Surprise filtered through me as I strode down the hall toward the front door, passing the bar which housed a lot of brothers smoking joints and cigarettes, drowning themselves in alcohol and pussy. All of those things were my goddamn vices and dragging my ass away from them was hard.
My addictions had me spending most of my time in my office. At least there, I got into less shit, but it meant I wasn’t getting to know my brothers too.
Worse still, it meant they weren’t adapting to me and the way that I worked. Which, pain in the ass that it was, would be something I’d have to fix soon.
Technically, they weren’t supposed to smoke weed, but I allowed it. Anything harder I’d have to nip in the bud.
Butch, the Prez before me, had been hooked on coke, but so far no one else had revealed themselves to be addicts. Until they did, I’d let them get away with smoking pot, just because I liked secondhand sniffing it.
"You listening, asshole?" Star grumbled in my ear.
"No," I retorted even as I shoved open the door and found myself staring at a cab behind the gates. A quick glance at the back of the cab revealed a face peeking out of a hooded sweater, a swaddled baby in her arms that she had propped up against her shoulder. "What the fuck is she doing here? Has she left Digger?"
Christ.
If she had, I’d have to send her back to West Orange...
Unless he was beating on her.
But I couldn’t see it. Digger’d never do that.
No.
He wouldn’t.
I knew all my West Orange brothers. It was these fuckers here I didn’t know.
"No, she’s left her mother."
"Who the hell leaves their mother? Ain’t she already left her considering she’s branded up to her eyeballs?"
Considering the piece of work that MaryCat and my brother, Sin’s, bitch egg donor was, I couldn’t fucking blame them for pulling a disappearing act either.
Reaching up to rub the back of my neck, I stepped out into the snow, uncaring that I wasn’t wearing a jacket and that heavy snowflakes were starting to fall.
Behind me, Little stomped while my booted feet merely crunched through the white covering the stone flags on the driveway. I swore the dude’d cause an earthquake if he were ever knocked out. Most of his mass was muscle and just sheer height. I’d never seen a fucker this tall be anything other than lanky, but not Little. Nope, he was like a human grizzly bear, especially with that massive beard of his.
"MaryCat can explain, but she called to tell me your fuckwits weren’t letting her onto the compound. She doesn’t have your phone number."
"Shame you do," I grumbled, even though I was relieved for MaryCat’s sake. "What the hell’s going on, Lodestar?"
"Her mom was trying to take the kid away from her. Digger’s on a run for the club. I decided to help stage a breakout."
"A breakout?"
"You’re dumber than usual, Storm. What’s the problem? What aren’t you understanding? I’m sure I’m speaking English."
I growled under my breath. "I swear to fuck I don’t know how Maverick puts up with you."
"No one puts up with me," she growled back. "I don’t need to be put up with, so fuck you."
Rolling my eyes, I motioned at Little. "Open the gates."
He ambled off, his Hulk ass moving far faster than it usually did, and I turned, watching as the gates opened. The taxi’s engine stopped idling, and the driver carefully pulled into the driveway, braking to a halt at my side.
"Grab whatever’s in the trunk," I called out to Little as I opened the door to the backseat and bent down to peer at MaryCat. "Honey, what the hell are you doing here?"
"Didn’t you hear? Her mom tried to steal her kid? You’ve been in Coshocton too fucking long. You must have goddamn corn in your ears—"
Before Lodestar could keep on bitching at me, I cut the call, shoved my cell back into my jeans’ pocket, ignored it when it immediately started ringing again, and prodded, "MaryCat?"
She swallowed, all big eyes and trembling mouth as the kid in her arms began to wail. "I had nowhere else to go."
Her evident fear had me pausing. "You leaving Digger? Is that what this is?" Had she lied to Lodestar to get her help?
"Oh, my God, no! I love Digger! I don’t want to leave him!"
Her fervor surprised me, but I fell quiet as I studied her. "Lodestar wasn’t bullshitting me then? Your mom really is trying to take the kid away from you?"
She nodded, but tears pricked her eyes. "I-I’ve not been doing too well." Her mouth trembled some more, and I cringed because I’d never been good with tears. Cyan’s tears were one thing, Keira’s another, but anyone else’s? Nope.
My mom had been harder than fucking nails, and my baby sister, Scarlet, was much the same. I wasn’t used to women who cried, so that had been another clusterfuck with Keira. I’d adapted over the years, probably badly, but MaryCat just made me want to dart back into my office.
Of course, the old Storm would have done that.
He’d have fucked off and left MaryCat to the clubwhores, getting one of them to settle her in, but this was Storm 2.0.
I was a different man.
A drug-free, sex-free, alcohol-free Storm.
The only contaminant that went into my body now was secondhand smoke from pot and tobacco, oh, and meat. I couldn’t give that up, even though Cyan had turned vegetarian since she’d moved down here and bitched at her mom and me if we ate it.
I had no idea what that was about, but I wasn’t going to question it, not when the alternatives were worse.
Sucking it up, I muttered, "Come on, let’s get you inside." As she started to turn on the seat, I pulled back and saw Little was empty-handed. I frowned. "Where’s your shit?"
"I don’t have anything with me," she whispered rawly. "I had to get out of there. Fast. The taxi came with the car seat."
My brow puckered some more, but inwardly, I was cursing.
Fucking Lodestar.
Uncertain of what to do next, I did the sensible thing and moved over to the driver door.
The guy lowered his window and asked, "You gonna give me trouble over the bill?"
"Surprised you took the fare," I murmured as I cast a glance at the screen.
Jesus, a first-class flight would have cost less.
"I got kids to feed," was all the cabbie said.
I grunted. "Give me five minutes. We’re good for it."
"I-I’m so sorry about the fare, Storm. I’ll pay you back—"
Raising a hand to silence her, I muttered, "MaryCat, you need to chill out."
She bit her lip, then her eyes watered some more as she awkwardly grabbed a hold of her diaper bag and stacked it on her shoulder. That was when the kid started crying—he had some lungs on him, that was for sure.
"Come on, he must be cold."
Bobbing him up and down, she did her best, only the more the kid cried, the more she did too.
I kept an eye on her as we walked back up the path to the door, my hand on her elbow. It wasn’t ideal moving her past the bar where there were all kinds of shit in the air, and I didn’t want to raise attention to her or the kid just yet, so I murmured, "Want me to try? I used to get Cyan to sleep in a flash."