“No, Rex,” I corrected. “I didn’t leave her. We fought all the goddamned time, and it wasn’t good for you, so I left the house. I was still around for you, though.”
“You went nomad,” he argued. “You lefther,and you leftus.”
“I never left you,” I protested.
“Mom was lonely,” Roman blurted. “That’s why she moved in with the first asshole that came along.”
I sat with that for a minute.
At the time, I thought she’d moved on quickly, but a part of me was relieved. I’d known for a while that Bree and I were over, but she kept asking me to try and make it work, and for the sake of the boys, I agreed. God knows why I did it. It was over the second it became clear she kept purposely getting knocked up, even though she assured me she was taking birth control.
We weren’t even really sleeping together. The night we made Rex was when I realized I wanted to walk away. I’d gotten back from deployment, slept with Bree, and it was clear things weren’t right, but circumstances made me stay because I didn’t want my boy to grow up like I did.
When Roman was conceived, I was fall-down drunk. The next morning, when I woke up in Bree’s bed, I was pissed with her for taking advantage and pissed with myself for being so sloppy. A part of me knew she had an agenda, so when she told me she was pregnant four weeks later, I wasn’t shocked.
I wanted the boys and their mother to have a home, so I stayed with her. We got military housing, and I was away on deployment more than I was home, so it didn’t seem like a big deal, but I knew when I left the military, it would be done. I went nomad, not just to get away from Bree, but also to visit other chapters and observe how different presidents ran their clubs.
When Big Daddy started talking about opening a chapter in Wyoming, I jumped at the chance to run it, thinking that the boys could come out later if they wanted, but now all this shit was happening with their mom, I reckoned the time was right.
“I’m not takin’ responsibility for your mom gettin' high,” I declared. “We’ve been separated for years. I’ve got no controlover that shit. She’s a grown-ass woman, and she should know better.”
“Can’t you help her?” Roman asked.
“I can get her into rehab,” I agreed. “But would she go? Is she even ready for it?”
Rex’s expression was all the answer I needed.
“In the meantime, you boys should come live with me,” I went on. “I’ll buy us a house in town, enroll you in school; I’ll even get you a cage to share. I don’t want you stayin’ in Cali if your mom’s not takin’ care of you.”
The boys looked at each other, having a silent conversation.
“What?” I demanded.
Rex’s stare slid to meet mine. “We can’t leave her. She needs us.”
My head tipped back, and I sighed before my eyes lowered again. “Your mom’s an adult. She can take care of herself.”
Roman leaned forward and hissed,“He tries to hurt her.”
Silence fell over the table.
My chest tightened. It wasn’t that I gave a shit about Bree romantically, because I didn’t; however, until recently, she’d been a good mom to the boys, and they loved her. Hell, I loved her, just not in the way where I wanted to fuck her every night for the rest of my life.
My eyes darted between the boys. “Tell me.”
Roman thrust a hand through his hair. “One night, he brought a couple of dudes over, and she got scared. They were bad news, Dad. One of ’em tried to”—he blushed slightly—“you know. Me and Rex had to throw him and his sketchy buddy out. Kev was mad, but he’s scared of you and the club, so he didn’t say much. Mom had a bruise on her cheek the next mornin’. She said she banged it on the nightstand when she was in bed, but we know she’s protectin’ that dick. The only reason we came thisweekend is ’cause Kev’s gone to Vegas and Mom won’t have to put up with him and his crew.”
My eyes narrowed. “Is that why you’ve hardly visited?”
Rex lowered his eyes.
Roman shrugged.
My jaw ticked.
I’d spent years at war in the Middle East, seen atrocities and evil that would keep a lesser man up every night for the rest of his days, and yet the idea of my boys having to protect their mother from some sack-of-shit asshole was hard to process.
My boys trusted me to do my best for them. Leaving their mom to face that shit without lifting a finger to help was how my sperm donor did things, and I swore I’d never be like him. My boys’ trust was important to me, so I’d make sure Kev the asshole would get what was coming to him.
