Page 4 of Judge (Devil’s Rose MC #7)

“If you settle in I’ll go get your things.” I rush out, trying to make myself useful.

Before I reach the car I realize I’m being followed by two shadows. Turning, I swallow when I take in their intense gazes. They get that from their mother.

“Um, hi.” I cringe inside. I’m an ex-marine hardass fucking biker and that’s all I could squeak out in front of two teenagers?

The girl grins, possibly smelling my fear.

She bounces on her toes a little before opening her mouth.

“Hi! I’m Annie-Bella, and you’re my dad.

Whoa.” She takes a deep breath and then whispers, almost to herself, “I look kinda like you,” she looks up at me with wonder in her eyes and I know she must be feeling the same thing as me.

She’s right. She does kinda look like me, but stunningly beautiful.

Again I get a pit in my stomach and my chest squeezes painfully.

My attention snaps to her brother as he steps in front of her, shielding her from my gaze.

“Quit it! He’s not our dad,” he says to his sister over his shoulder.

She pouts, shoulders slumping slightly. He turns back to me, green eyes blazing, “Stay away from our mom. She told us about you, you know. It’s all good that you’d rather hang with skanks than listen to what our mom had to say back then, but you can’t just come in and take over.

We’re only here so we don’t get killed by some douche canoes who have it in for you. ”

I have no idea what to say, so instead I swallow thickly, then nod.

Picking up all the bags in their trunk in both hands, I quietly walk past the kids, ignoring Annie-Bella’s whispers about how strong I am, and the boy’s continued efforts to quell his sister’s enthusiasm.

Placing the bags just inside the door, Kaia spins around, pulled from her thoughts by my entrance.

“That’s all of it,” I mumble, trying hard not to stare.

She’s even more beautiful than she was when we were young. Her brown skin glistens in the sunlight coming through the window, her oversized tee knotted at the back, showing off her plump ass in her yoga pants.

“Thank you.”

“Um, can I ask you something?” she lets out a sigh, but she doesn’t argue, so I take the chance. “Annie-Bella introduced herself. You named her after our mothers?”

A sad smile plays on her lush lips, “Yeah. After my mom died yours stepped in and taught me all the things a girl should know. Seemed wrong to only name Annie-Bella after mine.”

I can feel the thickness in the back of my throat, the ache in my heart that even in the moment when she may have hated me, she never hated my family or what they meant to her.

Swallowing the emotion, I clear my throat, “And the boy? What did you name him?”

Her back stiffens, her gaze on a fixed point outside the kitchen window. “Jackson. Jackson James Kennedy.”

My heart feels too big for my chest and my knees are weak. She named our son after me. Maybe not my first name, but my son bears my surname as his first.

“Thank you,” I barely whisper out, before knocking twice on the door jamb and leaving.

I’ll walk away today, let them get settled in, but it’s the last time I’ll ever walk away from them.

Kaia

Shit. I take a deep breath, before blowing away the memory of the hurt look on Leo’s face.

He has no reason to be hurt. Leo - dammit, Judge, is the one who decided he didn’t want us.

I need to remember that. He’s Judge now.

He isn’t my Leo anymore. He hasn’t been since the day my last email went unanswered.

One day I’ll ask him about that, but it’s not going to be today.

“You OK, Mom?” Jax’s voice sounds uncertain.

I smile at my sweet boy, always quick to defend me and yet no clue how to deal with an emotional woman.

He’s been the man of the house for far longer than he ever should have been.

Even when I tried to treat him like a little boy, he would still tell me “Momma, Poppa said that I have to be the man of the house, and look after you and Annie.” Damn my father trying to teach my son how to be a man.

Most of all, damn the bastard who took him away from us.

“I’m all good. We’re here now and Judge was nice enough to let us stay.” I give them both a tight smile.

“He seems nice,” Annie-Bella says softly.

I let out a sigh. Annie has spent her life looking for a father figure.

She thought she had it once. Hell, I thought she did too, and then he turned out to be the worst mistake of my life.

At least from what I know of the DRMC they are good men.

They’d never hurt women and children, so I guess Judge isn’t too different from how he was when we were young.

“I think he is probably a good man. I don’t think the DRMC has bad men in their club,” I answer cautiously.

“I looked into them before we came here. They’ve done lots of stuff to stop trafficking of drugs and women and children, so the guy might be a giant dick, but he’s probably a good guy.

Even if he is a deadbeat dad,” Jax adds.

I don’t even have the energy to correct his language.

I’m all twisted up and have the beginnings of a headache thanks to having to shut down my business and cram our worldly goods in the back of my junker car in under an hour.

“Do you think he might want to get to know us?” my sweet girl asks. She may be fourteen, but she’s never had attitude or a mean bone in her body. Her brother got all that.

“That’s something you have to ask him, baby girl. But just be mindful that the men have shit going down so they may not have time to be chatting to us,” I reply, not wanting to build her hopes up.

I took his silence for all those years to mean that he didn’t want to be a father. Seems odd that he’d be acting all twisted up about it now. But men are fucked up so who knows?

“Knock knock!” a cheery voice calls from outside before the door bursts open and we’re greeted with a small, brown lady with short dark curly hair and a warm smile. “Kia ora! I’m Debs, but you can call me Mama Debs. I look after all these boys here.”

“Don’t you mean men?” Annie-Bella asks with a grin, obviously drawn in by this woman’s motherly warmth.

“Psshh, no, they’re boys. When you’ve seen them fight over the last brownie or whine over who smells the worst, they are definitely boys.

” She cups Annie-Bella’s face, smiling gently at her before shifting her gaze to Jax.

“Well, look at you two. A perfect blend between your mama and your papa, huh? Anyway, I came by to see if you want a tour? It’ll be a quick one, but it’ll give me a chance to introduce you to a lot of the people you’ll be seeing around here.

All of them come with their quirks, but they’re good folk.

Just like you.” She smiles at us before circling her finger in the air, “Let’s go! ”

We follow the small whirlwind out of the trailer and along the path to a large farmhouse that sits proudly on the property.

There are bikes in a neat line, all parked up with the front wheel facing out, as if waiting for the men to jump on and speed out at any moment.

The friendly woman, Mama Debs, bounces up the steps.

We follow a little more sedately. Actually, that’s a lie, I follow with feet that feel like lead.

“Where are you from? You have an accent,” Annie-Bella chirps, bouncing next to Mama Debs.

“Oh, I’m from Aotearoa, New Zealand.” Mama Debs smiles kindly at her.

Her answer pulls me out of my thoughts. “Wait, what? How did you end up with an MC?” I ask, intrigued. I know from high school geography that New Zealand is a world away from Rose Grove, Texas.

Mama Debs giggles, facing me with a wide grin. “Would you believe that I ended up here because my daughter works for the Russian Bratva, and while visiting her, I ended up falling for Sidney Tombs and now I’m his Ol Lady?” Her eyes twinkle as mine grow wider.

“ You’re Debs! Oh my gosh I should have realized, Pops talks about you all the time!”

A soft smile pulls her cheeks up, making her eyes squint. “That man is such a romantic,”

I try to cover my snort. I’ve seen that man cause havoc with the Girl Gang in my diner. Especially with that god awful man Vi used to date. I have to admit I laughed out loud when Chewy “accidentally” squirted lemon juice in the man’s eye.

“OK, here we are!” Looking around I realize that we’ve chatted our way into the house and up the stairs. Mama Debs gestures at me to walk through, but the door is closed so I decide to make myself known.

“Knock, knock?” I call quietly.

Mama Debs rolls her eyes and shoves past, throwing the door open.

“ Kotiro, I’m sure you all know Kaia, and these are her babies.

” Jax snorts behind her and my head spins in his direction, my angry eyes lasering into the side of his face.

He quickly wipes the grin from his lips and clears his throat.

“Jackson and Annie-Bella.” Mama Debs finishes the introductions without blinking an eye.

The women all wave from their places around the room which looks to be a nursery. There are what seems to be a lot of babies and toddlers asleep, the women all in bean bags or on the beds with their children.

“Ooohhh, come closer, we need alllll the goss,” Mira says, clapping her hands. I know her as the cheerleader of the group. Whenever they come into the diner she is always so positive about everything. I thought she was the normal one, perhaps not.

“Ae, good idea!” Mama Debs shoves me in their direction, “I’m going to take the kids to find Sage and Niko. They don’t want to hang out with the mums and the babies.” Debs bustles off as fast as she arrived and we all stare at her and my kids’ retreating backs.

I could feel put out about the whole thing, or I can use this as a learning experience. “OK ladies, I need the full breakdown of what the hell is going on.”