“I’m proud of you,” I say almost sheepishly. “And where’s DJ?”
“He’s napping but should be up soon. I can’t wait for you to meet him.”
It’s been about seven minutes since she came out of the house, and we’ve been hugging the entire time. Marissa’s arms give me one last squeeze before she takes a step back, looking slightly self-conscious.
I put both my hands in my pockets, trying to discreetly adjust myself.
“Seriously, Hawk. Thanks for doing this. The job, driving down here to help us move... All of it.”
“It’s my pleasure,” I tell her, and she smiles. “Is this car seat okay?” I tilt my head towards the car, and she leans over to peer inside the window.
“Oh, you shouldn’t have bothered, DJ already has his car seat in my,” she looks away and presses her lips together. “He already has one.”
“I got a deal from a club brother whose baby outgrew it,” I massage the truth a little. “I figured you’d leave that one for his dad to use when he has him.”
Marissa blinks several times in quick succession. “That’s a good point. Yeah, I’ll do that. I’ll pay you back, though.”
I look heavenwards.
“I’ll start bringing the boxes out,” she says while pointing her thumb back to the house.
Now, I glare at her. “The day I stand around while you carry boxes back and forth is the day they might as well put me in the ground,” I tell her sternly.
“But your ribs! And your leg,” she protests, but I make a beckoning palm towards where I know the twins are eavesdropping, and they immediately walk up to us.
When she hears the gravel crunching under their boots, Marissa turns around a bit too quickly. As much as her hypervigilance concerns me, I’m pleased that she instinctively stepped closer to me when she sensed danger.
“We got this,” I tell her. “You tell us if there’s anything we need to be extra careful with, or what to put last so you can unpack it first.”
“Sorry, guys,” Marissa tells the twins, clearly uncomfortable with the idea of burdening anyone with anything.
“No worries, Rissy,” Mushroom tells her breezily. “Hawk’s paying us time and a half to be here.”
Her grin falters when she sees my face, so she promptly turns on her heel and walks back into the house. Shiner follows, and a moment later, we hear him laughing at her.
I see Marissa trying to calculate how many hours the twins have been guarding her. It’s clear that my girl isn’t used to being protected or taken care of, but the sooner she accepts that this is her new reality, the easier it will be for both of us.
“The club owes you. I owe you. You saved my life,” I tell her before she can voice whatever crazy idea she’s considering, like paying me back, but my words seem to only amp up her worry.
Before I can get to the bottom of that, we hear a bike approach, and we both turn to watch as it comes to a stop in front of the house.
It’s a man and a woman on a Softail. He’s about 6′ tall, 180-190 lbs, with carefully styled brown hair, and covered in tattoos. He’s wearing jeans, a white tee, and a Gray Wolves cut.
The woman is a little shorter than Marissa, around 5’5”, weighing no more than 120 lbs, with long, silky black hair that falls to her waist. She’s also heavily tattooed. She’s wearing tight black jeans, a Harley tank top, and a Gray Wolves property cut.
This must be Pamela and Tommy.
I turn to block Marissa from their view so she can compose herself. I know she doesn’t want to be around this woman.
“Ready?” I ask her quietly, and she nods.
Slim jumps off the bike and heads towards us, looking like an angry little rooster with his hackles raised. The woman remains standing by the bike, pretending to type on her phone, butin reality, she's scanning Marissa and me, drawing her own conclusions about the situation.
Marissa walks down the driveway to meet Slim in the middle, which doesn’t sit right with me, but what do I know about coparenting? They have a kid; she can’t just cut him out of her life, I know that much.
From what I can make out, she’s speaking to him in a hushed, calm tone, while his voice steadily climbs. I automatically adopt my cop stance in case this escalates.
“Rebel is my wife, and this is my house, so she has every right to be here!” I hear him almost shout, and I slowly start walking towards them.
