Page 93 of Unhinged

“Hey, Brydgett. What’s up?”

“Looking for Judge.” I lean against the doorway. “I woke up and he was gone. I called his old school… need to talk to him about it.”

She sets the magazine down. “Everything okay?”

I drop into the chair across from her. “Yeah. No. I don’t know.” I cross my arms. “He wants to go back to school. But the public school’s useless. They’ve got this whole 'only approved pickup people' policy, but then added they don’t have enough eyes to watch everyone at dismissal. Yet they refuse to let him wait inside the office for me. I can’t send him back, not like that.”

She watches me. I keep going.

“I called the private school across town. They’d keep him with a security guard. They have access codes and check-ins. But I need twenty percent down to even get the ball rolling. I don’t have that.” I exhale like I’ve been holding the words in all morning. “So I’m gonna have to go back to work.”

“Take a breath, babe,” Bettie says, lifting her mug. “I thought you were about to pass out.”

I laugh. It sounds fake. “Sorry. I’m just so damn frustrated. I want him in school.Hewants to be in school. But I’m not gonna risk his safety for it.”

She leans back in her chair, studying me. “Have you talked to my boys about it?”

I blink. “Why would I?”

She smiles, slow and sly. “Because they’re your mates. Your alphas.”

“Judge is mine!” I practically growl, the words flying out before I can stop them.

I suck in a deep breath, forcing my tone to soften. “Sorry. I’m just… protective.”

“As you should be. But maybe you should put a little more faith in my boys. They’re good men, Brydgett. Rough around the edges, sure. But so are you. They’re not perfect, but they’re perfect foryou, if you’d let yourself see it. They’d love that boy like their own.”

I scoff, eyes flicking to the table. “How do you know that?”

“I raised them.”

“That doesn’t mean they’d be okay with someone else’s kid.”

She grabs my hand. “Let me tell you a story.”

I let her.

“Back before they were Gears, Arrow, and Acid… they were Raiden, Orion, and Titus. Raiden and Orion were born in the club. My old man was president, which is how Raiden got it now, and Orion his VP. But Titus? He came at eight years old. His parents were addicts. His dad OD’d and his mom brought him here when she decided being a club whore was easier than rehab.”

I stare at the table while she talks, tracing the edge of a coffee ring with my thumb. The story shouldn’t matter—it’s not my business, not my life—but it hits something deep and sore in me.

“He hung with my boys. Played, ate, laughed. And when he was fifteen and his mom stole from the club and got kicked out, my old man made sure Titus didn’t leave with her. We kept him. Raised him. Loved him. That boy became my third son. No blood, but no one questions it. You see them now, and they’re brothers. Thick as thieves. If the club burned tomorrow, they’d still ride together.”

I stare at her. My throat feels full. That kind of loyalty, that kind of staying power… I’ve only had that with Ike. No one else.

“So yeah, honey,” she says softly, “I think Iknowthey’d love that boy like their own.”

“I didn’t know,” I whisper.

“Most don’t.” She lets go of my hand and sips her coffee again like she didn’t just dig under my ribs and plant something there.

I wipe at my eye quickly. “I also didn’t know their legal names.”

She laughs. “Don’t you dare tell them I told you.”

“I won’t. I’ll just… pretend I figured it out. I’m crafty like that.”

“Savvy gal.” She nods with a smirk. “Now, go find your boy.”