Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81245 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81245 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
I swallow my instinct to freak out about my four year old on a motorcycle and decide to trust that they have everything under control. In addition to Stiff, Jackal and Lash, there’s a whole bunch of other bikers standing around and watching with big grins on their faces. It’s like he’s been adopted as the club mascot. It’s so crazy that I can’t help laughing, which gets their attention.
Logan pulls his hands off the bars, suddenly eager to get down. Lash lifts him right off and sets him on the grass. The moment Logan’s feet touch the ground, he’s zooming my way. “Mommy!”
Catching him up in my arms, I give him a squeeze. “Thank you for letting me sleep. Did Lash and Stiff and Jackal take good care of you?”
He takes a deep breath and I get an absolutely frantic ramble about a biker spraying fire, and another one spraying paint, and then stealing beanbags, and then being chased by dinosaurs, and riding the motorcycle, and I have no idea what’s real and what’s just a product of his overactive imagination. Honestly, I’m not sure I want to know. He seems safe and happy, so I’m choosing my own peace over trying to overanalyze his morning.
On one of the picnic tables that dot the lawn, there’s a mountain of takeout bags, and I’m just now catching that everyone seems to be eating something. “Did they get you food?”
He nods excitedly.
“Are you finished eating?”
“Oh, no!” He squirms to be let down, then bolts over to grab a half-eaten breakfast sandwich out of its open wrapper on the table, next to a juice bottle with a straw in it. I follow at a slightly more sedate pace.
“Sleep well?” Lash smiles at me as he unwraps a sandwich of his own. “There’s lots here, so dig in if you’re hungry.”
My stomach growls. When did I eat last? I guess we did have dinner last night, but it feels like forever ago. “There are so many reasons you guys are my heroes right now, but getting to sleep in and then not have to make my own breakfast is high on the list. Also an uninterrupted shower.” I make the chef’s kiss hand gesture.
“I’m sorry I missed it,” Lash says with a wink.
“Like I said, uninterrupted.” Then I grab a sandwich and pull the paper off it.
Jackal points. “Those cups have coffee, and someone should drink them while they’re still hot. The others have apple and orange juice, which Logan’s done a good number on. The sandwiches are different, but it’s all pretty much egg, some kinda cheese and some kinda meat.”
“Perfect.” Egg and bacon and cheese. Heavenly.
“Lash and I talked to Hellfire this morning.” Stiff takes what’s left of Logan’s sandwich and exchanges it for a juice cup, then stands back up. He points at the house alongside the end of the field, the one on the left heading to the school. “That’s where we have the officer apartments. They’re not huge, but bigger than the general quarters, and one of them is empty right now. Hellfire okayed you and Logan staying there until we figure this out. It’s got two bedrooms, decent kitchen, living room, solid doors with solid locks, and nobody’s going to mess with you while you’re here.”
Jackal nods. “And I called Bonnie earlier. She’s going to ask Anne about babysitting.”
Suddenly my eyes start to burn, and I have to blink to hold back the tears that are trying to fall for absolutely no reason. I press my lips together to keep them from quivering. “Guys…”
“Mommy, are you okay?” Logan is sucking juice through the straw like a camel after two weeks in the desert, but now he pauses to look up at me.
“Yeah, Honey, just fine. I’m just happy.”
“Okay.” Back to the juice.
It’d be nice sometimes to have all my problems be that simple.
“So the question I’ve got now,” Lash says, in very much the same tone as when he implied he wouldn’t have minded being there for my shower, “Would you feel safer with one of us staying with you in the apartment? For extra security, obviously.”
“Obviously.” I wipe the tears off my cheeks and grin. “I need to think about it.”
“You do that.” He lets out a small laugh. “In the meantime, do you need to grab some shit from your place?”
I wince. Hanging around bikers all the time is going to make Logan really popular with the other kids at pre-school, and really unpopular with their parents. They’re just going to have to deal. I’d rather have good men with foul mouths than foul men with perfect manners.
“Yeah. I only packed enough for an overnight or two.”
“No problem, but you’re not going on your own. We’re coming with, just in case, clear?”
Like I could even imagine going back without them at this point. My life is a slow moving avalanche, and they are the ones with the shovels. There’s no way I’ll get out from under the weight of everything that’s happening without some serious lifting power. Luckily, they seem built for it. They’ve gone so quickly from the terrifying men who found my son, to being the only people I can truly rely on. I have to wonder if I’m making a mistake putting so much of my trust in them, but I don’t think so. There’s a brutal honesty to them that I’ve never felt from anyone else.