Page 31

Is There Anything You People Don't Claim?

M eredith

“This is madness,” I whispered into the darkness.

I closed my eyes tightly, laying as still as I could.

Go to sleep. Go to sleep. I sang to myself, but my efforts were futile.

Grizz wasn’t here, and I was deathly afraid of what might appear in my nightmares.

If Pulse made his random appearance and used Grizz for his fucked-up game, I would break, protecting him.

Sleep was going to evade me tonight, and I reached for the TV remote.

Flipping through the channels, I landed on the Fight Night package.

The club only had the premium channel because Grizz had paid for it as part of Cyph’s extortion.

I was watching two men beat the fuck out of each other, holding back tears.

That was when I decided I shouldn’t be alone and flipped off the TV before the first sob escaped.

Getting dressed, I headed for the main room.

The lights were on, and a couple of brothers were playing cards.

It was enough to not feel alone. I made some popcorn, settling into the couch to watch a movie.

The opening credits had just scrolled when Grace sat the baby monitor on the coffee table in front of us.

She plopped down next to me, and I passed her my bowl.

“Can’t sleep?” she asked, waving off the popcorn.

“I didn’t want to be by myself.”

“Same.” She laid her head on my thigh as we both pretended to watch the movie. It was supposed to be a funny romcom, but neither one of us laughed at the jokes.

“They’re okay,” she whispered.

“They have to be, or we’ll kill them.”

She let a small laugh loose, refocusing on the movie we were staring at.

Dead was the first brother to sit with us.

He said nothing as he got comfortable in his spot.

Count was next, plopping into the recliner that was directly behind us.

Every couple of minutes, someone new would find a spot, until we were all in a four-foot radius.

We were three movies in when my phone rang. Grace quickly sat up as I reached into my pocket. Grizz was video calling me, and I didn’t hesitate to answer.

“Hey, give me a sec,” I said. “I’m going to take this in the kitchen.” I pointed the phone at Dead before running towards the door. He nodded in my direction, acknowledging he’d heard me.

The kitchen had windows, so I sat on the furthest barstool, away from the direct line of sight.

“Hey,” I sighed softly, standing the phone up on the counter in front of me.

“Hey, baby. Where were you?” Grizz looked good, but tired. The man bun was still in place, but there were dark shadows forming underneath his eyes.

“In the main room. We’re pretending to watch movies.” I twirled a piece of my hair, trying not to be obvious that I was looking for injuries.

“Stop that.” He smiled. “Really, baby. I’d tell you if there was something wrong. I’m good. The rest of the brothers are good, but your condo is smaller than I remember.”

“You’re not all staying there, are you?” I didn’t care, but I didn’t know how to be strong for him. There was a part of me that yearned for him when he was gone, and while I thought he might suspect something, I wouldn’t give him a reason to tease me.

“Yeah, we are. You don’t have a lot, so we pushed the couch back and spread blow up beds out. As long as no one’s touching, there shouldn’t be any fights.” He leaned forward into the camera. “You’re mine, so I get your bed.”

“You’ve spent enough time in it, but you might find indentions from other men.” I was kidding myself if I thought he believed that. I’d barely functioned over the breakup, only going to work and the occasional doctor’s appointment.

“Ha fucking ha. There wasn’t anyone else but me, and we both know it.

” He smirked. His good humor didn’t last long as I watched the planes of his face shift.

He appeared to be calm, but there was something dancing underneath the surface.

Fear gripped me. “I need to tell you something, baby.” He paused.

“So, we were somewhere, doing something, and Clara showed up.”

I gasped. “Clara? My cousin, Clara?” My mind raced, trying to comprehend what was he was trying to tell me without outright saying it. The puzzle pieces slipped into place quickly. “What the fuck was she doing with the cartel?”

“You’re not supposed to know that, but you were right. Clara had a baby.” His head tilted, silently telling me to calm down.

“What the fuck? You don’t drop shit like that without some lube, Jonathan.

I know you don’t use any, but you should be familiar with it.

” Clara’s lack of foresight enraged me. Hadn’t she learned how much damage the cartel could inflict?

They had killed Brandon. Matt was gone. She was delusional if she thought she was safe.

“You don’t need lube.” He looked at me through the camera, making sure I caught the meaning before continuing. “Clara handed her baby over to a cartel soldier for fresh papers.”

“Papers, like a new ID? She left her baby with the cartel and ran?” I couldn’t believe what Grizz was saying.

Clara had always been flighty, but I’d never believed she was capable of this.

Each new revelation sent me into a tailspin, forcing me to reevaluate my life choices.

I’d been selfish, and I could have easily been another Clara.

“What happened to the baby? If you left it with the cartel, I’ll…

I’ll… I don’t know what, but I’ll be livid with you. ”

He laid his head back against the headboard, laughing.

“This isn’t funny, Jonathan.” If he didn’t start talking soon, I was going to reach through this phone and strangle him.

My rage simmered, bubbling under the surface of my skin, and fear was gripping my heart.

I needed to know what had happened to the baby.

It shouldn’t have to go through life without a mother, and I wasn’t sure what was worse—abandonment or death. Fucking Clara!

“Did you tell her yet?” I couldn’t see him, but I recognized Sabre’s voice. He must have been close to my bedroom door.

“She hasn’t given me the chance, and now she’s getting pissy with me.” Grizz’s eyes raised above the phone.

I wouldn’t have been pissy if Grizz had talked faster.

I heard boots shuffling on my hardwood floors, and I took my emotions out on them.

“Of course, no one took their boots off. It’s not like it’s my condo or anything.

” In all honesty, I didn’t give two fucks.

The floors needed buffing anyway, and I was worried about the baby.

“Oh, I think she’s gone past pissy to bitchy,” Sabre said, appearing at the top corner of the screen.

“You haven’t seen bitchy yet.” They both cracked up laughing, but they were loud, and somewhere, a baby wailed.

“Fuck,” Grizz said. His eyes shifted to his lap as he reined it in.

“You can’t say fuck in front of a baby,” I replied on instinct, but then my brain replayed what I had just said. “Do you have Clara’s baby? Jonathan!”

“Here, give me the phone.” Sabre filled the screen. “Hi.” The camera jiggled as he moved around the room.

“You’re an asshole.” I rolled my eyes, not caring he was the president. I probably should have shown him respect, but he was helping Grizz hide secrets from me.

“Eh. I’m going to flip the camera around, Meredith.” Sabre left the screen, and in his place was Grizz, holding a baby, while sitting on my bed in the condo.

“That’s a baby.” There was no filter from my brain to my mouth. “What the fuck?”

Sabre zoomed in on the two of them. Grizz leaned down, making soothing sounds as he held the baby’s hand against his cheek. I’d never questioned having children with Grizz, but seeing him like this made me want a dozen right now. My vagina didn’t think that was a good plan, though.

“What’s going on?” Grace came into the kitchen. “We heard loud noises in the main room, and the brothers wanted me to come check and make sure you were alright. It’s Grizz, so they weren’t worried about an intruder.”

“Can you withhold sex?” I asked her, looking over my shoulder at my sister.

“What?” She was confused, and there was another round of laughter coming through the phone.

“My husband thinks it’s funny to watch me lose my shit. Look at this, Grace. Doesn’t this make you want to pop out a dozen?” I turned my phone towards her as she sat next to me at the kitchen counter.

There was more laughter coming from my phone.

“That’s a baby. Whose baby? JR’s upstairs.” She checked the baby monitor in her hand. JR was sound asleep in his crib. Realizing he was alright, she leaned in to look at the screen on my phone. “Sabre, why is Grizz holding a baby?”

“Yeah, you’re not withholding. I’m on my own.” My sister was abandoning me in my time of need. In all honesty, I would only withhold the two days Grizz was gone, but it sounded pretty good right now.

“Why are they laughing like hyenas? Have they officially lost it?” she asked me. Her nose crinkled at the situation she’d walked into.

“No, they’re fucking assholes.” It only made them laugh harder, and Sabre must not have been paying attention because the camera pointed at the ceiling. The baby wailed, cutting everything off.

“Sabre, what’s going on?” Grace wasn’t playing anymore.

“Show them.” Grizz’s voice came through the speaker.

The camera flipped, and the baby’s face filled the entire screen.

She was the most beautiful baby I’d ever seen, including JR. I’d never share that with Grace, though.

Her face was round, with plush, chubby cheeks that made me finally understand why old people always wanted to pinch them.

I wanted to reach through the phone and do it myself.

They were adorable, but it was her eyelashes that drew me in. They were long, framing her blue eyes.

“It’s okay, pumpkin. Your mommy acts crazy when she’s worried. You’ll get used to it. She’s not mad.” He rocked her until her cries turned into small baby giggles, the sound searing on my heart. “Baby, tone it down. She hears you, but she doesn’t understand you mean well.”

I had heard Grizz call me her mommy, but my mind had glossed right over the word.

My protective instincts kicked in, and they were so loud I heard nothing else.

All I wanted to do was shield her from the world.

To give her as much love and support as humanly possible to make up for Clara’s lack of judgement. What if I fucked up being her mom?

“I couldn’t let the baby go through life without a family, so I claimed her. She’s been with me ever since.”

I felt like Grizz was looking into my soul, knowing I wanted to say yes but was afraid of the future.

“It’s happening, isn’t it?” I asked. Grizz was giving me a false sense of security.

He’d already claimed her, and she’d be born into the Iron Shield.

It didn’t matter she was already here. There wouldn’t be a chance to slow down, analyzing everything to make the right decision.

We were going to have put her interests first and hope we got it right.

Isn’t that what excellent parents do? Isn’t that what everyone tried to do for you?

“Only if you agree.” His lips twitched. If I took the leap of faith with him, she’d be ours. We’d give her everything her little heart desired—within reason. If I said no, he wouldn’t hold it against me, but the baby would probably go to my sister and Sabre. She’d still have a good life.

“Bring her home.” The words were out in the open, and I didn’t flinch, nor did I take them back, making some excuse. This was right. “She’s ours.”

“She’s ours,” he reiterated. “As long as you’re sure.”

He was giving me one last out, but I had already decided. “We’ll figure out the rest when you get back, but you’ll be on the couch if you show up without her,” I teased. I wanted to give him some secret code word, to let him know we were fine.

He chuckled. “It’s like that,” he said, knowing I was alright with our next step in life. I didn’t want him on the road with her, worried about our family of three.

“Does she have a name?” I asked.

“We don’t know. She didn’t have any papers with her, so I thought I’d bring her home, and we can figure it out later.” Grizz shifted her in his arms.

“We don’t know how old she is?” My forehead puckered as Grizz shook his head. Clara hadn’t even bothered to register a birth certificate, and I was angry at her all over again.

“No, but she can’t be more than a few weeks. Her pajamas are size zero to three months, and they’re big on her.”

“Wait. What’s going on?” Grace was almost hysterical, watching the same screen I was.

“Grace,” Grizz said. “This is Clara’s baby.” He quickly filled Grace in on the circumstances.

“So, we don’t know the father?” Grace was pale.

“That’s all you care about? Clara was going to leave her baby with the cartel,” I piped up indignantly.

“Baby, you can’t keep saying shit like that,” Grizz reprimanded.

“It’s obvious, but we’re not supposed to know anything,” I said to Grace. She made a sound, but said nothing.

“What are you going to do about supplies?” Grace popped back into the conversation.

“I only have her car seat, and we stopped for a small can of formula and some diapers. I was thinking about bringing Aunt E’s car, and D can ride my bike back.”

“It’s still early morning, but I can text Stella to drop off what you need…” I was thinking out loud.

“No,” Dead interrupted me. I hadn’t seen him standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the main room.

“Stella’s parents live in the same subdivision as my aunt. She knows how to sneak in, and I can ask her to drop it on the back porch.”

“You don’t know if someone’s watching the place and that will put her right in the middle of your drama.

” Dead was seriously angry that I would even suggest something like that.

I didn’t want Stella on the cartel’s radar, but she was the only one I could think of who could help Grizz without making a big deal about it.

If he went to the store on his own, the salespeople would ask too many questions.

“Hey, Dead,” Sabre said, “I’ll send a brother over there to make sure the place isn’t being sat on. She’ll be alright.”

“First my sister, then babies, and now one of my best friends. Is there anything you people don’t claim?”

There was a chorus of nos.