Oscar frowned, like he’d never considered the possibility that his mother might not have all the answers. “But I want to play!”
Before Rose could answer, a voice cut in from her left. “You can play in there any time you want, sweetie. With your mom’s permission, of course.”
Rose looked up to see a tall woman with olive skin and raven hair approaching them. She gave Rose a sweet smile before she crouched down to Oscar’s level.
“It’s nice to meet you. I’m your Aunt Harper,” she said to Oscar, holding out her hand. “What’s your name?”
“Oscar,” he informed her. “Can I really go play on that any time I want?”
“With your mom’s permission,” Harper reiterated with a nod.
Oscar looked up at her, pulling on her hand pleadingly. “Please, please,please, Mommy.”
Rose nodded down to him. “Yes, of course.”
The words were barely out of her mouth before Oscar was dragging her over to the gate, bounding on his little feet with impatience as she worked the child lock. Shouting with glee, Oscar went running inside, completely unbothered by his mature audience.
Rose felt Harper come up beside her as she straightened, latching the gate again. “Thank you,” she said softly. “For letting him play.”
“He has a right to that area as any other club kid does.”
Rose’s eye flicked to the ceiling. “You say that like it’s a done deal. We don’t know what’s being said up there.”
Harper gave her a pointed look. “Keys claimed you. The rest is just noise, men blustering and sizing up their dicks. Thank God Angel and Scissors are upstairs so at least some progress gets made.” It took a moment for Rose to realize that Harper was making a joke, so her smile was a bit delayed. “Come, take a seat.” She gestured to the couch beside the play area. “I’m Harper, by the way. Do you prefer ‘MV’ or ‘Rose’?”
It had been so long since anyone had called her anything. If Keys hadn’t started using her real name over a year ago, would she even remember it?
“Rose,” she said as she allowed Harper to lead her over to the couch. It seemed to be the cue for the other ladies to also move and join them. With Jenna no longer around as the ol’ ladies’ matriarch, she supposed that it made sense for Harper to step upas the VP’s woman. Becks was still new, and with her recent trauma, no one could fault her for her absence.
Taking the seat closest to the play area, she turned her head to check on Oscar. He’d made it down the slide one time before he discovered the treasure chest of toys, which of course meant him taking every single one of them out to introduce to Baxter.
The tension in Rose’s shoulders dropped approximately two inches.
“He’s beautiful,” Louisa, Bulldog’s mother, said as she stared into the play area with adoration. “How old?”
“Four,” Rose answered proudly.
Tessa smiled at her. “There are a number of club kids around his age. He’ll fit in just fine with his new cousins.”
Rose felt something loosen in her chest at the mention of family and friends for Oscar. “He’ll love that.” Then added offhandedly, “He’s been asking for a brother.”
The petite blonde doctor with her hair pulled up in a bun and glasses on her face touched her chest. “I’m Tessa, by the way.”
Rose looked down, not really sure how to explain without sounding like a total stalker or a creep. They’d just offered their kindness to Oscar, but would they offer her the same once they learned the truth? But how could she lie? Once Keys revealed everything upstairs, even if he didn’t come out and say it directly, assumptions would easily be made.
Taking a deep breath, Rose raised her head, though she was unable to keep from fidgeting completely. “I know,” she told the group of women. “I know who all of you are and about your lives. I’ve been helping Keys watch over you for nearly two years.”
A small sound drew Rose’s attention to Sissy sitting in the large lounge chair with Tally. Like the other ol’ ladies, she wore a leather cut, only hers had the roses and skull hands of theNon Crasrather than the skull and crossed rifles of theVia Daemonia. Lucky’s daughter wasn’t crying as she stared at Rose, but grief and relief were plain as day on her face.
Rose had nothing else to offer than a weak smile. “Hi, Sissy.”
She clung to Tally’s hand in her lap with white knuckles. “You didn’t see her face. Right in the middle of us learning about the explosion, Poison gets your message. She was worried about you, sure. But you were MV. She knew you could take care of yourself. What she didn’t like was the mystery of not knowing who was after you and why. And then when Kitty told her who you were…?” Sissy shook her head, nostrils flaring. “You didn’t see her face. It was like she was being told she only had seconds to live… Utter devastation. I have so many questions, and I know they’re not mine to ask, but I have to know why. Why would you put Poison through all of this? Do you hate her that much?”
“No!” Rose’s hands flew up in her defense, waving them in front of her like she could erase the accusation from existence. “She’s my sister and I love her. You have to know that that message going out was an accident. I was so distracted with the attack on the bar that I didn’t see my prompt until it was too late. By the time I figured it out, Kitty had already told Poison who I was.”
That did not seem to appease Sissy at all. “Why couldn’t you just tell her you were okay? Why the charade then?”
Shame forced Rose to look away. “Keys and I… We’d set something into motion to try to draw out some,” her eyes glanced to Oscar, “someone. He knew he couldn’t get to me, and in a sick twisted way, letting Poison search for me kept her distracted and on the move.” Closing her eyes, Rose took a few precious seconds to calm herself. There was a lot of emotion aimed her way by eleven pairs of eyes—well, ten not including Tally—and she just needed to close herself off from it for a moment. “Look, at the end of the day,” she told Sissy, “I couldn’t tell Poison what was going on because she would fight my battle for me.”
