Axton (Creed’s Lake MC #3)

Chapter One

Axton

W e all knew Addie was with us to stay, nonetheless, as the judge handed her that little teddy bear, and then shook Creed's hand, relief came over me. I couldn’t remember being as nervous as I was when we walked into the courtroom for Addie's adoption hearing.

It was one of the best days of our lives. Adeline Doyle was officially Adeline Creed, daughter of Alistair and Morgan Creed. The judge just made it official, and I couldn’t help but stand and clap along with my brothers and sisters at arms. The adoption was finally complete, and Addie was going home to Creed’s Lake to stay. I had to admit, I was a bit wary about the home study and the length of time it took for it to finally happen. I thought for sure the social worker from Sinclair County that did the home study would have had a few problems with Creed’s Lake. Mainly the armed guards and secrecy behind the gates, but it seemed she respected what we were doing to help mothers and children escape abuse.

Addie was my niece, maybe not by blood, but by something I didn’t speak of often, and that would have been my heart. There was a fortress built around it many years ago, but Addie penetrated it with ease and made herself comfortable inside it. It had a soft spot for that little darling, well maybe darling took it a little far. More like the little fallen angel. She had a mean streak toward just about anyone of the male species. Mainly ones that were considered children because she loved her adopted uncles, excluding her new father’s younger brother, Weston. She might have been tiny, but she was definitely mighty.

I had to push back my emotions when Addie let go of Creed and ran into Irons arms. She was so happy and loving the idea of being the center of attention. Travis Irons was honestly her second father. Then came Josh Magnus and me. She ran to both of us and squealed with delight. I wasn't sure she fully understood why everyone was so happy, and what becoming the next heir of the Creed fortune and what the daughter of Morgan Rossi meant, but she was happy, nonetheless. I was sure a day would come where she would resent her mother’s fame, and the attention that would come with it, but for the time being she had everything she needed and then some.

My brothers and sisters at arms were my family, and suddenly they were all dropping like flies. Granger was already married to Stephanie, the girl next door when he joined CAD, but in the last several months Creed, Irons, and Drakos also fell into a spell cast by the girl next door types.

First it was Creed who married America’s sweetheart, Morgan Rossi. It was a shock to all of us that the object of nearly all of our teenage obsessions was actually an innocent and very sweet young woman. Then Irons reconnected with his first love, who literally was the girl next door when he was a kid. Then Drakos, the last one we all suspected, fell for Melissa. A pint-sized older version of Addie who took no shit from anyone, especially Drakos.

I typically stayed away from the girl next door types. I had a girl next door once, and the pain they could bring a man was excruciating, and it lasted a lifetime. My brothers thought they knew me. I might have been broody at times, and I took business seriously, but there were things about me they would never have understood. We weren’t selling ice cream and handing out lollipops on Creed’s Lake. We had the lives of many loyal operatives in our hands, and I refused to mix my personal life with business like my brothers did. I did not want a wife and children to think about while I was sending good men out on missions that could cost their lives, they would have been a distraction I didn’t need.

Once upon a time I had the girl next door. We were young and dumb, and life was just as shitty as it always was until I joined the Army. That was when life finally looked up for me, and I met Creed. I met my best friends, the men that became my brothers, and they were my family.

After the hearing was over, we returned to Creed’s Lake for a celebration. Felicity and the girls had the banquet room decked out in Addie’s favorite themes, evil Disney queens, Wednesday Adams, and The Wizard of Oz. We all waited inside the banquet room for Addie and when she walked in, she squealed in delight as we all clapped. She looked around the room in awe over the hard work Felicity and her girls put into the celebration. There were flying monkeys dangling from the ceiling along with munchkins faces. Each table had a small cake with a different evil stepmother’s face slapped on them. There was a life-sized cardboard cutout of the wicked witch of the west up by the buffet of food, and of course, it wouldn’t have been complete without the Adam’s family over on the far wall. I wasn't sure what budget Creed gave the girls, but it must have been extreme, because all of Felicity’s girls were in costume. I had to laugh when I saw the entire Adam’s family. Julia was dressed up as Pugsly, Felicity is Morticia, and I laughed harder when I saw a prospect dressed as Uncle Fester, and Sam must have dressed Addie’s dog up as Cousin It. The poor dog was bumping into everything because he couldn’t see through the hair, but for some reason he just went with it. There was a bouncy house setup on the far side of the room, along with a corner where one of Felicity’s girls was dressed up as a witch stirring a pot with real fog coming out of it. There were a few games for the kids and a face painting booth. It warmed my heart when I saw all the little kids run up to Addie and pull her away from her parents to join in on all the fun. It was crazy to think of the kind of life she had a year prior and what her life became. She was an abused child that suffered at the hands of an abusive father and a mom that didn’t exactly put Addie first in life.

Addie’s obsession shortly after she arrived at Creed’s Lake was Maleficent. Then around Halloween it was the Wicked Witch of the West, which earned Drakos a costume of a member of the Lollipop Guild for trick or treating. Then it became Wednesday Adams, which I could easily see made Morgan uneasy. Addie wanted to dress in all black and have her blond curls dyed black to wear in braids, but she lost that battle. She was seven, not fifteen, and her movie star mother would never allow such a thing. Morgan wanted Addie in blond pigtails and little dresses, and someday she’d lose that battle.

I looked around the room and saw Irons standing behind Wrenly with his arms around her as he smiled at Addie’s reaction. Drakos stood next to Melissa, who just punched him for trying to lift her up like a child so she could see, and Creed was helping a very pregnant Morgan into a chair. Darren was standing with his arm around Val, and the rest of the Rossi family was standing off to the side. Well, except Patrick was trying to flirt with Morticia AKA Felicity. He was probably asking about her family history. Ever since Morgan brought up an unfortunate event at a family reunion, Patrick had gone into some sort of insecurity he had laid to rest for many years. Morgan, his older sister, stirred his trauma up again and it was funny as hell.

Morgan was about to have twins, and by the way she looked it could have been any day now. She was obviously miserable, and the woman was as big as a house. It was almost disgusting the way Creed looked at her, like she was the most beautiful creature on the planet, and he still had lust for her. I wasn't sure how that was possible since she had the most lethal farts and needed help with her daily hygiene. I knew way too much about that woman, and though she was gorgeous, I couldn’t look past the flatulence and talk about mucus plugs and amniotic fluid. Just the thought made me shutter with disgust. Why? Because I was an asshole, that was why. Well, that and some trauma of my past liked to slap me across the face every time I thought about childbirth.

Granger was our seasoned dad of the original group, before Jennings joined us. Creed was ecstatic to soon be a father of three, and I had no doubt that Irons would have wanted to have kids someday with Wrenly. Drakos was also excited about Melissa being pregnant, although he was the last one of us that should have been raising a child.

I was no saint, although many on Creed’s Lake might have thought I lived a clean life. They didn’t know what lived beneath, it was something I didn’t understand. I didn’t often “hook up” the way they always did, and certainly not with Felicity’s girls.

I realized I was cold toward Wrenly and Stephanie, but it was not meant to show. They reminded me of someone I once knew, and that person was partially responsible for all the confusion, guilt, and grief I tried so hard to hide.

I lived with Creed for several years in a shit hole apartment. You’d think he would have suspicions that something more was wrong with me than just having a shitty dad, but in those days, I ignored the feeling I had inside me that I was missing something. I could enjoy sex with a beautiful woman, and had plenty of female visitors to our apartment, but after Bolton was raped, that part of me died and I only craved something I couldn't find. The guys noticed that I was not all that sexually active, but they had no idea what I did on my weekend trips. They didn’t even know where I went, but it was private and not their business.