“Were you nice to my mom?”
“I made her smile a lot, yes.”
Sutter grinned at Elle. “He’s obedient now. Did you train him?”
“Yes,” Elle replied and smiled at me. “I neutered him good.”
“Uh-huh,” I grumbled. “Well, now that I’m so compliant, I want to spend the night here.”
Elle and Sutter immediately lost their smiles. They looked at each other and then at Ford, who stood back on the porch.
“Oh, I’m needed now?” he asked, walking down the steps and joining us. “What’s the problem?”
“I want to bunk here tonight before heading back to Baton Rouge in the morning.”
“Like bunk on our couch?”
“I’d prefer to sleep in your daughter’s bed.”
Ford held my gaze, revealing the killer hiding behind his fun grandpa routine. I smiled at his silent threat.
“Sutter, you’ll need to turn your white noise machine on extra loud tonight,” Ford said and tousled the boy’s hair. “That way, you won’t hear your mom yelling at Zodiac.”
Elle frowned at how her father hadn’t saved her from her problem. Ford refused to acknowledge her irritation, even when she got on her tippy-toes and tried to glare right in his face.
“It’ll be fine, kid,” I told Sutter while his mom hassled Ford. “I’m fully housebroken.”
“Don’t make my mom cry,” Sutter said, sounding worried.
Elle glanced at her boy, hearing his fear. Her gaze flashed to me. I didn’t look at her. I kept my eyes on the boy.
Leaning down, I whispered in his ear. “She’s special to me, too, but don’t tell anyone. It’ll ruin my cold-hearted reputation.”
As I stood up and smiled at Elle, Sutter studied me. His gray eyes were so much like his mom’s.
Sutter glanced at his grandfather and then back at me before nodding. This kid was smart about more than math and science. I sensed he understood people. His grandpa wasn’t a nice guy to most people. Sutter seemed to understand the real man behind his fun grandpa. Maybe he was smart enough to also figure me out.
“If you stay here, you’ll need to watch for Hobbs,” Sutter told me. “He likes to walk close to people’s feet. Grandpa is always stepping on him.”
“There’s also a cat, right?”
“Newton won’t come near you. He doesn’t like strangers.”
Sutter was an interesting kid. I figured he was a nerd and would feel awkward in a world of bikers. But he played sports and held his own with adults. He didn’t even seem particularly intimidated by me.
I expected such bravery from little kids like Nova’s girls. They were too young to understand what their uncle and his friends did for a living. Sutter might have been only seven and lived a swanky life inthis private community, but he was well aware of his family’s biker lifestyle.
“If this is happening,” Elle said as she wrapped an arm around Sutter’s shoulders, “feel free to tell this wanker to piss off.”
“Zodiac and I need to learn to coexist,” Sutter told his mom like he was a therapist. “If he crosses a line, I will get Grandpa’s bat for you.”
The way Elle looked at her son dug at old wounds from my childhood. Early on, I learned to only care about myself. If I could survive to adulthood, I’d have power. I saw other foster kids crying over their shitty parents or missing their old friends. They wallowed in their pain, letting it drag them down. I never permitted my bad family, crappy foster homes, or rough breaks to affect me.
But I wasn’t blind to what I had missed out on as a kid. No one had ever looked at me like Elle looked at Sutter right now. My family hadn’t missed me when I was away in the way Elle had missed Sutter after one night apart. No one saw my potential or cared about my interests.
I could have turned into a bitter asshole, but I knew rage would make me more likely to fail. Brushing off life’s hassles kept me alive and sane. I found success by focusing on my goals.
Now, those goals were muddied. Elle affected me like no other woman had the power to do. She both worshipped me after yesterday and knew how to ignore my surlier bullshit.
