Page 5 of Judge (Devil’s Rose MC #7)

Judge

“ I s there a reason you’re just creeping around?” I startle at the sound of Pops’ voice close to my ear. So close I can feel his hot breath.

“I’m not creeping,” I mumble, hoping he’ll buy it.

“You are most definitely creeping. Trust me, I know a creep when I see one.” I glare down at him only to be met with his stink eye. The same one Jules and his daughter sport.

“I’m just…looking.”

“Riiiiiight.”

I wait for him to leave, find another victim, but instead he stands next to me, watching Jackson and Annie-Bella chatting with Sage and Niko.

I marvel at the size of Jackson. Knowing that he’s only fourteen it’s now obvious that his sister isn’t little for her age, he’s just large.

He towers over Niko, who at twenty is no light weight himself.

“You know, you could, I don’t know? Go and talk to them?” Pops doesn’t look at me, just stands, hands in pockets without a care in the world.

I let out a sigh. It feels like that’s all I’ve been doing today. “No, I can’t. The boy, Jackson, hates me.”

“Jax.”

“What?”

“Jackson. He likes to be called ‘Jax’.”

I turn to stare at Pops. “How do you know that?”

“Oh, I don’t know, I stopped ‘looking’ at them and asked? Jesus kid, are you simple or something?” Pops gives me a disgusted look, shaking his head.

I curse internally but don’t make any move to do anything other than stare at the twins. Like a creep. Like Pops said.

“Can I give you some advice?” I nod. Pops’ advice can’t be any worse than what I’m doing, which is nothing.

“The only way to get to know them is to put yourself out there.” He stares at me, holding my gaze before blowing out a breath.

“You’ll have to talk, Son. Use your words.

Maybe tell them something about yourself and then ask them questions.

That sort of shit. It ain’t gonna be easy.

Teenagers are notoriously hard to get to know, but you’re patient so I bet you could win them over.

If not, use your massive size to scare them into talking to you.

” He slaps me on the shoulder so hard he makes me sway a little. Jesus, he slaps hard.

Rubbing my shoulder I don’t notice Annie-Bella sidling up to me.

“Hi,” she says brightly, a grin on her face.

I’m shocked that she’s here, let alone talking to me, so I stare wide-eyed at her for a beat too long, and her face starts to fall, taking my gut with it.

“No! Don’t get upset, um, hi.” I rub the back of my neck, “Sorry. I was just surprised you wanted to speak to me.”

Her green eyes, so like mine and my mother’s narrow, “Why? Why wouldn’t I want to speak to you? You’re my Da-father, right? Unless you don’t want to speak to me?” Her eyes dart away and I don’t want her to think that. At all.

“No, I, ah, I’d love to talk to you. Do you want to maybe take a seat?” I gesture wildly around me, realizing that we’re standing at the only part of the deck that doesn’t have furniture.

“Sure!” She plops down on the ground at my feet, her legs dangling off the side of the deck.

She stares up at me, waiting. I gingerly lower myself down, knowing that it’ll be hard getting my ass back up.

“Are you OK?” she asks, full of concern.

“Yeah. Just old,” I huff.

“You’re not that old,” she rolls those familiar eyes. “You’re the same age as Mom, maybe a couple of months older.”

I raise my brows in surprise, side eyeing her. My daughter. “She told you that?”

“She told us everything.” Annie-Bella shrugs.

“Whatever questions we ask she gives us age appropriate answers. Once we hit thirteen she told us the whole thing. Probably to discourage us from making the same mistakes I guess. Not that she thinks we’re a mistake,” she rushes, “Probably more getting knocked up by you. I mean, seriously bruh, you were with another girl when Mom came to tell you the news? Not cool.”

“Wow, she really did tell you everything,” I mutter.

“Yeah, I guess she just wanted us to be able to have all the information to make well informed decisions.”

My lips tilt up at that. Annie-Bella may look small and meek, but she’s a firecracker. Just like her mom. We sit in silence for a moment, Jackson, I mean Jax, eyeing us warily.

“Is your brother OK with you being over here with me?”

Annie-Bella glares toward her brother before flipping the bird and then doing the universal sign for jerking off. Then she puts on a sad face, balls her fists up and twists them in front of her face, miming crying, then the jerking sign again.

“He’ll storm over here soon all full of piss and vinegar. He hates when I tease him about cracking.” She grins up at me, showing off the dimples that my mom has.

“Cracking?” I frown down at her in confusion.

“Yeah, I overheard him playing with himself one day and I busted in on him to tell him to stop being gross and he started crying. Get it? Crying and jacking? Cracking? Oh, here he comes!” She bounces in place and I’m not sure what to do with that information.

The way she blurted that out reminded me a little too much of Mira.

“What the hell has she told you?” Jax demands, placing his feet shoulder width apart, arms crossed over his chest. He would cut an intimidating figure to anyone who wasn’t his sister I guess.

“Nothing. Just that your mom told you two everything,” I answer, avoiding the whole cracking conversation.

“Well of course she did. How are we meant to make informed decisions if we don’t have all the information?” His words mirror his sister’s and I try not to smile at that.

“And, have you come to any kind of conclusion about me?” I hedge, wanting to know if I have a chance to get to know both of them, or only Annie-Bella.

They share a long look, and I swear it’s like they have a full conversation without using words. They nod at each other before turning to me in unison. Almost creepily.

“We’d like you to want to get to know us, but we’re stuck on the fact that you didn’t want to know us before.”

My brow furrows when I analyze Annie-Bella’s words. “What do you mean, before? I only found out about you this morning.”

“Don’t lie! Mom wrote to you! She emailed some lame address, Leoloveslasagne or some shit. You never replied to any of it!” Jax accuses, puffing up large and red with anger.

I raise my hands, trying to placate him. “Look kid, I know how this looks, but I can tell you now, I never got any emails. Shit, I totally forgot that email ever existed.”

Looking between the two of them I can see Annie-Bella looking hopeful, but Jax is the harder sell. I’m not sure what I can do to convince them that I didn’t know of their existence until I walked into the diner today.

Jax crosses his arms and shifts his weight to one foot, the other tapping the dusty ground impatiently. “Prove it. Pull up that email inbox and show me that none of my mom’s emails were opened.” He tips his chin at me, as if giving me the hurry up.

I nod mutely, pulling my phone from my pocket, my big fingers clumsy as I try to use the search app.

A giggle to my left has my gaze meeting Annie-Bella’s, “Do you want me to do it? Your fingers are too huge. And you’re old so you’re probably not used to the tech.” She holds her hand out and I place my phone in her small upturned palm. “Which email provider are you with?”

“Hotmail.”

Jax snorts and I’m sure I hear him mutter “Boomer” under his breath. It doesn’t piss me off like it did earlier. Huh. Maybe that’s what happens when you have kids. They get less annoying.

“Leoloveslasagne, right?”

“Yeah,” I clear my throat. In my defense, I was these kids’ age when I made that up.

“Password?”

“Hopefully it’s the same password I use for all that shit, LeoKaia91.”

Both kids snort at that, obviously telepathically laughing about how old and lame I am, and then Annie-Bella gasps, turning the screen to her brother, her hand shaking.

“Oh shit,” Jax whispers, staring wide at me.

“Here, Judge,” Annie-Bella gently presses my phone into my hand. “Sorry,” she whispers, giving me a small smile before she and Jax quietly leave me sitting on my ass. Alone.

Staring down at the phone in my hand, the small screen is lit up with a shit ton of unread emails, all from Kaia. Fuck.

Kaia

“So, let me get this straight, at one time or another, you have all been kidnapped?” I stare, wide eyed at the women who seem to be very relaxed about the whole thing.

“Well, kinda,” Blanche tips her head from side to side. “Chewy and I got kidnapped on purpose.”

“Aside from that one time the other two times I’ve just gone off on my own.” Chewy adds.

“I was kidnapped,” Vi raises her hand, the other on the sleeping back of her daughter.

“And fought like a hellcat,” Ana beams at her. “I wasn’t kidnapped, more held hostage for a moment.”

“Oh, I was kidnapped by a human trafficking ring. That’s how I met Chewy,” Nat adds, her daughter wide awake on her lap.

“I was kidnapped, but I rescued myself so I don’t think it counts,” Remy’s soft voice adds.

“I wasn’t kidnapped, I lured them in. Reverse kidnap if you will,” Pops’ voice adds from the recliner he’s sitting in, head back, eyes closed.

“I have never been snatched and now I’m feeling a little left out,” Mira pouts.

“You’ve been the only one of us to have body parts sent as gifts, so there’s that,” Lovely adds, getting a huge smile in return.

“So, not all of us have been taken, but we’ve had shit go down,’” Chewy rounds out helpfully.

“And now so have you! You’re here because some cartel douche lord carved yours and your kids names into bullets.

Welcome to the club!” She waves her hands around and smiles widely all while avoiding my gaze.

“No offense, but I’d rather not be part of the club, thanks.”

“Too late! You’re in! Besides, what else have you got going on?

Just the diner probably, which I guess keeps you very busy and all, but here, being locked down with us, well you can make some new friends and maybe you can spend enough time with Judge to stop using your eyes to try to burn him to the ground,” Mira shrugs.