"He’s learning an important life lesson," Storm drawled.
"What’s that?"
"It’s okay to be beaten by a girl." His lips quirked up at the corners. "Anyway, look at him, he’s having a ball."
I winced when Cyan threw him over her shoulders and he landed with an audible ‘Ooooofgh.’
"Don’t discourage her," Giulia agreed.
I scowled at her. "Don’t even get me started on you, missy."
"What the hell did I do?" she retorted, wincing when baby Bear tugged on her nipple. "Dude, there’s no more milk there," she told him grumpily. "You drained me dry. Let me recharge my batteries and give the tits a break."
Storm snorted. "Not sure he speaks ‘Posse.’"
"He will by the time he’s older." She jerked her chin up and pinned me with another glare. "Come on, you. What have I done now?"
"You gave her pepper spray."
Giulia shrugged. "She should be protected."
"It’s illegal."
I received another shrug for my pains. "All the good stuff is. But, duh, bitch, I checked. You think I’m gonna hook mini-Giulia up with the bad shit? Ohio is lax as fuck where that stuff is concerned. Check your laws."
"She’s not wrong," he told me when I glowered at his snicker of amusement.
"You’re lucky she’s homeschooled, because if she wasn’t, then we’d be screwed when she tried to take that into class with her."
Giulia grinned. "Yeah, okay. I’ll give you that. I forgot about that stuff not being allowed in schools."
"No, ‘course you didn’t," I mocked, rolling my eyes.
"Come on, babe, chill."
I grumbled, "I am chilled."
"You don’t look chilled."
I peered up at him. "I’m chilled," I growled.
Lily laughed as she wandered over to this end of the porch. "You really sound like it, Keira."
"Back off, Lily," Giulia rumbled, but her tone was teasing. "We got ourselves a lean, mean, shootin’ machine on our hands."
My nose crinkled at the reference to what I’d done that day.
Giulia whacked herself on the chest. "Proudest day of my life. Learning our little pigeon turned into a blood-covered dove."
"Well, that imagery isn’t disturbing," Lily drawled with a snort, but it died off as she turned to grant Link a smile as he tucked her under his arm. Damn, they looked right together.
Link, my oldest Sinner friend, finally seemed at peace. We all had our demons, but Lily and his seemed to be in perfect accord.
It kind of hurt to admit how jealous I’d been of all these women at one time or another.
For as long as I’d known them, I’d been fighting the pull Storm had on me, but seeing them all cozied up, settled in their Old Men’s lives, at ease with club life… I could have let that impact my interactions with them.
I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t, but I was grateful for them.
Friends like these were for life. They were sisters. As linked and bonded as Storm was with his brothers.
Once you went Posse, I realized, you never came back.
Had knowing I had my family’s love, and that the Posse had my back, given me the courage to do what I’d done that day?
To take that gun, to shove it under Kendra’s chin, and to rasp, "This is the last time you’ll hurt my family, bitch."
Rather than dwell on what was, essentially, a stain on my mortal soul, I grumbled, "Shuddup," at Giulia, hiding my face in my hot drink, grateful for the warmth it imparted to my fingers.
It was freezing out here, but the girls had put up those heaters so we could all sit outside and watch the kids horse around. Of course, the few West Orange kids there had snowmen on their mind. Cyan and Kelly were fighting.
I’d worry for them both if, outside of play-fighting, they weren’t friends.
I’d decided that Kelly, after his grades plummeted, could be easily homeschooled, too, so the pair of them were classroom buddies. Kelly’s grades weren’t as high as Cyan’s, but his English papers had the ability to move me to tears. He had a poet’s soul. I just couldn’t compute that he’d love brawling as much as Cyan when he could write what he did.
Because neither of them attended school, we’d stayed an extra week after Christmas to be with our family up here, leaving Sweet Lips to rule the roost in our absence.
MaryCat and Digger were here somewhere as well, and I had to admit, it felt good to be back. Good to be with our people. The folks in Coshocton were becoming that, too, but it was impossible to forget your roots.
When a bike pulled up, I didn’t think much of it until Rachel sat up hard enough to make Lisandra squawk as Rachel jerked the bottle out of her mouth.
"What is it?" Tiffany asked, concern lacing her words.
"Rain? Is that you?" Rachel called out.
When the biker hauled off his helmet, revealing a close-shaved buzz cut and a wide grin, Rachel laughed. "My God! You’d be late to your own wedding, wouldn’t you? I asked you down for Christmas, not New Year’s."
Rain chuckled as he climbed off his hog, but before he could even think about moving toward the porch, someone ran at him, nearly barreling him over.
Cyan.
That was her signature move.
"Rain! OMG! Your hair! What did they do to it? Daddy says you’re a soldier but you’re not wearing a uniform! Have you shot anyone yet? I shot someone last year, well, almost—"
At the blur of questions and statements, the only one that had Rain rearing back was the last one.
Understandably.
He shook his head down at my daughter, revealing two cute dimples in his cheeks that, I knew, were going to be a big problem, in a big way, especially with how Cyan was looking up at him as if she had stars in her eyes.
I was pretty sure she hadn’t looked so excited when Miley Cyrus had come to Columbus.
"Oh, dear," Lily murmured softly, catching my eye.
I grimaced. She smiled.
Cyan tugged Rain along to the porch where we were all gathered, leaving him alone long enough for Rachel to hug him, for him to meet his niece, and to greet everyone on the deck. Then, she demanded again, "Why did they cut your hair?"
Brothers waded out, each of them greeting Rain, some hauling him in for a hug, others just slapping him on the back. All the while, Cyan sat there, looking up at him with puppy dog eyes as Kelly hovered around them, as curious as she was, asking him questions when Rain turned his attention toward them.
It was sweet.
Dangerous, but sweet.
Especially when Kelly stared up at Rain with the same look as Cyan, except with hero worship rather than blind adoration.
I had to admit, though, the evening passed by in a blur. We ate too much, drank too much, laughed and talked, and it was good. So good. As I sat in the clubhouse I’d hated for so long, with brothers I’d been scared of throughout my marriage, it was like a graduation, of sorts. I returned here an Old Lady, not a wife, and this was confirmation of that.
Definitely tipsy on happiness if not alcohol when I made it to the stairs with Storm propping me up, we headed to the bedroom that we were borrowing for the next couple nights. Rex said it was Storm’s bedroom, though, so I didn’t know if that meant no one else was allowed to use it or not, but it left me feeling like we still had roots here in West Orange, and that warmed my heart.