“Love you, baby.”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re gonna work hard later.”
“Lookin’ forward to it.”
I headed to the kitchen and started going through the fridge. My kids walked in a few minutes later, followed by several of the wives and girlfriends of club members, so I put them to work, helping me make food for an army.
* * *
Hatch
“Let me get this straight,” Crow said, stroking his thick beard. “In order to pay off your debt to me, I told you to get information from Kitty and for you to come through for me you had to agree to patch him into your club?”
“Nothadto,choseto,” Minus clarified.
“As if that’s better.”
“No one gets into my club by force. Kitty agreed to give me, therefore you, access to the information you needed, and in return, I’ve agreed to bring him on as our tech guy. We have needs, he has skills, not to mention he knows the area.”
“You’re forgetting the part where I ran him out of the area years ago and told him not to show his giant face around here again.”
“Yeah, well instead of being an ass about how he found the intel, how about you just be happy he did it and didn’t ask for anything in return,” Minus said.
“Fuck this,” I said. “I’d rather drink than listen to any more bullshit that pussy wants to spout. Who’s with me?”
The room erupted with cheers and we spent the rest of the night drinking and eating the feast our women prepared for us.
“Sid!” Poppy squealed as she rushed into the room and threw herself into my arms.
“Hey, baby girl.”
Poppy was technically my step-daughter, but I’d adopted her soon after Maisie and I had gotten married. Her biological dad had died of cancer when she was really little, and she’d always called me Sid (Stand-in-Dad).
She reached up and patted my cheek. “You’re really here.”
“Yeah, baby girl. Really here and not goin’ anywhere.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
For the rest of the night, she and Maisie stayed close, as did my boys. All in all, it was a perfect end to a shitty situation, and I was so fuckin’ glad to be home.
