The MC’s Little Brother (Bikers and Babies #3)

Chapter 15

15

Xander

I wasn’t actually listening to music. Having the headphones in got people to leave me alone. I just needed a minute. I wasn’t used to being around big groups outside of school. And they all looked dangerous. Not one person in the group was what I’d consider short or soft. They were all tall and muscly and some of them, like the one in front of the stove, looked like he ate horses for breakfast. Seriously, how did someone get that big?

Mel was a good distraction. I listened to her talk to her friends, her teasing light and easy. When she noticed the woman getting upset, she was quick to make it better. I liked her. I wished more adults in my life were like her. I knew she was only friends with Wraith and not like his girlfriend or anything, but she kept showing up and I liked her coming around. Hopefully, it wasn’t a pity thing, though, because that’d ruin it.

I was just starting to relax when a blonde-haired boy came running into the room. “Dad! Vegas is cheating at cards again!”

The huge guy behind the stove sighed heavily. “I told ‘im to knock it off. Why do I gotta do everything around here?”

He handed off the spatula to the Asian woman next to him and stomped out of the kitchen, stopping only long enough to kiss the woman sitting at the table and hand off the baby again before he disappeared. The boy didn’t immediately follow him, instead locking eyes with me. He was younger than me, but I wasn’t sure by how much. He cocked his head at me.

“Who’s that?”

“That’s Xander,” Mel answered. “He’s Wraith’s little brother.”

It still felt weird that people kept referring to me like that. I didn't even know I had a brother until just after school started this year. I was avoiding Jorge by hiding in the attic and found a box with a name I’d never heard on it. It was mostly a bunch of random stuff, but there was a stack of pictures of a toddler and a woman I wasn’t familiar with. On the back of one was their names. Carmen and Mattias. I had to wait until the next time Jorge was in the happy drunk stage to ask him about them. It set him off, and he went on a rant, cursing them both, but between the ramblings, I got the gist. I had a brother I never knew about somewhere out there. The unyielding hope I felt in that moment wasn’t even diminished when Jorge’s rant switched to me and how worthless I was, too. I just ignored him and during lunch at school the next day, I tried looking up my brother’s name. There were too many matches for me to narrow it down, but when I snuck back up to the attic, I found some old mail with the address Jorge used to live at.

Silver City, New Mexico.

It felt like a sign and I spent a few weeks trying to find more information about Mattias. I wasn’t going to ask for anything. I just wanted to know if there was some family out there besides Jorge. But when Jorge finally kicked me out, and I realized I was going to end up somewhere worse than in his house, I figured I’d come out here and see if Mattias would be willing to help me.

I never thought I’d wind up in a biker clubhouse.

“What happened to him?” the little boy asked.

“He fell,” was Mel’s quick reply. I wasn’t paying attention, and I snorted automatically, which drew the boy’s focus. And Mel’s. She grinned, but didn’t get pissed that I was pretending to listen to music and eavesdropping.

Mattias came into the room, and I ducked my head automatically. I still felt like shit about earlier. I didn’t mean to swing at him. I thought he was Jorge. I lost count of the amount of times I was woken out of a dead sleep to him smacking me around. I took to sleeping in the closet just to stay out of his sight. If he didn’t see me, he might keep on walking to his room.

“Where did he get the headphones?” he asked with a frown.

“They’re mine. He’s just borrowing them to take a break,” Mel replied easily.

He grunted and when I peeked up at him, his expression was masked again. “I’ll get him his own tomorrow. Can I talk to you?”

I blinked rapidly, watching them go. I didn't understand him. One minute, he was glaring at the world around him, the next he was buying me things and making me food. Like he wanted me to be okay. It was confusing. I couldn’t tell if he hated me being here or if he was just really bad at expressing himself.

The little boy crept closer and froze when I glanced at him, lifting his hand in a wave. “Can you hear me?”

Yes, but I didn’t want to admit that. I pulled out one of the ear buds so he knew I was listening. “I can now.”

He smirked, thrusting his thumb over his shoulder. “Wanna play cards? Uncle Vegas cheats, but the rest of ‘em play fair.”

I shook my head. “I’m good here.”

I felt a little bad for telling him no when he was just being nice, but being here kind of freaked me out. There were so many of them. What happened when they found out what I was hiding? I might have been able to get away from Jorge, but I wasn’t sure I could outrun all of them.

Melissa

I followed Wraith out of the kitchen but stayed in Xander’s line of sight. I was aware he was listening, using the headphones as a wall to keep people away, but I didn't see that as a bad thing. At least he wasn’t running or hiding. And most preteens didn’t want to hang out with adults anyway.

“What’s up?”

“Did you mean it?” he asked, keeping his voice low .

I tipped my head and frowned. “Did I mean what?”

“The offer to stay with us,” he grumbled.

My eyebrows shot up. “Yeah. I meant it. Did you change your mind?”

His gaze flicked over my shoulder to the kitchen, and his expression darkened a little. “I don’t want a repeat of earlier. He’s more comfortable with you.”

My heart ached a little at the reminder. Xander felt awful about his reaction and looked close to tears when Wraith stormed off. Wraith didn’t look like he was handling it any better. He was trying to pretend it hadn’t affected him, but I saw the look on his face when it happened. He felt like shit, too.

“Sure. I’ll pack a bag tonight.”

His brow furrowed a little, and he shook his head. “Tomorrow. I need to order a mattress for the spare room.”

That sounded like a pain in the ass, and expensive for a short stay. “Or… we can borrow Butch’s truck and move the bed from my guest room into yours. It’ll spare you the expense.”

It wasn’t as nice as my mattress, but that monster was heavy and I wasn’t moving it unless I absolutely had to.

He considered it before nodding. “I’ll talk to Butch. Is he… okay?”

If it were anyone else, I would’ve melted. But I couldn’t act like that with Wraith. I forced myself to smile and nod instead.

“He’s okay. Just taking a break. I think meeting the whole crew at once is a little much.”

He sighed, scrubbing his hand through his hair. “Yeah, I figured that out when he hid behind me. I thought it’d help. They’re better with people than me.”

Putting my hand on his arm, I raised my eyebrows. “You were trying to help. No one is going to hold that against you. Not even Xander. We’ll stay for dinner and then we’ve got an excellent excuse to duck out early so we can grab my stuff. We’ll figure out a better way to introduce him to the crew later. Maybe a couple at a time instead of all at once.”

At least he wasn’t fighting me this time. After scaring the shit out of Xander, he seemed to realize he needed a hand. There was nothing wrong with that, and I was glad he cared enough to put his pride aside. Maybe after a few days, I could figure out a way to get him to realize spending time with his brother was just as important as introducing him to the crew. But I didn’t want to push too hard right now, so I let it go, wandering back to the kitchen just as Xander shook his head at Malcolm.

“I’m good here,” he murmured. His expression was apologetic, but I missed the conversation, so I wasn’t sure what he was turning down.

Thankfully, Malcolm was a bright and happy kid. He didn’t take offense to the rejection. He shrugged, walking backwards as he spoke to Xander. “Okay. If you change your mind, we’re out there. I’m gonna get Prez to help me. He can tell when Vegas is cheating better than my dad can.”

A flicker of a smile flashed across Xander’s face, and he nodded to acknowledge him before watching him go. I had to jump out of the way to avoid Malcolm running straight into me, but after this long, I was used to it. I tipped my head toward the direction he disappeared, giving Xander a smirk.

“Can you tell why they call him Flash?”

He huffed a small laugh. “Yeah.” His brow furrowed a little. “I wasn’t comfortable going with him…”

I shook my head with an easy smile. “Don’t worry about it. No one is expecting you to jump in the deep end. But he’s not wrong. Vegas does cheat, so if he ever suckers you into playing with him, watch out for that. He plays for candy against the kids and he’s a turd about it.”