“…can I go after Dagger?”
I hadn’t been focused on the conversation going down between my brothers and woman. Sometimes, I just treated them like white noise and found that more comfortable.
Even though I’d die and kill for them all, they talked too much. Amaryllis and I gelled well on that score—she liked to sit in silence and read. Me? I just liked the silence. Liked studying the world around me. It was far more interesting than the shit on TV or in a book.
“What ink are you getting, babe?” I rasped, tuning in now since I was curious.
“An amaryllis.”
Ink snorted. “You think I know what that looks like?”
She flipped him the bird. “Google the fucking thing. Not hard, dumbass.”
Ink dipped his chin, but I saw his grin and smirked at him—my woman had attitude and wasn’t afraid to dose out her shit. That was the joys of having a princess who’d been raised in the club… not that I wanted Amaryllis to be that way. I already had my eyes on those little pricks who were sniffing around her. If she changed, became mouthier like her mom? That was like catnip to bikers.
Grumbling to myself, I glowered up at the ceiling as Ink finished up his work on me. When I was wrapped up, I shrugged into my tee and then into my cut. As Ink took a quick piss break and grabbed some coffee, I sank back into the sofa, crossed my legs at the ankle, and chilled. When Amaryllis sank beside me, I cut her a look. She shot me a nod, curled into my side, and pulled out the e-reader I’d gotten her yesterday. It was already surgically attached to her, and it was easier than lugging around books.
Lifting my arm, I curved it around her shoulders and let her snuggle more.
Snuggle.
Fuck.
Six weeks ago, the word wouldn’t have crossed my mind. Now? It was a regular thing.
Being a dad kind of turned you into a pussy, but I wouldn’t swap it. I liked that she came to me, liked that she appreciated my silence and extended it to herself.
As she read, I monitored the situation.
I was uneasy. Had been since Lucifer—not ours, but the Knights’ Prez—had let Lucie go. It was messed up to kidnap someone and then release them so easily. And why? Because the original threat had been extinguished? I wasn’t sure if I trusted the fucker, but except for the fact I’d heard news his temporary clubhouse had burned down to the ground last night and the bikers that had run it had disappeared, I assumed he’d left the area. Permanently or temporarily was something we’d only find out with time.
Locke, the cunt, had been the Knights’ in, and if I saw him around, I’d knife him in the belly without even fucking looking.
I hated traitors.
“Daddy Flame? Why’d you get tense?”
I blinked and turned to look at my daughter. “My chest hurts, baby,” I rasped, my voice deeper from the rage I felt at Locke’s betrayal. Fucker had been with us for close to eight years, and all of that had been a lie.
“Can I kiss it better?”
A snort sounded in front of me. “Yeah, Flame, will a kiss make it better?” Axe replied, but aside from the snort, he looked deadly serious. Bastard.
I cleared my throat. “I don’t know if that works on ink, baby.”
“I think it does,” Axe assured me, folding his arms across his chest, apparently there for the show.
Amaryllis nodded her head. “I think so too, Daddy.”
I winced, then mumbled, “If you think so.”
She scooted onto her knees then pressed a kiss to the center of my chest. Because I wasn’t exactly known for my affectionate side, I had no idea what to do, so I kind of fucked up. Instead of just letting her go back to reading, I grabbed her around the belly, leaped onto my feet and tossed her in the air and caught her.
Axe gaped at me, but I was frozen with tension.
Had I just treated my little girl, the one who wore dresses every day by choice, who had pigtails in her hair, wore sandals and carried a book, like a boy?
I mean, I’d done this shit with Lucie, but she was different. She was—
A squeal of laughter escaped Amaryllis. “Again, Daddy, again!”
Oh, thank fuck. I’d expected her to burst into tears. Axe did too, if his sigh of relief was anything to go by.
Three more times I tossed her in the air, each time had her giggling, until I hefted her onto my forearm and kept her there.
She was pink and bubbling with joy, and I had to grin at the sight.
“Want some ice cream, kid?” I asked, peering down at her.
“It’s dinner soon,” Lucie grumbled, but she was smiling at us both. Fuck, was that a tear I saw in her eyes?
Jesus. We’d only been playing.
“There’s always time for ice cream,” I countered. Sending my brothers a look, I got nods of agreement. “One for all of us?”
I received a chorus of ‘yeahs’ and then cocked a brow at Lucie.
She huffed. “Mint chocolate.”
“Like I’d forgotten.” I huffed back at her. “Dulce de leche for you, bro?” I aimed at Ink who grinned at me in agreement.
“What the fuck is happening?” Lucie mumbled. “This an ice cream party?”
“It’s what happens when you tame a bunch of men and give them a daughter,” Wolfe retorted, but I could hear his amusement as I headed out onto Main Street and made my way to the ice cream place. I didn’t trust that Fro-Yo shit, so even though that was nearer, I walked around the block with Amaryllis cuddled into me.
Sure, I got a few looks. People around these parts knew who I was, not just by rep but by looks—the flames on my arms and belly were a giveaway. Some of them were startled, some of them were scared, but I didn’t care what the big, bad biker looked like with the little girl with frilly ankle socks on his arm—I was a daddy now. That meant sacrifices to lace and frills had to be made.
11
Axe
Three months later
“How’d it go?”
Lucie yawned and wiped a hand over her brow. “I’m tired.”
“Yeah, but how did the class go?” She pouted and I laughed, but lifted my arms and beckoned her toward me. She came, as she always did, and huddled into me. For a woman who wasn’t affectionate, she was with the guys and me. I wasn’t about to complain about that either. Not when her hands squeezed my ass through my jeans.
“It went well,” she mumbled. “Just been a long time since I worked on the forge.”
This morning was the first time we’d gotten the forge working properly. She’d been setting shit up over the past ten days as stuff had started to arrive from all over the world—we’d imported shit in to get things here faster—and today was her first lesson.
Watching her get ready in all the protective shit was bizarrely hot. Knowing she knew what to do was even hotter. I’d watched some of the class before a call had taken me away from the factory we’d set up on a patch of land that neighbored the clubhouse. Lucie’s money had bought that, and we were going to build a house on there as well so that we could be close to the clubhouse, but Amaryllis wouldn’t be so exposed to club life.
That was down the line though. Getting the pre-fab building up in the Texas summer hadn’t been fun, and the heat didn’t make forging guns an ideal chore, but she’d been insistent about getting the ball rolling. Now that I saw how exhausted she was, I figured out why—the minute the brothers knew what to do, she could leave it to them.