Chapter 9
Chapter nine
Barrett
“You’re here early,” Braxton says, walking into the main area of the clubhouse from his room. He makes his way behind the bar where I’m sitting, looking at some ridiculous meme Syd sent me.
“I had a meeting with Freya this morning to sign some paperwork. Now that we’ve established paternity, she’s going to have my name added to the birth certificate. Besides, it’s not that early, asshole. It’s practically lunchtime,” I reply.
“Domestic life has changed you, man. It wasn’t that long ago you were just getting out of bed at”—he looks at his watch—“eleven o’clock.”
I guess he has a point. Since Syd started school, I’ve been taking her most mornings.
The first day she started, after we got back from New York, Camryn and I took her together.
I needed to sign some paperwork, and Syd’s nerves were a little high, so Cam offered to go with me.
Honestly, I was glad to have Cam there. She knows how to do all this school shit.
Not that it was anything particularly challenging, but Cam’s presence was soothing to both Syd and me that morning.
I’ve discovered that we make a pretty good team, and I’m happy that Cam finally has some of the load taken off her.
I can’t change the first thirteen years of Syd’s life, but I can do my best from here on out.
“How are things going between you and Camryn these days?” Braxton asks. “I’ll tell you something, brother, I’m not sure I would’ve been comfortable sleeping in a house with a woman who looked like she’d just as soon see me dead rather than look at me.”
I shrug. “We worked past all that shit.”
“All of it? Because I’ve seen women pissed at you, and only one woman in particular looked like she was ready to bury you six feet under, then spit on your grave.”
A smile spreads across my face, and I nod. “Good times,” I say with a smirk, and Braxton rolls his eyes.
“Only you would enjoy the venom that oozed from that woman whenever you were around.”
“Cam is the closest thing my daughter’s had to a mother in her entire life. Maybe referring to her as ‘that woman’ isn’t as respectful as it could be.” My brow quirks and now it’s Braxton’s turn to shoot me a smirk.
“That so?” he asks.
“Yup.”
He releases a low whistle. “Heard and understood,” he says, but the look on his face suggests he understands something I didn’t say.
Before I have a chance to ask him about the sly grin he’s still got on his smug face, Ozzy walks into the room.
“Hey, you’re interviewing new security today, right?” he asks me.
I nod. “Yeah. Gonna head over in a few minutes.”
“Alright. Just make sure the men you hire are more interested in protecting the girls and the club rather than sleeping with the dancers.”
“So the opposite of Barrett,” Braxton says with a chuckle.
“Fuck off,” I bite back without any real heat in my words.
It’s not like he isn’t right. At least, that’s how I used to be.
But the thought of taking a dancer—or anyone, for that matter—to bed hasn’t crossed my mind in…
well, since my daughter and her crazy, fierce, drop-dead gorgeous aunt showed up at the clubhouse.
Fuck.
This can’t be happening. I can’t possibly let myself think about Camryn as anything other than Syd’s aunt and my roommate.
But thoughts of the way she put herself in front of Syd when we were at the apartment and discovered it had been broken into.
The way she stood so tall and strong when she bit back at me for daring to handle her problems. Her lips wrapped around the spoon as she tasted the frozen hot chocolate.
All of it flips through my mind like photographs.
Then later that night in the hotel room, when we weren’t at each other’s throats.
When she was leaving and she poked me with her finger.
The way her small hand felt in mine when I lowered it from my chest. If she hadn’t turned away…
There’s no universe where taking anything further between us is a good idea. Shit, there’s no way Camryn even thinks of me as anything other than Syd’s father and the man she occasionally fights with, shares a couple drinks with, and is doing this parenting thing with. But what if she does…
“Earth to Barrett,” Ozzy says, waving his palm in front of my face.
I clear my throat and focus on the conversation at hand. “Sorry. What were you saying?”
“What do you think about three more guys?”
“It’ll free up a couple of them to help out at the bar, too.” Now that Camryn is working there, we definitely need to make sure to have someone there when we aren’t.
“That was my thought too,” Braxton says.
“We also need to set up a run to Michigan. Finn is getting another shipment for the Iron Disciples.”
“When do we need to go?” I ask. Being the road captain means the particulars of the runs land on me.
“Not for a couple weeks. I don’t want too many guys gone at once this go-round. Not with the Russian threat hanging over our heads,” Ozzy replies.
“I’ll go,” Braxton offers. “You can stay here with your girls.”
“Girl. One. My daughter. And this is why Camryn is staying with us. She knows I have to take off on club business sometimes.” I look down at my phone, checking the time. “I gotta get to Midnight Rose.”
I stand and head to my bike. A ride is what I need. Some time to clear my head on the short trip to the strip club. Because right now it’s filled with thoughts of Camryn and the fact that, for the first time since I became part of this club, the last thing I want to do is go on a run and leave her.
This is not good.
“There are four more guys waiting out in the club,” Sylvie says as I sit behind her desk, ready to interview the last group of guys for the security positions.
“Three of them are keeping an eye on the door or chatting with each other, and the fourth is looking around like he’s waiting for a naked girl to pop out at any second. ”
This is one of the reasons I like having the interviews at the club.
Our house manager, Sylvie, has a sense about people, so I depend on her to do her own sort of vetting before I ever talk to them.
It’s one of the reasons the place runs so smoothly with her as manager, and it saves me a hell of a lot of time and energy.
She pretends to be doing paperwork at the bar, but what she’s really doing is watching the guys who come in, looking for any tells that this isn’t the right place for them.
I need men who keep their eyes peeled for threats, not tits.
“Bring in the one who can’t keep his eyes inside his head. I’ll get rid of him.”
Sylvie nods. “Then I can have my office back?” she asks. The woman is not a fan of anyone taking up her space. Unless it’s Ozzy, but that’s only because he’s the prez—and her boss.
“Yes, Sylvie. You’ll have your office back as soon as I’m done.” I chuckle, then reach for my phone that’s vibrating on the desk next to me. When I turn it over, Mia’s name is flashing on the screen.
“Hey, what’s up, Mia?” I ask.
“Hi. We have a little problem. Syd is in the library during her lunch, and I can tell she’s upset. When I asked her what was wrong, she wouldn’t tell me, but I think some of the kids have been giving her a hard time. I can tell she’s been crying, Barrett.”
I stand from the desk and grab my wallet, shoving it in my pocket. Rage like I’ve never felt before washes through me.
“Which kids?” I bark into the phone.
“I’m not sure. I’ve overheard a couple kids talking about a new girl, and their tone wasn’t exactly friendly.”
I rush toward the door. “I’m on my way.”
“I’ll walk her up to the office. You have to sign her out.”
“Be there in ten.”
I disconnect the call and make my way down the hallway to the bar area. Sylvie is walking toward me with the loser who wants to work in a strip club because he thinks he’ll be able to stare at tits and ass all night—just like he’s staring at Sylvie’s.
“I have to go to the school and get Syd,” I tell her before she passes me. Then I look at the guy behind her. “You’re not going to work out here. Thanks for coming in.”
The man rips his gaze from Sylvie’s backside to give me a confused look. “But—”
“Staring at your potential new boss’s ass isn’t the way to get the job. I won’t repeat myself.” I stare at him as he slinks away and exits through the front door.
“Are you coming back?” Sylvie asks. “We’re in the middle of interviews.”
“I’ll be right back. Have them hang out. See if they want anything to drink or something. If they wait, they wait. If not, I’m not rescheduling. That’s on them.”
“My serving days have long passed, Barrett.”
“It’s just a couple sodas. I have to go.”
Brushing past her, I get to my bike and shove my helmet on my head. Shit, I don’t have one for Syd, and Cam has my truck at the bar, which is in the opposite direction.
I grab my phone and call Jude.
“Well, hello, Daddy Barrett,” he says by way of greeting.
“First off, gross. Don’t ever call me that again. Second, can you meet me at the school with Lucy’s helmet? I have to grab Syd, and I don’t have one for her.”
Jude is closer to the school than me, so my daughter won’t have to sit and wait for me to get the truck.
“Would you prefer Father Barrett?”
“I’d prefer you to get to the school and then fuck off.”
The Englishman chuckles, and I want to reach through the phone and punch him in the face.
“I’m on my way.”
I disconnect the call, wishing I’d thought to ask Linc first, but at least Jude’s close, and that’s all I really care about right now.
When I pull up to the school, Jude is waiting for me as I’d hoped he would be.
“Jesus, are the cops chasing you?” he asks when I get off my bike.
“Syd’s upset. Some kids are being assholes, and Mia found her crying in the library.”
“Fucking little pricks. Want me to wait for you?” he asks, handing me the helmet.
“No. I’m good. Just going to grab her and run back to Midnight Rose to finish some security guard interviews.”