Chapter 1

“Zane Thomas?”

When I heard my real name, I glanced up from cleaning my tattoo gun and poked my head around the partition that separated my station from the others to give my clients privacy.

An older woman in a navy-blue pantsuit with a white button-down shirt stood next to the front desk, her eyes searching the room. Considering her boring outfit, her gray hair twisted in a thing at the back of her head, and the low, plain black heels on her feet, I doubted she’d come in for a tattoo. Then again…you never knew what people hid under their outward exterior. The prim and proper librarian in town had a garter belt tattooed on one thigh that Molly had done for her.

“I’m Zane Thomas,” I told the woman as I scooted my rolling stool back and stood. “People round here call me Whiskey.” Since I patched into the Iron Rogues MC, it was rare that anyone used my legal name except my parents.

“Hmmm,” she said in reply, so I had no idea what she was thinking.

“Can I help you with something?”

“My name is Jolene Harris. You have a sister named Lauren Donovan, is that correct?”

My eyes narrowed, and I prowled to the front of the shop. “What the hell does she want now?” I growled.

My older sister had burned all her bridges with our family a few years before. Lauren had gotten into drugs in high school, and though she would get help, she never stayed sober for long.

I was one of the highest sought-after tattoo artists in Tennessee and owned half of the club”s tattoo parlor, Iron Inkworks. Plus, I got a cut from our…not so legitimate activities. So Lauren would come to me for money to get off the shit list of whomever she owed that day. Eventually, I accepted that I was just enabling her, but when I cut her off, she forged my mom’s signature and emptied my parents’ savings account.

Stealing from them was beyond my comprehension. My dad had a rare disease that had fused his spine together and caused him almost constant pain, so my mom spent her time caring for him.

I could take care of my parents financially, so I didn’t send the cops after her. However, I managed to get in touch with Lauren and warned her that if she ever came around again, I’d have her ass thrown in jail.

I couldn’t imagine what this woman had to do with my sister since she didn’t look like she belonged anywhere near Lauren’s world.

“I’m sorry to inform you that your sister passed away a few days ago,” Jolene informed me, her tone and expression sympathetic.

“Overdose?” I guessed. “Or did one of her dealers finally catch up with her?”

Jolene frowned and patted her hair, looking a little awkward. “Um…car accident. I didn’t ask for details. Anyway, I’m a case manager for family services in the town in Kentucky where your sister was living.”

Family services?I crossed my arms over my chest and stared her down, confused and fucking irritated to be dealing with this shit. Perhaps I should have felt some sadness that Lauren was gone, but I’d grieved for the sister I’d had as a child a long time ago.

“That would be my parents, not me,” I muttered.

“In normal circumstances, yes,” she agreed. “But they are unable to care for an infant.”

I blanched at her words. “A what?”

“Your sister—”

Jolene was interrupted by the cry of a baby coming from behind the front desk. Her face softened as she turned and bent down. When she straightened, she held a tiny baby in her arms.

“As I was saying. Your sister left behind a three-week-old daughter.” She closed the distance between us and held out the crying infant, clearly expecting me to take her. “No father was listed on the birth certificate, and you are her closest living relative, so you have custody of Corinne.”

I sputtered for a second, at a loss as to what to do. I didn’t know the first thing about babies. But Jolene nudged her against my chest, and my arms automatically unfolded, forming a cradle for her to set the baby in.

The little girl’s cries immediately softened to whimpers, and she stared up at me, blinking her whiskey-colored eyes. They were the exact color of mine…which was how I’d earned my road name. Corinne also had my same dark hair color and olive complexion.

Something in my chest cracked open, and I felt warmth spill out and curl around us. I remembered something I’d seen parents do and began to pace back and forth, hoping to quiet her.

“If you decide you don’t want to raise your niece, you can work with social services to have her adopted. However, I can tell you that she has been looked over by a doctor and is perfectly healthy. It appears Lauren stayed clean while pregnant.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but nothing came out, so I continued walking with Corinne. As pissed as I was at my sister, I sent up a little thank you that she’d been strong enough not to put this beautiful baby girl at risk.

Jolene smiled and handed me a card. “Please call me if you have any questions. Someone from the local children’s services offices will follow up with you since I’m handing the case over to one of their social workers.”

She bent behind the desk again, then set what I assumed was a diaper bag and baby seat on the counter. Then she said goodbye and left.

I was too stunned to say anything, and Corinne’s cries picked up again. She looked so tiny and innocent against my big, tattoo-covered arms. Carefully, I shifted her to my chest and bounced her from side to side.

My eyes strayed to the clock on the wall, and I groaned. “Fuck, I have a client coming in for their second session on a full sleeve in ten minutes. What the hell am I gonna do?”

“Don’t worry, I can watch her for today,” Dahlia—my president”s old lady—said as she rushed over to take Corinne out of my arms.

“And we’ve already started stocking up on baby stuff, so she can borrow some things while one of the prospects runs out to grab anything else she needs,” Molly—who belonged to my VP—added.

I glanced in her direction, and that was when I noticed a few other old ladies, Elise and Blakely, standing a few feet behind me as well.

Pulling her phone out of her pocket, Blakely offered, “I can work on a list so he’ll know what to get.”

“Thanks,” I muttered. “That’ll work for the short-term, but I guess I’m gonna need to find a fucking nanny.”

I knew my mom would offer to take care of Corinne, but even without my dad’s condition, they were on the older side, having had my sister and me late in life.

Elise clapped her hands, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “Ohhhh, I know the perfect person! I met her last week at the library.”

I narrowed my eyes at her but kept my voice gentle as I said, “So you barely know this chick?”

I wasn’t sure I wanted some random woman looking after my baby girl. Whoa. My baby girl? I’d known her all of five minutes. I couldn”t possibly be thinking of her as mine, right?

“I mean, I’m sure you’ll run a background check on her, but she was volunteering while she was there.” Elise beamed a smile at me. “And I already know that she loves kids because she was reading to a huge group of them. I asked how often she does it because she’s amazing, and she’s there twice a week. The librarian said they wished they could offer her a full-time job doing it because the daycare center where she’s worked since she was a sophomore in high school just shut down, and now she’s without a job right when she graduated. A whole semester early.”

“Damn, girl.” Molly let out an appreciative whistle. “You practically got her entire life story.”

Dahlia rocked the baby back and forth. “And she sounds like she’d be the perfect nanny.”

“I guess we’ll find out,” I conceded, looking at the door when the bell went off and lifting my chin at my client as he walked into the studio.

While I worked on coloring in a section of his large tattoo, I ran over what had just gone down in my head about a million times. Was I really considering becoming a single dad? To my surprise, the thought of anyone else raising Corinne made my stomach feel sour.

I told myself it was simply because my parents would be pissed if I didn’t keep and raise their grandchild. But I’d never been one to lie to myself, so I quickly admitted that I’d become attached to Corinne in the few minutes I’d held her in my arms.

In that small space of time, she’d become my baby girl, and I knew I would do anything to protect her and make sure she grew up happy and loved.