“What are we celebrating?” Roy asked.
“I’m going to be a father,” Quincy announced. “Sarah is with child.”
There was a commotion of voices, all talking over each other. Some congratulated him; others appeared confused or worried.
“What does that mean for us?” Brian asked, raising a brow.
Brian was the only one whom Quincy had told about Sarah being pregnant, but he hadn’t shared any of his other plans with him. It was understandable that the men would be worried about what this new development meant for the gang.
“There will be some changes, but we will still be us.” Quincy took a sip of his whiskey. “I’ll be moving closer to town with Sarah, and we’ll be getting married.”
“Are you serious?” one of the men asked.
“How will that work?” another added.
Quincy held up his hands to quiet them. “Yes, I am serious. She is going to be my wife, and I’m going to have a family. As for the gang, we will still be together. You guys can stay here in the cave, and I will come and visit often. I’m not going to move so far away that you’ll never see me again, and we will still be going on raids and carrying on like we always do. In fact, I have a plan for robbing a bank in the near future.”
“But wouldn’t that be dangerous for you? What if somebody recognizes you?” Brian asked, clearly concerned.
“We’re not going to live in town. I just wanna be closer to shops and a doctor.”
Not all of them looked convinced, and they were full of questions.
“Did Sarah agree to this?” Daniel asked.
“Who cares?” Roy replied. “This is about what Quincy wants.”
“Exactly,” Brian agreed. “But how will we stay in contact?”
“I’m still worried about people realizing who you are,” Roy added.
“And what about Isabelle?” Howard asked.
Quincy held up his hands again. “There’s no need to be worried about me. I can take care of myself. I’ve gone years without anybody knowing who I am, and I will continue to do that.”
The men mumbled among themselves.
“I understand that this is a lot to take in, but I will be fine, and the gang will be too. As for Isabelle, she’ll be staying here, with all of you.”
“I doubt that the girl will be happy about leaving her mother here.”
Quincy had had just about enough talking about Isabelle. He couldn’t stand the woman. “I don’t care whether Sarah is happy about that or not. Isabelle is staying, and you men can have as much fun as you want with her.”
The men laughed and cheered.
“I think I speak for all of us when I say it’s been nice having a lady around.”
“Definitely,” Brian agreed. “But we’ve all had our fun with her. It might be time for a new one.”
Quincy shrugged. “I honestly don’t care what you guys do with her. Have your fun, and when you’re done, get rid of the body. I’ll make sure that from now on, there’s always a pretty young thing here to entertain you.”
Quincy should have led with this because now all of his men seemed much happier. It was probably something they should have done a long time ago. “Just remember,” he added, “you need to make sure you dispose of them when you’re done with them. We can’t let them go free. We can’t afford for word to get back to the law.”
“That won’t be a problem,” Daniel chuckled.
“No, definitely not,” Brian agreed.
Now that the men were a little more at ease and happy about the situation, Quincy explained to them the rest of his plans and how they would go about conducting their business in the future. The more he spoke about it, the more excited he got. Quincy loved his gang and loved what he did. One thing he had always felt was missing was his own family, and now he was going to get to have both.
