Page 31

CHAPTER 31

Toxic

T he night was going well. Everyone was drinking. A couple of the Berserker’s Rage guys had come down. Pops and Warrant had driven down together. They were planning to stay a bit longer than the rest of the guys. The sun was starting to set as everyone gave toasts. The men’s speeches were more roasts on Priest, but that was the way we did things.

“To Priest,” Smoke said, raising up his beer bottle. “Who single-handedly is trying to repopulate the Earth. How he got a woman as beautiful as Jenny to stay with his sour ass is a mystery to us all.”

Everyone chuckled as Priest flipped off Smoke, but they were grinning at each other as they each took a drink from their bottles.

Jenny’s mom, Joy, was sitting with Caitlyn in her lap, the other girls sitting around her on the bench, as she spoke with them.

Billie leaned into me and laid her head on my chest as I wrapped my arms around her.

“They’re such a cute little family,” she said, a tone of wistfulness in her voice.

She wasn’t ready for it yet, so I didn’t tell her that I planned to give her just as many kids. I might be older but there was no way it wasn’t happening. One, I wasn’t going to be able to keep my hands off her. My right hand slid down and squeezed her ass. Two, I wanted a bunch of rugrats running around probably almost as much as she did. After the last couple years of seeing my brothers having kids, and watching them grow up, the need had built up to have my own.

Sure, at first, I’d been wary of the children. It had taken some time before I was comfortable around them. But now? They were a fucking blast. You could teach them so many damn things and they soaked it all up like a sponge.

“Hi, Sweeties!”

I glanced over with a frown at where the kids and their grandmother were staring at the new woman. I had no idea who she was. They all gave each other wary glances.

“Aren’t you so glad to have a new mommy?”

Now everyone close enough to hear the woman was giving her looks ranging from dumbfounded to disgusted.

Gabby frowned. “What do you mean?” She looked down at her sisters and it was easy to see she was feeling protective of them, but also didn’t want to be rude to whoever the woman was. Jenny had been doing a damn good job instilling manners into the girls, despite our best efforts to turn them into little savages.

“Well, now that Jenny is married to your daddy, you have a new mommy,” she explained in a sugary sweet voice that grated my nerves.

Caitlyn looked up at her grandma and whispered something. She was hugged close and Joy opened her mouth to give the woman a piece of her mind, but before she could, Taylor spoke up.

“We already have a mommy.”

The woman looked confused. “But your mommy di-”

“Lady,” I barked at her, silencing her before she reminded these poor girls that both of their mothers had died. Caitlyn looked close to tears and it made me want to rip her head off. Losing her mother out in the desert had been pretty traumatizing for her. And the other three had their own struggles with their mother’s death as well. This was supposed to be a happy occasion. “Shut the fuck up before I make you.”

I didn’t give a shit who she was. She wasn’t going to come here and start trouble. That was the only thing she could be doing. She was being passive aggressive with these kids for no fucking reason other than to be a cunt. She was easy to recognize. You saw her type everywhere. The kind who liked to start shit with children because adults were too much of a challenge.

She gasped in outrage. “You can’t say that to me!”

“I can, and you keep it up and I’ll walk you off this property myself,” I warned her. Then with a smile said, “If you’re particularly un-lady-like, I’ll throw you off the property.”

My raised voice had caused us to become the center of attention. Jenny came over with a tight smile and pulled Caitlyn into her arms, hugging the girl close. The other girls circled around her as Priest stepped in front of them all.

“Brandy,” Priest said, his voice low and dangerous. “I told you that you could come tonight if you didn’t cause any trouble.”

“I’m their aunt,” she hissed. “I should be able to talk to them if I want to.”

Priest looked over at me and I shook my head. This was Wendy’s, his ex-wife’s, sister. No wonder she was a stranger. Wendy’s parents were sweet as could be, but somehow they’d ended up with two daughters who’d been hell on them. After Wendy died, the parents had kept in touch with Priest and the girls. He said the only reason they weren’t here tonight was because they were on a vacation, but once they got back wanted to take Priest’s family to dinner.

Their remaining daughter, however, was awful. This woman hadn’t once in the years since her sister died tried to make contact with her nieces. As far as I knew anyway. I could see why Priest had allowed her to come if she’d found out about the reception, but she didn’t need to stay. Not after saying that kind of shit and upsetting the girls.

It wasn’t an accident. There had been a malicious glint in her eyes as she’d asked the girls that question. Caitlyn, and the loss of her mother, hadn’t been Brandy’s intended target, but the girl had been through so damn much. It took her a long time to even talk after Priest adopted her. The last thing we wanted was her regressing.

I raised an eyebrow at Priest, who simply nodded. An entire conversation for us. I turned to Isla and winked. She all but launched out of her chair, giggling like a schoolgirl. “No cuts, only bruises,” I told her. She needed this more than I did. She’d been looking particularly antsy the last few days. I was pretty sure it had something to do with the women dragging her around to plan girlie wedding things.

“Party pooper!” she yelled as she stalked toward the other woman.

Everyone did their best to hold back their laughter at the shock on Brandy’s face, right before Isla swept her legs out from under her and took her to the ground. She hadn’t been expecting that. We stood and watched as Isla let loose a little.

There was a moment of awkward silence followed by cries of, “You can’t!” and “This isn’t fair!” But by that point no one was paying attention. Isla was dragging the bitch off the property, by one ankle with the woman clawing at the lawn, and we’d quite loudly resumed the festivities.

No one was willing to interfere. Not for the female who’d done her damndest to hurt Priest’s kids. Our kids. Fuck her. She deserved whatever Isla was going to do to her. And this way, Priest wouldn’t get into trouble with Wendy’s family. Not as much as he would if he was the one dragging her off the property.

By the time the woman was in her car, tires squealing as she pulled away, Priest was beginning to relax. “Shouldn’t have let her come. I just thought the girls might like the opportunity to see their aunt. She’s never shown an interest since Wendy’s death.”

“You tried,” Lock told him, clapping a hand on his shoulder.

We went back to the party and it silenced everyone when Taylor looked up at Jenny and said, “She asked how we felt having a new mommy.”

Jenny swallowed hard and searched for something to say.

Taylor frowned. “I never liked her,” she admitted.

“She’s always been mean,” Gabby added. The other two girls remained quiet. Cassie was too young to have really remembered her aunt, and Caitlyn had never met her.

Taylor wrapped her arms around Jenny’s waist. “I don’t even know what she meant. You’ve been our mommy for years. You’re not new.”

That did it. Every woman at the party was sniffling back tears and the men were all grinning.

“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Priest told his girls. “She hasn’t been around to meet Jenny. So she must have been confused. Jenny belongs to us now.”

“Yup!” Cassie said and hugged Caitlyn, who was still clinging to Jenny’s leg.

“We’re not letting her go,” Gabby added.

“You’re stuck with us,” Taylor pointed out. That made everyone laugh.

Gabby and Taylor gave their dad knowing looks. They were old enough, and smart enough, to know he was giving Brandy an out for being a bitch. But they didn’t say anything for the sake of the younger girls.

“Who’s ready for cake?” Jenny asked, forcing brightness in her voice as she gave Priest the most loving, though teary, look I’d ever seen before.

Isla came walking up a few minutes later. She didn’t say anything, just gave a fist bump and nod to each of the girls. They knew who their real aunts were, and who had their backs. It wasn’t the cunt who’d just been kicked out of their lives permanently. It was the women who were surrounding them now.

It took another hour, and three slices of cake—all for me, Billie had her own—before I managed to get her alone.

She looked around as she stepped into my room inside the clubhouse. “Huh.”

“What?” I asked.

“The guys made me think this would be some kind of sex dungeon.”

I groaned at that and shook my head. “They’re just a bunch of dicks. And they’re just trying to get me back for years of interfering in their own relationships.”

“I’m just a little disappointed.” Billie laughed and went over to sit on the bed. My dick hardened just seeing her in that pretty little dress and her cowboy boots. Her hair was loose and flowing over her shoulders.

“Fuck, you’re gorgeous,” I told her.

She smiled at me. “And you’re handsome.” She cocked her head, studying me, then continued. “I like your dad.”

“Thanks. He’s a good one.”

“I already knew I liked the rest of your family.”

“There’s more to meet. I was in a club up in Wyoming. Grew up with a lot of those men. Some of them are here today, but you’ll meet more of them one day.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” she said with a smile. She was rubbing her hands up and down her thighs.

My eyes dropped to the movement and stayed there, watching her fingers brush over her skin. With each swipe the end of her dress was creeping upward. “What are you wearing under that, Lightning?”

Silence met my question, so I glanced up. One brow arched up at the look on her face. I’d had every intention of being a goddamn gentleman tonight because the majority of my family was outside, partying.

Didn’t seem like that was what my old lady wanted from me, however. I had no problem with that. It was going to make it a hell of a lot easier to get through the rest of the night, in fact. Watching her socializing with my family while she walked around in that damn dress was killing me. Not anymore.