Steel could understand Ollie’s instinct to cling to him and Jenna right now. It was why they both had agreed to allow him to skip school yesterday when they still weren’t sure whether the DEA was going to charge Steel with first-degree murder. Steel’s alibi hadn’t been proven without a shadow of a doubt, but Jenna’s testimony that he was with her at the time of the murder and Keys’ proof that Steel hadn’t left club property was enough that the prosecuting attorney had refused to charge him.
The fact remained that he was still a suspect. DEA Agent Strouse had made that very clear. Steel might not have pulled the trigger, but someone had. Someone with enough skill to know how to frame Steel.
He had a meeting with Lucky and Bulldog in his office soon to go over what it was they knew that he didn’t. After all, there was only so much they could say in the sheriff’s station with cameras on them. They couldn’t risk Carlos getting in trouble if it was discovered Keys had fudged the footage under his watch, especially when he was already making exceptions for Jenna’s presence in his station.
“Last day,” Steel told his son. “I’m free, and your education is too important to fuck around with.”
“Language,” Jenna scolded without ire. She was far too used to Steel’s cussing around their kids, but they’d long ago come to a silent understanding that he wasn’t going to stop cursing and she wasn’t going to stop scolding. In a way, it was foreplay for them, neither one backing down.
Steel got out the griddle and supplies for Jenna’s pancakes. Ollie was eating a bowl of cereal. It had taken a good number of weeks after he’d moved in for him to stop hoarding food in his bedroom. Steel and Jenna had not stopped him, knowing it was a part of his trauma from being half-starved most of hislife. Just because they’d opened their home to him did not mean he automatically trusted them. And until it had caused an ant problem, they hadn’t cared. Thankfully, by then, Ollie had gotten used to them and no longer felt a need to squirrel supplies away.
Ollie shrugged. “Fine. By the way, have either of you looked at your phones this morning?”
Neither Steel nor Jenna had. The outside world had not been a priority for them.
Ollie pulled his phone out of his super-tight jeans that Steel had no idea how he breathed in but were a staple in his son’s closet. He tapped a few buttons before sliding the phone in front of Jenna. “Pumpkin got pumpkined again.”
Mixing bowl in hand, Steel leaned over Jenna’s shoulder as they looked at Ollie’s phone. There, in the club’s group chat that included the adults and three teens, was a picture of Pumpkin, naked but for a large pumpkin covering his junk. Steel had seen a similar picture for years, following Pumpkin’s patch-in party, but this one was certainly more recent with his full beard.
Jenna giggled, her shoulders shaking. Steel would have stopped the crusade the club had to make sure Pumpkin never forgot waking up naked next to a pumpkin after his patch-in party years ago if it hadn’t been for the fact that each prank made Jenna laugh. He didn’t care at whose expense, he’d allow anything that made her smile.
Jenna passed the phone back to Ollie. “I’m glad he finally found her. I’m looking forward to getting to know Dosia.”
“I can’t believe she kept a kid from him for six years,” Ollie stated, accepting his phone back. “I could never.”
“That’s because you can’t keep a secret to save your life,” Steel butted in. He headed over to the griddle to test its temperature before pouring the first pancake. He always claimed the first ones because they were messy and not quite perfect as he made sure the temp was correct. The container ofchocolate chips was already on the counter and waiting to be added to Jenna’s pancakes. He preferred them plain, but she liked chocolate chips with strawberries and maple syrup on hers.
Ollie beamed at him. “Still not as bad as Scotty.”
Jenna snorted. “No one is as bad as Scotty.”
“Speaking of which, I got a video of him winning a date with Uncle Lucky at the auction. Want to see?”
As Jenna leaned over to watch, Steel stayed by the griddle to finish making their breakfast. He would soon have to put his hardened mask on, the one he showed the world, the one that had given him the moniker of ‘Steel’. The emotionless mask that the Marines had put on him when they taught him to pull that trigger without remorse. The mask that let him make the hard decisions and think ten moves ahead.
It was moments like this that made up for it, that gave him back his sanity. He would do anything to protect his family and his club. There was a new threat hunting them. He knew it, but he would never yield. He’d faced worse, and he would never allow anyone or anything to take these moments away from him.
They were part way through their meal when there was a knock on their front door. Ollie, who was already done eating, leapt up to answer it. “Um, Steel?” he called out.
Steel’s back stiffened, but not because his son called him by his road name. Ollie had yet to call Steel and Jenna ‘Dad’ and ‘Mom’. They were fine with it, because in Ollie’s experience, those titles did not mean love and protection. If he wasn’t ready to call them so, that was fine with them. It did not make them any less his parents.
Standing, Steel headed to the door, his hand on his gun at the small of his back. No one should be able to get onto property unannounced or uninvited, but Ollie’s voice had warning bells going off in his head. As did the pain in his lower back that reminded him where he’d spent his weekend.
But as soon as Steel rounded the door and he saw who was standing on his front stoop, Steel’s shoulders sagged and he released the grip he had on his gun. “Why are you here?” he demanded.
Lilly raised an eyebrow. “Now is that anyway to speak to your baby sister?”
CHAPTER 2
Jenna was slower getting to the front door than Jack, but as soon as she heard Lilly’s voice, she picked up her pace. Lilly had always been so much more than just Jenna’s sister-in-law. Jenna had known her since she was six years old. There was nothing about Lilly’s life that Jenna didn’t know about, and vice versa. Upon learning Jenna’s diagnosis, Lilly was the first person they’d told, even before their own kids, and not just because Lilly was a physician with Doctors Without Borders.
In the nearly three decades since earning her degree, Lilly had traveled all over the world, including into war zones, to help the wounded and sick who otherwise would not receive medical care. Both Jack and Jenna were beyond proud of her, even if their hearts had stopped a time or two when it was unknown if Lilly was alive. At least with Doctors Without Borders, Jenna had been able to keep tabs on Lilly at all times, and it was rare they were out of communication. Unlike when Jack had been active duty and deployed to spots around the world she was not allowed to know about.
Lilly had come a long way from the scared little girl who used to crawl into her brother’s bed at night to feel safe enough to sleep.
Hell, Jack had come even further. Not that Jenna would ever suggest that out loud. He’d argue and bring the subject back to Lilly.
Jenna squeezed her way between her husband and son to get to Lilly. Like her brother, she was tall and had surpassed Jenna’s five-seven height back in her early teens. Her blonde hair was sun-bleached to nearly white and her skin was so tan it hid her freckles, but she looked good. Strong.
