage fire through my veins.

Most days, I wanted to dig him up out of the ground and destroy what was left of his remains, then piss on his bones. He was lucky he”d been killed in prison. What I would have done to him would have made him pray for death.

And I hardly even knew Gwen back then. But each day I”d gotten to know her and her kids more and more and before I even realized, I was in so deep there was no getting out. I was finally acknowledging it.

We still needed to have that talk, but with the kids being sick and us gearing up to take on Fremont, I wasn”t sure when I would get a chance. It wasn”t one of those things where I could steal five minutes of her time. I needed to sit her down and make her understand that what was between us was real. That I would do anything for her. For her kids. Fuck. It started with babysitting and ended with me being so head over in heels in love with all three of them, I couldn”t risk losing them to someone else.

It didn”t matter that it would be safer and easier if Gwen fell in love with that fictional schmuck I”d made up in my mind. I wanted her. I wanted those kids to be mine. To help raise them. To show them that even though the world can be a shitty place, your family made it all worthwhile. Your family protected you.

”Where are you headed?”

”I have an appointment I have to keep. I asked Lockout if it was okay,” she replied.

”I can take you-”

”Thank you, but...you smell like alcohol.”

”It was only two beers. I”m fine.” There were nerves in her eyes. Trent had been coked out of his mind when he”d gone after her and the children. I knew, just by the look on her face most days, that the whole night haunted her. She never said a word when any of us drank, and she still did herself, but it couldn”t be easy to be around inebriated men after what happened.

Her eight-year-old son—at the time—had nearly shot his own father, trying to rescue his mom and Jordan. I was proud as fuck of him for that, but I was even more grateful that Ricochet had gotten there in time to keep Sean from having to pull that trigger. Sean and Grace were leaving the memories behind faster than their mother was, and I was glad for that. I just wished there was some way to help Gwen.

”I appreciate that, but Ricochet already offered.” She pointed to where her brother was coming in from outside.

”You sure?” I asked.

”Hey, Static.” Her brother watched me with shrewd eyes as he stopped next to us.

”Ricochet. How”s it going?”

”Good, good.” He looked at his sister. ”You ready?”

Something passed between the twins. I”d seen the non-verbal communication often enough between Lock and Idaho to know when it was happening. Something was going on and they weren”t saying what. I was determined to figure it out, but not right now. ”We”ll talk later,” I told Gwen, letting her know in no uncertain terms that we still needed to talk about what had happened between us before the kids got sick.

She gave me a shaky smile and walked away with her brother. Sighing, I turned and went back into the room where the girls and the others were. It was time to kick some ass at cards. I”d been holding back, and now I knew what tricks the girls had learned to give them a leg up. I wasn”t about to lose all my money to some pre-adolescents.