“Nothing but the good shit, of course,” Rosa smiled as she took a huge bite out of a cookie. “Like you stealing your cousins’ bike and joy riding around the compound, or when you and Warren drank a bottle of vodka between you and puked for a whole day, and your dad made you wash all the bikes as punishment.”
“Oh god, I forgot that. I haven’t been able to smell vodka without feeling queasy since that day.”
Lily was laughing. “How old were you?”
I glanced at Rosa, “fourteen?”
She nodded. “You two were always getting into it. Throw in those two boys and you were complete hooligans. Never seen a group of kids as close.”
I took a sip of coffee and helped myself to a cookie having no response to that. Rosa patted my knee under the table. She’d got carried away reminiscing. I smiled to let her know it was fine.
I told them about college and the bar I managed, then after some serious prodding from Naomi, told them about Declan. She even got me to show her pictures, and they congratulated me on finding myself a hottie.
They filled me in on who had kids, who got married, who got divorced, even though divorces were rare as that was frowned upon, and stories about things that had gone on around the MC we shouldn’t know. It was all tame stuff. Even if they knew more, they were sensible enough not to run their mouths where little ears were about.
“Well, let’s get the crotch goblins fed and then you and me can have a real catch up, okay?” Rosa eventually broke things up.
We spent the afternoon with the kids, there were way more of them than when I lived here, and the older teenagers were helping with little cajoling. It was nice seeing them all like this.
It wasn’t all sweetness and light, two young boys had to be separated for starting a fight and Rosa took away their video game privileges, not afraid to let them know who was boss, but otherwise, it was a nice couple of hours away from the other shit on my shoulders.
I offered to help clear up, but there was a chore rota for the kids, so it was supervising rather than doing anything, which suited me. Housework was not on my list of priorities right now.
“Come on,” Rosa linked her arm through mine. “We have a lot to catch up on.”
Chapter 7
Rosa grabbed a six-pack of beer, telling me it was drink o’clock somewhere, even though it was only a little after three in the afternoon. She led me outside and walked around the back patio to the side of the house where there was a small, fenced off seating area that looked like it had been made specifically for the adults.
We sat on a comfortable rattan sofa with huge peach-colored cushions. Rosa opened and passed me a beer, then opened her own and took a long drink with a satisfied sigh.
Despite being out of sight, we could still hear the kids both through the open windows and around the back of the house where they had come out to play.
I laughed at her, kicked off my shoes and put my feet up, tucking them beneath me. “I can’t believe how many kids there are here now.”
“It’s like a goddamn school most days,” Rosa grumbled, but she was smiling. “King might look like he’s softening having all the families around here,” she arched a brow my way. “But it’s more about keeping his people close. Safe. You know he doesn’t tell us women much, but it’s easy to see there is something going on lately.”
“What do you think it is?” I hedge.
“Randy has been away a lot,” she looked off into the distance, toward the shed. “He’s spending a lot of time down there. Him and Hudson,” she turned back to look at me. “You know he’ll take over for Randy as enforcer, eventually.”
I shrug half-heartedly, even though I hate it.
“My brother is Vice President,” I respond. “Can’t get more embedded than that. Do you know the reason they wanted me here? Dad is saying it’s to keep me safe, but it has got to be something he is really worried about, you know, given I haven’t heard from him in five years.”
Rosa looked at me in silence, her eyes shrewd. Despite what people thought, and how the men keep women out of the “business,” not everything gets by the old ladies. Some of them were confidantes to their husbands, they would never break confidence, especially outside of the club.
I was hoping she could shed some light on what was happening, beyond what King told us about our mother. As she sipped her beer, our attention was caught by the sound of bikes roaring. They were heading out of the compound, whoever they were. I’m stuck here. It doesn’t matter if everyone else can come and go as they please.
The best thing I can do for myself right now is get as much information as possible. Knowledge is power, or so they say.Theynever had to pit themselves against a motorcycle club with a stubborn, angry asshole for its president.
“How much do you know about my mom?”
“Danica?” Rosa raised her brows. “Your dad talked about her?”
“Oh yeah, he talked about her. He hated her, huh?”
Rosa barked a laugh, but it trailed off and she cast a look over at the clubhouse. For a few minutes, we sat in silence, Rosa clearly thinking about what she wanted to say about my mother.
