Chapter 17
SEVENTEEN
brINLEY
“So, then Trevan literally picks Pyke up and tosses him out the club’s door. He must have slid fifty feet with his face in the dirt.”
“Those prospects are nothing but trouble.” I could hear Meems tsk it as Elena jabbered to her.
Her voice carrying out into the living room from the kitchen as I crept down the stairs.
A delicious scent wafted out with it, making my mouth water.
Silas had said he needed to take care of some club business, and he’d be right back. To make myself at home, as if I didn’t feel the most out of place as I ever had.
So much for him refusing to let me out of his sight. I figured the sleeping situation was just him trying to torment me, thinking I was going to stay in the same room as him.
That man had another thing coming.
I inched forward, my ear inclined.
“And you know Trevan isn’t about to stand for backtalk, especially on his birthday.” Elena’s inflection was pure cheek.
Meems laughed a chortling, wry sound. “Pyke was messing with the wrong man, that’s for sure. You’d think he’d have a better head on him if he wants to be a Crow. He has no sense.”
“Maybe Trevan will just have to knock it into him.” That time it was giggles and awe.
I crept closer, keeping my footsteps quiet. Not because I wanted to eavesdrop but because I was worried I was interrupting.
I peered through the opening.
Meems, which apparently meant ‘Grandma’ in Mercer, was on the other side of a long counter that segmented a small dining room from the cooking area.
Kai was on this side of it, on the floor playing with blocks with his blue blanket beneath him, babbling to himself.
“And I bet you’d fight for a front-row seat.” Meems cast an appraising glance over at Elena who was pulling a salad from the fridge. “Though I imagine you’d fight for a front-row seat of anything that man does.”
If Silas thought his Crows’s talons were crimson, he should have seen Elena’s face.
She hurried to set the salad onto the counter next to the fridge, then ducked back inside, rummaging around like she was looking for the meaning of life.
When she edged back out with a bottle of ketchup, she hiked an innocent shoulder. “Trevan is one of my closest friends. Of course I pay attention to what he does.”
“Simple as that?” Speculation infiltrated Meems’s tone.
“As simple as that.” Elena said it far too bright.
My own speculation sparked.
Holy camole. Did Elena have a crush on that beast of a biker? And why didn’t I feel so up in arms about it as when I thought she was married to Silas?
“If you say so,” Meems hummed, then Elena grabbed the salad bowl in one arm, ketchup in the other, and turned to carry it to the table.
Her face broke out in a giant smile when she noticed me standing there.
“Brinley, you made it. I was about to shout for you to get your cute little butt down here. I thought you might be hiding from us.”
Kai’s head popped up. “Bwinwey!”
I cleared the thickness from my throat. “Nope. No hiding here. I’m actually starving.”
It’d been a long fricking day, and I hadn’t gotten the chance to devour my snacks the way I’d planned to.
I wondered if Elena had any idea of what had gone down while we’d been in town. If Silas shared those things with her. Or maybe to them, those types of incidents were wholly routine.
“It’s a good thing because I made enough to feed an army,” Meems said.
Elena set the salad and ketchup onto the table. “I told you Meems and Lulu were in straight competition to outdo each other with the food. Not that you’re going to find me complaining.”
“I no compwaining.” Kai climbed to his feet, using his hands to push himself up before he came toddling in my direction.
Light, golden brown waves framing his adorable face.
The kid’s grin was ridiculous. So melty and sweet.
He came right up to me and lifted his arms over his head.
I looked around for help.
Elena chuckled. “That one is not shy.”
So, I, uh, was supposed to pick him up?
Apparently, since he popped up on his toes and made little grabby hands in the air.
All right then.
I swept him up.
It turned out, holding him was even meltier.
The child heavier than he looked, and there was something about his weight in my arms that made me pull him closer.
Kai laughed and smacked at my cheeks. “You eat, Bwinwey?”
“Yep. I’m going to eat.” The words were croaked and soggy.
Emotion lifting. Like flowers pushing up from a grave.
Or maybe it was just that the day had been long and strenuous.
That and I was still basically a prisoner in this place, no matter how welcoming they were being.
Trapped due to circumstances not my own.
But I was feeling less and less like I wanted to escape.
Maybe this was exactly how Stockholm Syndrome was formed.
Delicious food and adorable babies.
Definitely not grumbly, bossy bikers.
Nuh-uh, no sir, no way.
“What can I do to help?” I peeped, shoving off the wistfulness.
“Just make yourself whatever you want to drink.” Meems ticked her gray bun toward the refrigerator. “There’s tea and soda. Wine and beer. Silas is going to be back with milk from the club’s stock in just a minute if that’s more your flavor.”
She waddled around the counter with a large casserole dish.
It smelled as near to heaven as I could imagine.
Kai grabbed me by both cheeks and pushed in so close that our noses touched. His eyes were wide and emphatic. “Appwe juiwse.”
“Is that what you want to drink? Apple juice?” I basically cooed it. Apparently, I had sucker tattooed across my forehead because I was pretty sure I’d give this kid anything he wanted.
He nodded vehemently.
I looked to Elena for approval before my foolish gaze went hunting around the room like I was looking for clues.
Where was his mom, anyway?
“He can have half a cup,” she said before she looked at Kai. “So you don’t get your belly full of juice too fast.”
“Kai’s bewwy is hungee.” He grabbed his chubby belly and squeezed it.
I choked over a laugh.
No doubt, this child had every person on the property wrapped around his finger.
I carried him into the kitchen, hooked on my hip, then pulled the bottle of apple juice from the fridge.
“Glasses are in the cabinet on the left,” Elena told me.
I found a plastic one with a lid for Kai, grabbed a glass one for me, filled his half full, then decided to do the same with mine.
“We match.” Kai bobbed his head, peeking up at me for affirmation.
My chest pulsed and spasmed. “I guess we do, don’t we?”
“Can you hold that?” I asked, handing him his cup.
“I am big.”
Sufficient answer, and I was mumbling, “You’re a big boy, aren’t you?” as I carried him into the little dining area.
I set my glass on the table, then went for his highchair. He suddenly scrambled up in my hold, wrapping one arm around my neck as he plastered himself against me.
“I sit wit Bwinwey.”
“Oh, no,” Elena cried. “Did you pick another new favorite?” She smacked her palm over her chest dramatically, acting like he’d delivered a mortal wound.
It must have been a familiar game because Kai giggled like mad before he hid his face in my neck. “No, Wena.”
She came dancing over, poking little love jabs into his sides. “Yes, Lena, yes, Lena!”
He howled with laughter, and I found myself swinging him away from her, getting swept up in their game.
Elena gasped. “Not you, too.”
I whirled all the way around, my hand on the back of Kai’s head like I was protecting him. “Well, I need someone to like me around here.”
It was purely playful and far too easy. Clearly, I should be working harder at keeping up my guard.
“Oh, I think it’s clear a few people around here like you plenty fine.” Meems claimed it just as the front door clattered open.
The sound of Silas tromping through the living room echoed through the space before he appeared in the archway.
A gallon of milk dangled from one hand, and he was still dressed in his Henley and cut, hair messier than normal from the frantic ride we had taken.
The man was so viciously beautiful it was unreal.
Dark and delicious and looking at me in a way that sent my pulse crashing through my woefully deprived body.
“And there he is,” Meems muttered under her breath.
Mmm…yeah…no.
None of us should be thinking such blasphemies.
Kai’s head popped up, and he held his cup toward Silas. “I got juiwse.”
It was the only thing that seemed to tear Silas’s attention from me, and all that fierce ferocity dissolved as he turned his attention to Kai. “What, you got juice? And here I went all the way over to the club to get you milk.”
Silas lifted it like proof.
Kai giggled more, again snuggling up against me, his little dimples peeking out on both cheeks. “I get mewk when I go nigh-night.”
“Ah, well, I guess it’s a good thing I went, then.”
Silas strode through, brushing my upper arm as he angled into the kitchen.
Chills lifted at the connection point, and the breath was heaving out of me without my permission.
Meems peeked my way.
So sly.
Whatever she was thinking was clearly a terrible, bad idea.
It wasn’t going to happen, but I guess no one could blame me for having a reaction.
I could only imagine he had it on ninety-nine percent of the population.
That commanding aura that made you look twice. In interest or fear, it didn’t really matter.
The man held the force of a blackened sun.
He placed the milk into the refrigerator and pulled out a beer.
“Before you go opening that, grab those potatoes from the stove and bring them to the table,” Meems instructed.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Clearly, she was not one of the ninety-nine percent.
Then she gestured at a chair. “Brinley, take a seat, love, and get yourself something to eat.”
I sat down with Kai still in my arms since it was apparent there was no chance he was letting go.
I didn’t mind so much.
Elena settled on the chair to my left.
Silas sauntered over with a big pot of mashed potatoes. He leaned over the side of me, really freaking close as he set them in the middle.
Was that on purpose?
Did he keep barely touching me to drive me out of my mind?
He took the seat to my right.
Meems settled next to Elena, leaving one chair open.
“Where is that scoundrel of a brother of yours?” Meems asked. Not so much with judgement but affection.
“Passed him on my way back,” Silas rumbled as he took a big heaping pile of mashed potatoes, but rather than filling his plate, he splatted it onto mine. “He was finishing up a task for me, then he’ll be here.”
That was when the door banged open again, and a few seconds later, a guy came striding through the archway like a whirlwind that tore through and left everything in shambles.
All smirks and grins and cockiness.
As handsome as Silas but in an entirely different way.
Brown hair and similar eyes, though his were a couple of shades darker. Where Silas was covered in ink, only a few individual tattoos dotted his arms.
I would say he had to be at least ten years younger than Silas.
All sharp edges, too, but where Silas’s gleamed like razors, his were softened with a cool easiness that made him appear a whole lot more harmless than he undoubtedly was.
When he saw me sitting at the table, he came to a jolting standstill, surprise jetting through his distinct features, before his mouth broke out in a smug grin. “Ah, so this is the one who’s causing such an uproar around here.”
His gaze raked over me before it drifted to his brother. “Gotta admit, the details are becoming a whole lot clearer on why.”