Page 92 of Headstrong Like Us

His brows bunch in confusion.

I smile.So pure.“It starts here.” I touch the side of his hip. “And goes here.” I drag my hand down the side of his ass, crouching as I descend his thigh and stop above his knee.

He fights between his affection for me, and my hands, and the overprotective big brother mode he’s in.

“Great,” Maximoff says.

I stand back up as Luna speaks. “I’ve been planning this tattoo for a long time. Donnelly worked on the sketch for weeks.”

I raise my brows at Donnelly.

He tells me, “She wanted fine-line black and white so she could color it in with marker whenever.” He widens his eyes at me, and I readthatlook.

He’s basically tattooing the outline for a permanent coloring book. It can help with anxiety.

Now it makes sense why Donnelly would risk tattooing her again when Lo went ape-shit the last time he found out.

“Okay, but Maximoff isn’t wrong. Her dad is going to kill you.” Donnelly is going to get himself into so much trouble, and if Oscar or I can’t bail him out, then he’s fucked.

Donnelly nods to me and my fiancé. “Your baby is a blood-relative of mine, and I’m Xander’s bodyguard. Which means that I’m like family. Murdering me is like murdering one of his own.”

“Man, you’ve gotCobalts Never Dietattooed on your knee. Loren Hale isn’t going to think you’re one of us.”

Luna props up on her elbow. “I won’t let my dad kill him.”

Donnelly stares right at me. Rumors have been circulating in security about the guys that Luna made out with in New York. I can’t say which fucker overheard what or where, but bodyguards are talking.

And they’re saying Lo got those guys black-listed from every nightclub in New York City and Philly.

I’d call bullshit, but Oscar thinks they could’ve been banned from the clubs the famous ones frequent. Who knows what else Lo did, what he could’ve done or can still do.

These families are powerful, and they have the ability todestroypeople. Loren Hale is the Emperor of Petty, and he’s extremely protective of his daughter.

Maximoff is in a serious daze. And he breaks out of the stupor. Eyeing Donnelly. “I’m hung up on the ‘your baby’ part—you know that we’re just temporary dads to Ripley? At some point, Scottie will be released from prison, and we plan to help him get clean for reunification.”

“What?” Donnelly gapes at me.

My chest tightens, and I glance at the baby monitor in my hand. “If Scottie’s willing to take the steps to be healthy for his son, then we have to respect that, Donnelly.”

He rolls his chair back from Luna, upset.

“Donnelly—”

“Scottie isn’t looking to get clean, Farrow. He laughed in my face when I saw him.”

Maximoff steps forward. “Wait, you talked to him?” We tried, but Scottie refused the visitation.

“I went to the state penitentiary,” Donnelly confirms and turns more to me. “He’s just holdin’ onto his parental rights because he knows Maximoff Hale has the baby. So when he comes out, he’s one-degree away from this family.”

He doesn’t care about his kid.

My jaw tenses, acid spilling in the back of my throat.

Maximoff looks murderous, but I’m sure there’s a part of his moral heart that believes,Scottie can change.But we both hold each other’s gaze in a vice.

If we’re anything, it’s protective. And I can’t put a child in negligent, callous hands. Especially the child we’ve been caring for as dads.

A garage door groans open. Cutting into the heavy tension. I check the window, peering behind the blinds.Shit.