Honestly, I’d no damn idea. We were standing here with a baby that didn’t belong to us. What a clusterfuck.
“I’ve got the birth certificate,” Tracker muttered as he crouched by a bag that had also been dropped. “Names you as father.”
“Fuck!” I yelled and ran my hands through my hair.
“Kyleah cleared the way for you to claim the kid,” Bow said.
“It ain’t mine. What’s stopping that asshole from returning for it?” I demanded.
“The club,” Tracker stated. “Veep, we’ve got two options. Let Bow call the cops, and the kid goes into care. But we’ve no body and blood evidence, so we’re suspects in kidnapping. Or claim him and say Kyleah deserted him.”
“Fuck my life. This was an unwelcome complication. Amy and I are just starting out, and she wants to adopt Declan. How the fuck do I ask Amy to take on my ex’s bastard?”
“By opening your mouth and asking. If she says no, call child services and say the kids been found abandoned. We’ll burn the certificate, and nobody will be any wiser,” Hercules said.
I nodded. That was a plan. “We need to get out of here. How am I carrying this baby back to town?” I demanded.
Between us, using belts, we rigged up a carryall, and my brothers surrounded me. We’d be going at a snail’s pace, but that wasn’t a worry. Throughout it, the kid stared at me as if he knew his future was in my hands. And I couldn’t give him an answer until I spoke to Amy.
Amy
I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t Vortex to walk back in with a baby in his arms. I gaped in total surprise. Nanci’s jaw also dropped open as I shook my head and rechecked what I was seeing.
“Babe, we need to talk,” Vortex announced.
“My room?” I muttered, and he nodded.
Hercules and Bow moved to speak to Inglorious, who was watching us closely.
I followed Vortex up the stairs and to the room I was using. Stunned, I sat on the bed as the baby let out a soft cry, and then the cries got worse.
“Give me the bag,” I said. I found a bottle of milk and took the baby from Vortex. “Start talking,” I ordered as I began feeding it.
Vortex didn’t hold back and told me everything. Kyleah’s death horrified me. However, men like Marker would have an alibi no matter what happened. I wasn’t naïve enough to believe any differently. When he explained how Marker had placed his own son in the dirt and driven away, I couldn’t believe it. Who the hell treated an innocent baby so callously? Even worse, ifVortex hadn’t taken him, the poor thing would have died out there.
“What are your options?” I asked. Vortex would have thought this through. He wouldn’t have just sprung this on me.
“We have two. Call child services and claim he’s abandoned. Second, Kyleah, for whatever reason, put my surname on his birth certificate. I can legally take custody of him, and we can raise him.”
“What if Marker comes back?”
“The entire club will defend him. But Marker won’t return. He’s got legit sons, and Kyleah threatened that. Knowing men like Marker, I bet half his wealth is in his wife’s name. That’s why he wouldn’t have wanted Kyleah causing trouble.”
I nodded as I winded the baby and patted his diaper. It was soaked through. I checked the bag and found a couple of clean ones. I undressed him as his eyes watched me solemnly and cleaned him up quickly. After redressing, I handed him over to Vortex.
“You’ve got a problem. That’s not a ‘him’,” I said.
“What?” Vortex asked, looking down, confused.
“This is a girl.”
“Shit! No wonder Marker threw her away so easily. Women have no power in his world.”
“Well, I guess we’re starting with a ready-made family. Hey, less than a month together and we’ve got two kids. Who’d have thought it!” I quipped lightly, even though my stomach was churning.
Vortex held my gaze. “We don’t have to take her. Amy, we can give her up.”
“How could we look at each other, knowing we’d done that? Sooner or later, one of us would resent the other. She deserves a good home, Vortex. While this isn’t what we planned, it’s life.Surviving a zeppelin crash wasn’t on my bucket list either,” I said.
