2. Finn
Finn
I’d been in my room at the clubhouse, about two seconds from getting my dick sucked, when one of the prospects came barging in like his life depended on it.
He didn’t even knock. “Girl at the gate with a kid,” he said, out of breath. “Lucy brought her in. Says the kid’s Caleb’s.”
I shoved Sasha off me, ignored the pissed-off look she gave me, and headed down the hall with irritation already building.
The girl looked like hell. She had a bruised face, split lip, torn hoodie, and she was half-frozen and barely standing.
Still, she pulled my eye, and that annoyed the shit out of me. She could’ve been Caleb’s girl carrying his kid, or she could’ve been bait wrapped up pretty enough to get through our gates.
I leaned against the doorway of the room we used as an infirmary, arms folded, watching her carefully while Maria checked her over.
She barely took her eyes off the baby in Lucy’s arms.
Then, the rumble of pipes echoed through the clubhouse. Reaper was back. Lucy handed the kid back to his mother and stepped out first to fill Reaper in while the rest of us stayed put.
A few moments later, Reaper walked in, followed by Keno and Riot, and his eyes went straight to the kid.
Lucy broke first. “That’s Kate and my brother’s baby.”
“Lucy,” Reaper’s voice stayed calm, “enough.”
“She came here bleeding and carrying Caleb’s child.”
Reaper finally looked at Kate properly, and she shrank slightly under the weight of his stare, but she didn’t look away.
“You got proof?” he asked flatly.
“She’s not lying,” Lucy snapped immediately.
“And you know that how?” Keno shot back. “We’ve been burned before.”
“She came here because Caleb told her to.”
Reaper’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Then she can explain why.”
Kate swallowed hard before speaking. “Caleb moved me and Noah before he . . .” Her voice cracked slightly. “Before he stopped answering.”
Lucy sucked in a sharp breath, her shaking hand covering her mouth.
“Why?” he asked.
“My stepfather got himself into debt,” she explained. “Bad debt. Men started showing up asking questions about Caleb.” Kate shifted the baby slightly higher against her chest. “Caleb said it wasn’t safe anymore. He moved us out of the city.” She hesitated briefly before adding, “To Rosewater.”
Reaper’s posture tightened slightly at the town’s name, then he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. The room stayed quiet while he typed something quickly, turning the screen towards Riot.
Riot looked at it once and gave a slow nod. Keno leaned over slightly, glanced at the screen, then muttered a quiet curse under his breath.
Lucy frowned. “What?”
Reaper slid the phone back into his pocket. “Nothing you need to worry about right now.”
When his eyes landed back on Kate, he still looked cautious, but no longer dismissive.
“You stayed there the whole time?” he asked.
Kate nodded slowly. “Until they found us.”
I watched Reaper carefully. He was thinking, weighing the risk against Caleb’s name.
“She doesn’t stay here,” he said finally.
Lucy stepped forward immediately. “Jay?—”
“She also doesn’t get thrown back onto the street,” Reaper cut in calmly. “Motel. Paid for and watched until we know exactly what’s coming at my door.”
“I don’t have anywhere else.”
“You do now,” Reaper replied flatly. “It just isn’t here.”
Lucy looked torn between arguing and accepting the compromise, but she stayed quiet.
Reaper’s gaze shifted towards me. “You were first on scene,” he said. “Now, you own it.”
Perfect, because apparently, I didn’t already have enough shit hanging over my head.
Phone calls from my past had been getting harder to ignore.
Every day, another missed call. Another voicemail I hadn’t listened to.
Another reminder that eventually the life I’d buried was going to catch up to me whether I wanted it to or not.
Now, I was being handed a woman, a kid, and whatever trouble was chasing them.
“Yes, Pres,” I said.
“You stay on her. Every second. She moves, you know about it.”
“I will.”
Reaper held my gaze a second longer. “You get distracted,” he said evenly, “you don’t just screw yourself. You screw this whole club.”
Like I didn’t already know that. “Yeah,” I replied. “I understand.”
He nodded once. “Good.”
Kate finally looked at me with exhausted eyes, a bruised face, and the baby clutched tightly against her chest.
I didn’t like the way something twisted low in my gut when I looked at her. Didn’t like the protectiveness creeping in even less.
“One night,” I muttered, jerking my head towards the door. “Just not here.”