“Oh, I slipped a little when I came in here to make your lasagne,” I say, pasting a smile on my face.
They don’t buy my excuse. These clever girls have lived through a mother who had to hide stuff like this from them, so I know they don’t completely buy it. They share a look before looking to Vex for answers.
“Your momma is fine, girls, just a little clumsy,” he says, voice thick with emotion at being called Daddy. I smile up at him, his dark eyes filled with love for both me and those two little girls who burrowed into our hearts. He holds the arm not wrapped around me open and the twins come rushing over, burrowing into Vex’s safe embrace.
“Hey girls,” Joe’s bright voice says from the doorway as she shuffles closer, her right arm pressed tight to her abdomen to ease the movement on her ribs. “I bet your new momma can’t make lasagne as good as mine. Who wants to help me?”
“Joe-” She sharply shakes her head at me as she waves the girls to go wash their hands.
“I love you, Loyal Blessin’, but you look like you’ve seen an honest to real ghost. Besides, you’re beautiful, good at learnin’ and have a huge heart. Ain’t no way you can cook too.” Joe grins at me, her bright white teeth with the little gap in the middle sparkling in the kitchen lighting.
“You, my friend, are ethereal.” Joe rolls her eyes at my comment. “Even if one of those eyes is still almost swollen shut.”
She gasps at my teasing and I slap her hand away when she leans forward to help me up. Instead Vex rises to his full height and offers me a hand. As soon as I stand Joe wraps her good arm around my waist, and I hug her back gingerly not wanting to hurt her.
“We got this, Loyal. Your monster or mine, we can take ‘em.” She winks before shuffling further into the kitchen, TumTum joining her at the counter.
Strong arms wrap around me, “You can break down later, baby. But right now our girls need us to be strong,” he murmurs into my hair.
“I’m done breaking down. Now I’m just pissed.”
Vex snorts into my hair and I roll my eyes. “What? I’ve never heard you use such language, Loyal Blessing. Spend a little time around these rough bikers and now you have potty mouth.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I pat his chest.
A bang has me jumping and Vex reaching behind him to his waistband. We stand tense, not moving until Justice comes out of the pantry huffing like a bull.
“I fucking lost him down there somewhere. Argh!” he yells, causing the girls to cuddle in to Joe.
“The girls!” I hiss.
Vex grips his arm and pushes him into the common room with me close behind.
“He was right there and I fucking couldn’t catch him,” Justice groans, tugging at his hair. “Fuck! How the hell am I meant to protect everyone when I can’t even catch one fucker?”
A big hand lands on Justice’s shoulder, silencing my brother-cousin. “It’s not just on you, kid.”
“But I know him, I know what he’s capable of,” Justice whispers brokenly.
“And you’ll use that knowledge to help us bring him and anyone else who threatens us down. Today was about power. They think they have it, but they’re wrong. They’ve slithered their filthy asses into our world. They’ve made themselves known and next time we’ll be ready for them,” Dex says, his gaze intent.
“Peter 5:8,” I whisper, moving to stand next to Justice, letting him feel the weight of my hand on his arm.“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
“We’ll be ready,” Sniper says, one arm around Nell and Greer, the other around Izzy.
“We’ll be ready,” Justice mumbles.
We stand in silence, letting our vow soak deep into our bones until a little voice breaks through the quiet. “Where’s Damian?”
Chapter 17
Vex
Idon’t want to take my eyes off my woman but Izzy is right, I haven’t seen Damian at all since Church finished. Not that there was a lot of time to notice he wasn’t in the room. As soon as I walked into the common room I heard Justice curse and then I was with my woman who was shaking like a fucking leaf. The fear of Goodson being here had her eyes wide as saucers and her face pale as a ghost. But despite all that she buried it deep to make our girls feel safe.Our girls.My heart skipped a fucking beat when the word “daddy” came out of Addy’s mouth. Fuck me, but those girls aren’t going anywhere. We’ll take care of Goodson and then Theo or Jay or Chewy or who-the-fuck-ever can do the paperwork to make Addy and Bree mine and Loyal’s officially. Yeah, we have the paperwork Wire forged, but I want this shit official. They deserve to have their birth certificates with their momma’s name on it. But first, we have one big, blonde bastard to find.
“He went to check on Jason. It shouldn’t have taken him this long,” Loyal says, the wobble in her voice only noticeable to me and Justice.
“It’s not like Dad to leave me alone for hours,” Izzy says. She’s right. I’ve never actually seen Jason not in the same room Izzy is in. I’m not too sure on their history, but I would fucking bet it’s not good.
