Looking over to where Shake stood, Meyah at his side holding their little girl securely to her chest, I knew this was the point where that control I craved had to be handed to someone else. And it was when Meyah caught my gaze that I knew every single person here had my back.
Not just my brothers.
But their old ladies too.
Meyah nodded, moving without a second thought. She handed Juliet to Shake, her dad taking her carefully, smiling down at the little girl for a second before he watched his old lady walk forward and collect the baby carrier that still sat on the ground. Meyah hooked it over her arm, adjusting the blanket that sat over him before she turned and marched right back into the clubhouse.
Not looking back.
Kennedy and Laken moved next as Cara’s helper pulled two bags from the back seat of the tiny car and placed them down.
They weren’t big bags.
I couldn’t imagine it was everything he needed.
But the girls collected them and disappeared inside too.
My brothers stood with me, silently having my back.
“I’m going to take that as he’s staying with you,” Cara announced a few moments later.
I turned back to her and nodded. “Are we done?”
“You need to sign this,” she answered, placing a couple of pieces of paper on the bonnet of the car and pulling a pen from her back pocket. It took me a second, but I manage to lift my legs finally and walk over. “They’re saying you accept temporary custody until things have been filed, probably through the court. I suggest you talk through everything with a lawyer.”
Clenching my jaw, I took the pen from her hand. “If I don’t sign?”
“I’ll take Gage to a foster home until you either sort out your problems or until you sign over your rights, and he can be adopted.”
“Gage?”
The stern look on her face softened. “That’s his name.”
Of course, it was.
“Fuck,” I cursed under my breath, pressing the fucking pen to the paper and scribbling my name across the dotted line. I stood and watched them climb back into their car and roll out of the compound like today was just another fucking day in their life. Like they hadn’t just walked in here and flipped my entire fucking world on its damn head. The first police car followed them out, but the second stayed still for a few moments before driving directly toward us.
Austin rolled his window down, lifting his Ray-Bans off his eyes and setting them on top of his head. Austin’s little sister was Meyah’s best friend. He wasn’t exactly our biggest fan considering Dakota was also now Meyah’s brother’s old lady, the girlfriend to a criminal, but we had a mutual respect.
I stepped up to his window, the stern frown on his face letting me know there was a reason he’d stuck around. But all I could see was Emma’s face before she walked away from me at the hospital this week, realizing now that look of fear in her eyes was completely fucking real.
“What the fuck is going on?”
“I didn’t know the connection,” Austin began, his finger strumming on the wheel. “Otherwise, I would have called you yesterday when it happened.”
“When what fucking happened?”
Austin frowned, obviously realizing suddenly just how little I knew. He inhaled deeply. “’Bout a year ago, Emma’s husband was put away for domestic abuse. Beat the girl almost to fucking death. From what the report said…” he paused, swallowing what seemed like a heavy lump in his throat, “… because he caught her cheating.”
With me.
Those were the words he wouldn’t say but were screaming so loudly in the thick silence.
I wasn’t stupid. I could do math.
“He still denies it, saying it was self-defense. That Emma was losing her shit, and he had to fight her off. Dude was a doctor at the hospital. Important man. Upstanding citizen. Managed to get out a few weeks early on good behavior.”
Pressing my hand against the car, I leaned into it. He didn’t have to say it, but the pieces were beginning to fall. I’d seen it before. Women finally get the courage to put their abusers away. They do their time and walk out with vengeance flowing through their veins. They’ve had time to play it over and over again in their sick minds just how they were going to make these women pay. So when they get out, they know exactly what they want, and they aren’t about to risk the bitch telling on them again.
“Hospital is looking at hiring him back, but they want the investigation over first,” Austin continued with a heavy sigh. “I don’t know if it helps, but she did all this crap last minute… making sure they knew where to find you. That they knew the kid was yours. It was almost like—”
“She knew he was coming.”
I could have stopped this.
Jesus.
I could have stepped in and done something, and that’s what made it that much more painful.
“So, you’re sure it was him?” I growled, rolling my shoulders back.
“I’d put fucking money on it. But we questioned him yesterday, and there’s nothing we can do,” Austin ground out between clenched teeth. “I’ve got a dead girl. Orphaned baby. Missing sister. And a fucking dirty doctor with an alibi.”
“Missing sister?”
Austin scrunched up his nose. “Yeah. Emma had her sister move in with her a little over a year ago. She’s sixteen. We can’t find her.”
“So, you don’t know if she ran, or if he—”
“Exactly,” Austin cut in, his partner looking at him sideways. “I can’t talk much about it. The case is still open.”
“Gotcha,” I answered, rolling my shoulders.
“Shotgun.” I turned, seeing Meyah standing at the door, a little body in her arms, and a bottle in her hand. “I’m going to give him a bottle and put him in your bed,” Meyah announced, the tiny bundle in her arms squirming and wriggling, making these little suckling noises that were doing something to my heart.
Making it race.
“Okay, I’ll uh…”
“Take your time,” she added, offering me a supportive smile before turning away and making her way up the stairs.
Shuffling on my feet, I looked back, but Austin simply nodded before I could say anything, dipping his head and saying the words that I never woke up this morning thinking I could even possibly hear. “I’ll be in touch. Congrats, Dad.”
Fuck.
AVERY
My fingertips felt like they were burning against the cup of coffee in my hands. I’d been sitting here for a good twenty minutes, and it still had yet to cool down. “I wouldn’t give up your day job,” I teased Myth, said maker of the coffee.
“Laken insists on boiling the water and making it herself like this rather than with the machine, so that’s how I make it now,” he answered with a shrug like he couldn’t see the issue. Which was incredibly cute, or would be, if the cup of coffee in my hands wasn’t ninety-nine percent boiling water and able to burn my face off in half a second if I even put it anywhere near my mouth.
One of the swinging doors swung open, Meyah slipping in through it and offering Myth a tight smile. One that said, ‘You’re relieved of your duties. It’s my turn to watch the crazy bitch.’