Saber's Surrender (Imperial Knights #2)

Chapter 7

CHAPTER

SEVEN

Saber

I’m holding my breath as I watch RiffRaff and Jilly have a silent conversation. Finally, when I can’t handle much more, RiffRaff says, “Let the social worker know you have a couple in mind. As far as helping cover any costs, that’s bullshit. They’ll be part of the Imperial Knights family, and family doesn’t pay. Besides, foster parents get a stipend which we’ll use to get the kids set up. I’m sure they’ll have stuff from their home they’ll want as well, so as soon as you get the ball rolling, we can get some brothers together to pack up that house and bring their items to the clubhouse. Y’know it means you’ll need to look over the available trailers to see which one will work for y’all.”

“We’ve got plenty of bedrooms at the farmhouse,” Jilly adds. “You can do one of two things, bring their bedroom suites over so they have familiar stuff surrounding them, or we can get new and then you can use the suites in your place once y’all get that set up. The rest of the household items from their house can go into storage for them to sort when they’re older as I’m sure there will be things they’ll want to keep. But they’ve had enough taken from them already, so y’all will need to be patient with those belongings.”

I nod, my mind already racing. “I imagine there’ll be insurance payouts as well, so if this goes the way I hope it does, we’ll use those proceeds to set up college accounts for both of them.”

“Could always consider renting out their parents’ house to add to it, especially if it’s a family home or it’s paid off. That way, you can add to those accounts, and I know Selah is a wizard when it comes to making money, so I’m sure by the time they’re old enough to decide what they want to do, they’ll be set for life.”

Part of me hopes that Canyon will consider joining the club when he’s old enough, but I’ll never be the type of parent who insists his children follow in his footsteps. “These are all good ideas. I need to jot them down.”

“We’ll take care of creating a master list for you and Roxy,” Jilly advises. “You just start things rolling as far as the social worker goes.”

Feeling far lighter than I have in well over a decade, I nod, overcome with emotion once again. I should’ve known my family would have my back. Hell, I haven’t even had a chance to fill Dragon in on what’s going on. I can already hear him and Butcher when I ask for a sit down with the two of them.

I have to clear my throat several times before I’m capable of speaking. Once I’m relatively sure my voice won’t crack, I tell them, “I appreciate your willingness to do this for us. I know it hasn’t been all that long since y’all got married and brought Callum into the fold.”

“Kimber is going to love having them around. How old is your son?” Jilly asks. I chuckle when RiffRaff growls while glaring at me and remember that Kimber just turned thirteen on her last birthday.

“He’s fourteen,” I admit.

“Gotta make a stop before we head home, Jilly,” RiffRaff announces, standing to his feet.

“Where do we have to go? We’ve already done the grocery shopping for the month except for our trip to Costco, and we promised the kids we’d do that this weekend,” Jilly replies.

“Locks for the doors.”

“RiffRaff! You’re not making any sense right now. We have locks for our doors,” Jilly exclaims, her hands now on her hips.

“We’ll also have a teenage boy underneath our roof if all goes well. Remember we have a boy crazy girl along with her best friend,” he grumbles, causing me to burst out laughing.

“I suspect he’s got a long row to hoe with his recovery, so there shouldn’t be any issues, but we’ll all impress on him that appropriate behavior is expected, and I’m sure you’ll talk to Kimber and advise her as well.”

“Can we have Brick talk to him?” RiffRaff asks, smirking.

“That conversation was intense,” I mumble underneath my breath as I hang up the receiver. Dragon and Butcher were furious with me for keeping the pain I’ve been going through since bringing Foxy into the fold quiet.

But they’ve vowed to call in every marker owed to the club to ensure that Canyon and Egypt are brought into the safehold of the club.

Dragon gets a hair up his ass when it comes to family and them not being underneath the scope of his protection. Butcher did a lot of rumbling and penetrating his anger is going to be a task I’m not sure I’m up for at the moment. With everything that happened with Joceline and her kids, he’s prickly and didn’t take the news well that I had a kid out there that nobody knew about.

The landline rings in my office and I answer it, “Yeah.” I’m short with my greeting since I know it’s coming from the emergency room.

“Canyon and Egypt McAllister's tests are back, I thought you’d like to know,” Whitney advises.

“Thank you. I’ll be down shortly,” I tell her.

Grabbing my keys from my desktop, I lock up my office and stroll down the hallway and stand at the elevator. My thoughts are chaotic as fuck as I think through every possible scenario involved in bringing Canyon and Egypt into our home.

“Yeah, asshole, the home you don’t have just yet,” I mutter as the bell dings and the doors open. Thankfully, there’s no one inside, which is somewhat rare, but I don’t discount my good luck because I’m not in the mood for any kind of small talk right now.

When I get downstairs, I notice right away that Roxy has X-rays spread over the lightbox as she looks them over. “What’ve we got?” I ask her as I make it next to her, glancing over her shoulder so I can read them.

“Nothing’s fractured, on either of them, believe it or not,” she tells me.

“That’s a miracle,” I state underneath my breath. “With the power that they hit the guardrail, then slammed into that crop of trees, I’d expect more than some contusions.”

She shakes her head in dismay before uttering, “I can’t believe, other than some stitches, bumps and bruises, they’re practically unscathed. With some of the signs of injury Egypt was presenting, I could’ve sworn her clavicle was broken.”

“I thought Canyon’s femur was shattered,” I reply. “We’ve gotta be missing something.”

I don’t tell her about my ‘gift’ of being able to see things that are missed by machinery. Whereas I agree they don’t have any breaks in their bones, they do have some sprains and tendon tears. Things that’ll heal over time, and I did initially worry over fractures, but I think that’s because I was so damn discombobulated that I couldn’t settle long enough to use my divination.

“Well, both of them do have slight concussions,” she informs me. “They’re complaining of headaches as well as persistent aches all over their bodies. I’m going to prescribe them something for the pain.”

“The CAT scan doesn’t show anything as far as internal bleeding either,” I add, looking over the printed report from the radiologist. “Just some bruises there as well. Still, they’ll definitely need to take it easy for a few weeks while everything heals.”

“I think they’ll be okay doing that,” Roxy replies. “But, we need to make sure they know that walking around is good for them as far as helping the aches and pains dissipate. I know grown adults hate doing it, so hopefully, kids won’t be as hard to convince.”

“If Canyon’s involved in any kind of sport, he probably knows that already, since most coaches stress the fact that they need to stretch and move after a workout or game,” I supply.

Which has me wondering about our son. Does he prefer sports or academics? Maybe he plays an instrument or likes to create through other means. We’ve both missed out on so much where he’s concerned and while I can feel that anger rising up once again, I do my best to tamp it back. I have a plan in place that’ll hopefully bring us full circle.

Without any further words shared between us, we separate and go to put in our orders. The kids will be staying overnight for observation, which will give us time to get the ball rolling with social services which reminds me that the woman who was sent to oversee their hospital stay is in the waiting room. She told the nurses earlier she was going to grab a cup of coffee and begin making phone calls. Before she gets too far into looking for a placement for them, I need to speak with her and let her know where I’d like them to go and the reason why.

“Roxy,” I call out her name to grab her attention. She swivels her head my way and tilts it to the side. “We need to go lay things out for Mrs. Tremain.”

She closes her eyes for a brief moment before nodding. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Looking up at the ceiling and praying for patience, I hold my hand out and stretch my fingers so she knows I want her to place hers in mine. We need to go before Mrs. Tremain as a united front.

“Really?” she asks with exasperation.

“Yes, really,” I retort, releasing a heated, frustrated breath. I stand here looking at her, giving her no other alternative than to follow my lead.

“Fine,” she harrumphs. Taking her sweet time, her feet dragging with each step, she finally reaches me and rolls her eyes. “You’re an asshole.”

“And you’re being a bitch, but here we are. Asshole and bitch going to talk to the one person who’ll help us get our boy back so suck it up, buttercup.”