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Chapter forty-two

This lockdown is about to make me lose my mind. It’s been fun, for the most part, spending time with people who mean so much to Steel and Lyric. The brothers are freaking hilarious, and their Old Ladies are amazing. They don’t treat me as an outsider despite how I came into the club. They show me the same respect they do each other. It’s as if I’m already wearing a property patch. If I ever had doubts about Steel’s club, the way they all watch over the kids, especially my little heart song, would erase them. Even the brothers who don’t have kids and don’t particularly want any treat the little ones running around the club as if they were theirs.

Anywhere my little girl expresses this much happiness is somewhere I want to be.

The lockdown hasn’t come without its negative bullshit, though.

I thought grown-ass women knew better than to blame another person for someone else’s actions. Drama was over with in high school, but apparently, some of the club girls haven’t received that memo yet. Not all of them are bad. There are quite a few who are lovely to talk to. Melanie’s made me feel at home the most. I’ve watched them all over the last two days, and she’s one of the few I’ve noticed who didn’t hit on the brothers in relationships. There have been one or two who have tried hooking up with her, too. Fuckers are shitholes for doing that, especially when their Old Ladies or partners aren’t looking. It’s mostly the veteran members who are still stuck in the past, when that stuff was acceptable, according to Steel.

Screw that. I found a way to ensure a little birdie flew into their partner’s ears whenever I saw them up to no good. Respect has to be earned, and those pieces of shit sure in the heck will never earn mine. I don’t consider it drama. I consider it doing my civic duty of being a decent human being. I’ve known the pain of the man you love being with other women. If they choose to turn a blind eye after that, then that’s on them. None of them, according to the knowledge I’ve acquired, are in anything other than monogamous relationships, so those motherfuckers should keep their little peckers in their pants.

I didn’t hide what I did from Steel either. He gave me a look that told me I was nothing but trouble, but he already knew that, so I just smiled and took my top off. It distracted him enough to forgive me.

Bebe is mad at me because Rachel was kicked out of the club, as if I had control over any of that. I ignore the drama she tries to start whenever I walk by her because I don’t even care. The women here know I’m not scared to stand up for myself, so if they really want to start stuff, then it is what it is. Most of the Old Ladies will be at my back because, unlike the club girls, I’ve gotten to know them without wanting or trying to sleep with their men.

Lyric has been a trooper. She knows everyone here, and if they’re new faces to her, she makes quick work of bringing them into her bright world. Lyric is easy to love, so it’s not surprising that she can charm them so quickly.

My little heart song is capturing hearts all around the world, at least in this rough-and-tumble world, anyway.

Steel has been amazing. When he’s around, he makes sure to come to me. He constantly checks to make sure I’m good. My head space has been crucial to him during this lockdown, which means the most to me. It shows his growth from the man I knew in the past.

His scent reaches me before his arms wrap around me from behind. I lean into chest, resting my arms over his, enjoying the feel of him surrounding me. He brushes his lips along the side of my neck, and I sigh at his loving gesture.

“Good, baby girl?”

“I’m good, bossman. Just watching our girl.”

Steel twirls me around so I’m looking up at him. He leans down and captures my mouth with his, sliding his tongue inside for a few swirls before pulling away. Then he pecks my nose.

“Missed you,” he admits gruffly.

I laugh. “You’ve just been around the club.”

“Don’t care. Still missed you.”

Be still, my heart.

“Missed you too, big guy.”

“She been good?”

I snort, turning around in his arms to watch Lyric and Wraith’s son, Hendrick, get up to no good. “Causing mischief.”

Lyric covers her mouth and snickers when Hendrick shoves a piece of chocolate in his mouth. His little head swivels, making sure his parents aren’t paying attention, then his gaze snags on mine. Steel’s chest shakes against my back when the little guy gives us a chocolate toothy smile.

“Watch,” Steel rumbles.

Hendrick seeks out Crow and runs toward him, calling out his name.

Crow bends down in front of him and wipes the smear of chocolate from his cheek. He says something to him that’s too low for us to hear, but when Hendrick sticks his chocolate-covered finger against Crow’s lips, smearing the sweetness on them, I can’t help but snicker.

“Shh, don’t let Mama hear you,” Hendrick says in a voice that I’m sure was meant to be quiet.

He sees the mess he left behind on his uncle, and his hazel eyes widen as they bounce between his hand and Crow’s face. “Oh, boy. Mama is gonna tan your hide. You been in the chocolate.” Before Crow has a chance to say anything, the little dude turns around, seeks his mom out of the crowd, and calls out to her. “Mama, Uncle Crow gave me chocolate.”

My body is shaking with the laughter I’m fighting hard to repress. I lose the fight when Crow calls him a little shit and Hendrick’s response is to stick his tongue out at him and say, “Aunt Sage says you’re a tough guy. You can handle Mama tanning your tail.” Then his little legs carry him away as fast as they can as he races toward Crow and Nova’s dogs, Rocco and Lola.

I lean my head back to peer up at Steel. “How much of that trouble do you think our girl instigated?”

Steel snorts, his breath chuffing along my hair. “Fuckin’ all of it, knowin’ her.”

I’m about to agree with him when his phone goes off along with the phones of a lot of the other members. Whatever he reads has his body tightening before he spits out a curse and pulls away from me with a kiss to the top of my head.

“Shit’s happenin’ outside,” he says.

Wraith whistles to gain our attention, and fear chokes me at his words.

“I want all the women and children to head to the security room. Dirty Mavericks, ready yourselves. Seems we have a serpent on our doorstep, and he’s brought a few friends. All of you but Rad, Lincoln, and Dax are coming out with us. You three will be guarding our women and children in case someone tries to get inside.”

I know from what Steel has told me that Rad and Dax are part of Lincoln and Pierce’s security company. Watching Lincoln and Keegan together, and the way Tweek has been struggling with it, I’d say he’s got his guys here for far more than just whatever he’s helping the Dirty Mavericks out with. I’ve watched the pull between Lincoln, Keegan, and Tweek and how hard they’re fighting it. More like Tweek and Lincoln are fighting their attraction, and Tweek and Keegan are fighting to stay away from each other. It’s not going to matter. Those three are going to come together, and they’re going to burn hotter than a supernova when they do. It’s been interesting watching the war they’re battling.

Keegan is great. She’s got this quirky side that’s hard not to be drawn to. She and Tweek have the same bratty personality too. Lincoln watches them act out toward one another, and I swear sometimes he wants to bend them both over his knee.

The sound of everyone scrambling to gather the kids pulls me from my thoughts, but seeing all the calm faces relieves me. They’ve been around a lot longer than I have, so if they’re not panicking, then I probably shouldn’t either.

Taking a deep breath, I center myself and straighten my shoulders. If there’s ever a time for me to prove to Steel that I’m Old Lady material, it’s now.

When I turn to him, he’s checking his gun. “I can protect people if you have a spare weapon,” I tell him.

“Covered, babe. Get our girl. You protect her,” he replies, grabbing me by my throat and pulling me to him so he can snatch a kiss.

He walks away from me without saying anything else, and I shake my head, turning to get Lyric.

She hurries to me when I call her name. I wrap my arm around her and urge her to follow behind the others on their way to the safe room. After Lyric is settled next to Hendrick, I help Mama Bear, Sage, and Nova get the rest of the kids situated.

It’s not exactly fun spending over an hour waiting for someone to give us the all-clear.

The problematic club girls being shoved in a room with people they’ve caused trouble to has filled the space with tension that I pray none of the children feel. The Old Ladies are amazing, though. They refuse to give the troublesome girls their attention while the rest of them are welcomed into the circle. Kiwi told me they’ve done their best to make friends with the girls who like to cause drama, but the effort was never reciprocated. I figured it had a lot to do with them either being unable to garner the attention of the brothers the Old Ladies belong to, or they get the attention from them but not the patch they covet so badly. I’m sure it can make life around the club hard to navigate for the Old Ladies, but I also know they love their life here, so they endure. Some of the club girls have been getting away with a lot of shit, and it’s caused a lot of hurt to the people in this club. These men are going to have to put their feet down and stop giving them so much leeway. All it does is set a precedent and allow them to think they’re ahead of anyone else in the club, including the Old Ladies.

That’s not fair to their partners.

When the all-clear eventually comes, palpable sighs of relief go around the room.

Sage heads back to the kitchen to finish the meal she had to stop working on when they locked us down while the rest of us disperse to the common rooms.

A few minutes later, three strangers stroll into the room we’re all in. The air of menace surrounding them sends a shiver down my spine, but if they’re walking around here, they’ve been cleared by the club.

When the leader turns enough for me to get a better look at him, I do a double take. The resemblance between him and Crow is so uncanny, there’s no way there’s not a familial connection.

Sage must catch sight of them from the kitchen because she marches into the room with a huge-ass butcher knife in her hand and heads straight for them. I observe her with them in case they try to make a move against her but relax my stance when Crow strides into the room like an angry vortex and moves their way. That man won’t ever let a single strand of hair on her head be harmed.

After we all eat dinner, Steel drags me and Lyric into his room and snuggles us into his bed so we can watch a movie. Lyric is dozing off between us when Lena calls.

I try not to disturb Lyric too much as I reach out to grab my phone. “Lena. Hey, it’s been a while, babe.”

“Yet, I still love you the same.”

“Love you too,” I reply with a smile.

“Tell me what’s been going on in your life.”

Steel watches me with gentle amusement after I fill Lena in and she tears me a new asshole for not telling her everything before. I stick my tongue out at him, watching his shoulders shake, until Lena demands I put him on the phone.

His eyes widen in panic, and I snicker. “He’s listening.”

“Listen, mister big bad biker dude. If a single piece of hair is harmed on her head, I’m going to come for you. I’ve got skills you’d be surprised about, and I can promise that I’ll make it hurt. And if I can’t make it hurt, I have five very psychotic men who can.”

My eyes widen at the seriousness of her words. Her tone ensures me there is absolute truth in them, and I wonder if there is something about my best friend I don’t know.

And five men?

What the hell have I been missing?

“Do what I can,” Steel promises in that way of his.

“Good. Now, where’s this precious girl? I want to say hi.”

“Sorry, babe. She’s sleeping,” I tell her.

“Darn. Okay. Next time then.”

“Absolutely. Just like you’re going to tell me all about these five men.”

We chat for a bit longer before we end our call.

Steel pulls me back between his legs and rests his chin on my head. “She sounds great.”

“She is. Lena has been my best friend for a really long time.”

“Like that she’s got balls to go toe-to-toe with me.”

I tilt my head back so I can peer up at him. “Was it just me or did her tone actually have a threat behind it?”

“Not wrong. That new?”

I think back over our friendship, trying to remember any other time that dark tone came out.

Biting my lip, I slowly shake my head. “Actually, when all that ugly stuff came out about my dad and his friends, she sounded like that. And when she caught sight of some of the bruises I was hiding that my dad left on me.”

Steel’s body tightens behind me. “Come again?”

There’s no use in trying to act like I didn’t say anything. He’ll refuse to let it drop. “I’ll go over it only once, so listen closely. It’s not something I like talking about. Dad was abusive while I was growing up. Fortunately for my brothers, I was the only one he liked having a go at. He was great at leaving the bruises and other wounds in places no one could see, unless I was naked. Neither Reed nor Jedreck ever knew. He would threaten to end them if I ever spoke one word about it. There were so many times I almost let him steal my light, but I couldn’t give him the satisfaction. I may have been abused, but there was no way I was going to let that be how I was defined for the rest of my life.”

Steel reaches over to grab hold of my legs and pulls them across his, as if he knows this conversation isn’t easy for me.

“Bet that motherfucker didn’t like that,” Steel says, his thumb caressing my ankle.

A small smile flirts around my mouth. “You’d be right. He hated that he couldn’t break me. That’s the one thing he failed to realize, how deep my love for others went. He could never understand the depths I’d go to or the hell I’d walk through if it meant protecting someone I loved. How could he? He’d have to have a heart to do that, and I’d realized long ago that he didn’t have one.”

He grunts. “Sounds ‘bout right. Men like him fuckin’ hate when they can’t break the unbreakable.”

I stare at him with an undecipherable look and shake my head. “Don’t mistake me, Steel. I’m not unbreakable. I think most everyone has something that can break them. He just wasn’t it for me. Anyway, it stopped for the most part after I moved out.”

“For the most part?”

I shrug. “Anytime he could get his hands on me, he did. My dad hated— hates —me, and I’ve never been able to figure out why.”

“Your mom?”

“Pretty sure she knew.”

He grabs my chin and turns my head. “Won’t ever touch you again.”

I smile. “I know, bossman. He’s in prison serving consecutive life sentences for multiple murders. It’s one of the few times old money in a small town didn’t win.”

“Think about telling your brothers. They should know.”

“What good would it do now?”

“Truth shall set you free bullshit.”

I snort, my shoulders shaking. “So wise, bossman.”

He leans down and bites my lip. “Better remember that, baby girl.”

“I’ll think about it, okay?”

“All I can ask.”

I grab his beard, pulling him in for another quick kiss. “Let’s put our girl to bed, yeah?”

After we put Lyric in the room with the rest of the kids, Steel chases me back to our room. A few people watch us with warm, amused eyes as I throw my head back in laughter as I evade him.

He catches me, tosses me over his shoulder, and spanks my ass. I hang there, laughing, my heart so full of him. When we get in the room, Steel doesn’t even give me time to breathe before he’s dropping me to the mattress and devouring me.

Hands are impatient as we pull off clothes. Mouths are hungry as we nip and lick one another. Bodies are hot and full of need by the time he slams inside me.

No matter how much we fail to speak with our mouths, our bodies are never shy about saying what needs to be said.