“Fuck, when you put it like that, it sounds like a goddamn conspiracy theory,” Martin snarled, grabbing the bottle of JD and a tumbler from the tray at the center of the table and pouring himself a five-fingered shot.
As he sank it back, Lucie shook her head. “No. It doesn’t. Can’t ever trust a sweetbutt, even if they come from good stock.”
When she sniffed, Wolfe ground out, “I told you, I never fucking touched her.”
“Well, you did something if she thinks she can say it’s your goddamn baby,” Lucie snarled, and in a flash, she was on her feet, her hands slamming into the table. “I promise you this, Wolfe, if that bastard is your baby, I’ll filet your cock and get a kick out of feeding it to the fucking pigs.”
Everyone released a hiss at the imagery, but Wolfe didn’t pale. Didn’t blanch. His eyes turned stormy, the blue darkening with his rage as he slowly got to his feet, leaned over the table, and ground out, “You really want to do this here? In front of your daddy? In front of Ink and Wheels?”
“They’re going to find out soon enough, aren’t they?” she snarled. “Especially if baby Wolfe number two is on its way.”
“Woman, I’m telling you now, you’d better fucking listen because I ain’t pulling this BS again.
“In the thirteen years we’ve been together, I ain’t touched another goddamn pussy. Ain’t licked one, ain’t fucked one. Ain’t fucked an ass or let anyone near my goddamn cock. Which part of that ain’t you hearing?”
Lucie, her eyes fixed firmly on her old man, grated out, “Then why did she think she could get away with this?”
“Go big or go home?” Flame tossed out, and I shot him a look, saw there was little expression in his face but his eyes were burning.
When I cut all of Lucie’s men a look, I saw they were all a mixture of pained and outraged. There was no guilt or shame written on their faces, and I was relieved. I had a vested interest in these guys’ lives now. The second I wifed Ama, because I was taking it all the fucking way, since I was too damn old to fuck around, these bastards would be my fathers-in-law—which either made me the bravest man in the world or the stupidest.
As brothers, as MC family, they mattered to me, always had and always would, but I was about to take this to another level.
“What do you mean?” Lucie rasped, turning to him with the question. It was the first time I’d ever seen her look vulnerable, but I knew whoever had been fucking with her mind wasn’t going to be hanging out around the MC much longer—she’d see to that, and if she didn’t, then her men would.
“I mean, she’s counting on us not being faithful. It’s like a big bluff. And you know as well as I do that very few brothers are faithful.” He cut me a look, his face still blank, but in his eyes, he promised me a fucker of a death if I dared cheat on Ama.
Well, that was some semblance of approval, right?
As I dipped my chin at him in understanding and agreement with his silently uttered terms, Axe rasped, “Baby girl, you’ve had our dicks in a vise for a long time. Wolfe… he ain’t a cheater. You know that.”
Dagger repeated, “You know that, Lucie.”
She sucked in a shaky breath. “I do.” Her face crumpled. “But she was so fucking believable. Goddamn, I hate those motherfucking sweetbutts. Why the fuck can’t we toss them out?”
“Because the men would go nuts? After the loyalty and the thrill of the life, having sweetbutts to fuck is one of the best parts of running in an MC,” her father replied, but his voice was low, apologetic. He cut Wolfe a look. “Fix this.”
My Prez snarled, “I’m trying to.” He stepped out from his seat, headed to her, hauled her into his arms, and returned to the head of the table with her. Sitting down with her in his lap, he held her to him tightly and bit off, “I’ll make her pay for this shit, okay?”
Lucie turned her face into his throat, and Wheels and I shot each other panicked looks at the sound of Lucifer Steeler actually crying.
Fucking crying.
I swear to fuck, I didn’t even know the woman had tear ducts!
Martin’s jaw was like granite. “Who’s pregnant?”
“One of the clubwhores,” Axe rasped. “Goes by Bubbles.”
The Knights’ Prez gritted out, “These fucking cunts. More trouble than they’re worth, I swear, but it ain’t no lie that the men would revolt without them.” His eyes were pained as he looked at his daughter, sobbing—in front of people—into her old man’s cut.
Unsure of what to do or say, church turned awkward as we waited on Lucie to compose herself.
I knew most MCs wouldn’t allow a woman anywhere near this table, probably for this exact reason, but Lucie Steeler was a woman like no other, and I could say that because my own balls were in a vise for her daughter who was cut from the same cloth.
Back when Lucifer had rolled in after six years away, she’d returned with a business proposal. That business proposal was now over two-thirds of our business—ghost guns.
I didn’t have to like what we did to do it. The situation in the U.S. with guns was a mess, but our shit wasn’t sold to fucked up kids or stupid cunts who wanted to send a message by hurting innocents. We sold to people just like us—MCs, the mafia, the Bratva, even some cartels.
We didn’t create long-range rifles, only revolvers, and each one cost a tidy piece, but to the folks who were armoring their ranks, that money meant nothing.
If it weren’t for Lucie, that three hundred grand we’d just lost in the raid that had knocked some of Martin’s men off the grid for an eight-year spell inside, would have crippled us. Fuck, it probably would have decimated us.
And that was why Lucie sat here in church. Sure, it was irregular, but she wasn’t a regular woman.
She’d bred an irregular daughter too.
Her eyes were wet, her face ravaged with tears that still stunned me as she turned away from Wolfe and grated out, “I’m sorry for bringing our personal lives to church.”
Dagger leaned forward in his seat, making it creak as he ground out, “If she wasn’t pregnant, I’d have slit her throat for making you fucking cry.”
“I might still slit her throat anyway,” Wolfe snapped. “Bitch, thinking she can wreck something solid this way. I tell you what, we’re tossing her ass out. Don’t give a fuck she’s pregnant, if no brother is willing to claim the kid as theirs then she’s dead to us.”
“Hard but fair,” Martin agreed. “If she can pull this shit once, she can pull it again.”
Lucie shook her head. “That’s not fair on the kid.”
“She should have thought about that,” Flame retorted.
“No. She can stay until she has the baby. Then, if she wants it, she can go, but if she doesn’t want it, and let’s face it, she won’t because these fuckers don’t mind littering kids around the place like they’re trash, I’ll raise it.”
Wolfe reared back. “What?”
Her mouth tightened. “You know I want more.”
“Have more then,” Martin replied, bewildered. “Why take on a bastard?”
“Because it ain’t the kid’s fault, plus, I can’t have anymore. Not after Matty. He did—” She pulled a face. “His birth wasn’t easy, let’s just leave it at that.” She cut me and Wheels a look. “I’m really sorry about that conversation.”