“I’m family now,” I told her calmly, so calmly that she cocked a brow at me. When, after a good minute’s study, she just stared at me, I had to admit to fidgeting—I was not a man who was built for fidgeting, but Lucie Steeler, whether she was bright pink from crying or not, had that kind of effect on a person.
“You finally did it?”
Flame growled, “Lucie! ‘It?’ Jesus, that ain’t something a man wants to think about where his baby girl is concerned.”
“Grow up,” she grumbled. “And I meant claimed her.” Her eyes narrowed. “You’d better be wifing her.”
Her men shot glowers at me, but I raised my hands. “Will do.”
“Bet Saint or Keys have something to say about that,” Wheels replied with a laugh.
My jaw flexed. “Yeah, we ain’t had that conversation yet.”
Flame rubbed at his eyes. “Can we let this discussion get back on track, please? Before I grow a pussy?”
Lucie sniffed. “A real man can talk about his feelings.”
“We ain’t talking about feelings, though, are we? We’re talking about three guys boning my baby girl,” he snapped, and that had to be the first time I’d ever heard Flame raise his voice at Lucie.
She sniffed again. “I’m just fucking thankful that she ain’t too weird for all of them to handle.”
I scowled at that. “Now, wait a goddamn minute—”
She raised a hand. “Not many men would be willing to put up with all her idiosyncrasies, Ink. And she has many.”
“I know.”
Lucie shook her head. “You think you do, but you don’t.” She blew out a breath. “Just be patient, yeah?”
“Of course.” I felt affronted by her words, but it wasn’t like I could say shit.
“Let’s get things back on track,” Wolfe said, his tone calmer than it had been the whole meeting. And I knew that was because whatever had gone down with Bubbles had been fucking with his head as much as Lucie’s.
I cleared my throat and noted, “You obviously don’t think Kenzie is pregnant, Martin.”
The Knights’ Prez shook his head. “Know it sounds crazy, but I don’t. If she is, it ain’t no skin off my nose, but I think it’s a ruse. She’s tried to get a way in. She wanted to be an old lady because she knows they get protection—”
“Yeah, if their old man goes to jail. It doesn’t protect them from having their throats slit if they betray the club,” Axe inserted drily.
“Well, you don’t know how these cunts think.” Martin shrugged. “Either way, she made a calculated risk. Maybe my leaving the clubhouse wasn’t something she anticipated, and maybe it was just dumb luck for them—”
“Dumb luck for you, you old fool,” Lucie retorted. “We all know you’d have had a goddamn standoff before you’d let any pigs onto the compound, and I’d be seeing you in a coffin.”
Martin smirked. “Sounds like you’d miss me.”
She sniffed. “Maybe.”
His eyes softened as he looked at her. “Maybe you’re right. I don’t think me going anywhere was something that was planned, but it had to have helped the situation.”
“You guys do realize she’s Rodeo’s kid, don’t you?” Wheels threw in.
I shrugged. “Bad egg?”
“He ain’t going to be happy. You know how Luisa dying messed with his head.”
Wolfe winced. “It ain’t our fault his daughter betrayed us. Shit, he has to know that we’re not doling out punishments for fun—”
“We don’t know if she’s involved yet,” Lucie barked. “I think we’re jumping to conclusions. Let me investigate, yeah?”
Martin shook his head. “I think you need to do more than that. I think…” He grimaced. “A raid could be coming your way. Funny how she’s here now, yeah? I think you should move your stock and fast.”
Wolfe sat up which, because Lucie was on his knee, had her jostling in his lap. “You think the threat is imminent?”
“Gut feeling. Just like my gut is telling me she’s involved.”
“She always was a bitch,” I threw out. “Mean as fuck to Ama.”
That had everyone, Wheels included, grunting under their breaths. It was very hard to be mean to Ama, mostly because she was so amicable. Of course, they hadn’t seen the real her. I didn’t even think her parents had seen that side of her though. But I had. And not just last night, either.
Last night, she’d burned me with her fire, but that inferno was there all the time. Except it only raged around certain people. She didn’t have to be Flame’s biologically to have inherited the low-key fire that burned deep in her soul.
“Let me deal with her,” Lucie ground out, “and you guys deal with getting anything vaguely contraband off the premises.” She cut me a look. “Take Ama to your place in Jonsson.”
My nose wrinkled at the thought—I hadn’t been back there in years. Not since I knew Ama needed me.
“Okay.”
“Keep the boys there too,” she stated. “If anything happens to any of you, Ama won’t—” She broke off, blew out a breath. “You can’t be involved in anything that happens tonight. I’ll drop off Seamus and Matty as well once I’ve handled Kenzie.”
“Fuck that,” I growled. “You need all hands on deck.”
“Ama will lose her shit if anything happens to the three of you,” Flame agreed.
“And what about you? Her goddamn family? Think she’ll cope without any of you?”
Lucie’s eyes were soft as they danced over each of her men. “She’s got her own support system now. She isn’t a baby. Ama’s needed you and those boys more than she’s needed us for a long while.” Her gaze cut to me, and when she pierced me with that look? I had a feeling she knew exactly how long Ama had been sneaking into my room in the clubhouse.
That she’d allowed it at all was incredible. That she hadn’t threatened me was a miracle.
“You’re looking after all our kids, Ink,” Flame rasped. “That’s the most important job there is.”
I wanted to agree, but it just didn’t feel like it was enough. Martin, sensing my dilemma, rumbled, “Just go with the flow, Ink. I’ll pick up any slack, okay?”
Because that went some way to making me feel better, I dipped my chin, and the conversation turned onto evacuating our ‘contraband,’ as Lucie had called it. Like a million dollars’ worth of hardware was small fry.
Had to love her ability to understate shit.
❖
Ama
“What the fuck was that about?”
I’d known exactly what I was doing when I’d kissed Ink farewell. Not only because I wanted to stir a reaction in Saint and Keys, but also because sometimes, and it killed me to think it, but sometimes brothers went off and didn’t come back.
Emergency church?
That meant shit. In our world, when that happened, it was the shit hitting the fan, and I wasn’t about to let my man go without kissing him goodbye.