26. Mila
26
I’m being babysat.
“Come on, sit with us,” says Summer. The pretty woman with wavy brown hair pats the chair next to her. I remember her the most easily because of the drink Jewel made for me. “My boys are watching the triplets and I’m dying to talk to someone new. Nothing personal, ladies. I just feel like I never get out of the house these days.”
Emily laughs. She’s the host for this meeting of what they informally call the Harem Brunch Club—which I admit is kinda funny. She lives with her three men and their two kids in one of the houses inside the compound. “I get it. Grace is a dream, but Tyler and Lucas are little mini bikers in the making.”
“Are you okay?” Summer asks.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I smile. I know the boys are trying to keep me from worrying about Danny while they go talk to some of their contacts, but it doesn't mean it's easy. I've got a glass of what I thought was going to be fizzy water with lime in it, but there's no hiding the gin under the tonic water. Emily took one look at me when I walked in and added another capful.
All the women here have multiple guys they've shacked up with, which seems kind of crazy, but apparently it’s become a normal thing at the club. Emily was the first, and she says Eagle-eye wasn’t happy at all. Partly because he didn’t understand why three of his men all wanted the same woman and was worried it would cause trouble, but also because they kidnapped her! As someone interested in journalism, finding out that I’m in the same house with the old mayor's daughter, the same one I read about in the papers when he tried to have her killed, is like meeting a rock star. In fact, I recognize several of the women here from various scandals in the city.
Their names whirr around in my head, and I'm still struggling to place them all. Alessa is the dark haired one that seems closest to Emily. If I understood right, she was the second old lady at the club to have multiple men. And she has four—four! I got a brief story about Mafia and biker wars and some craziness, but I didn't really catch all of it. The more I'm getting to know these people, the more I understand where Eagle-eye was coming from when he warned me.
A curvy woman across from me with a red streak in her hair leans in. Kaylee, I think. “I hear you're studying to be a journalist. That sounds really exciting.”
“More exciting than I expected, to be honest.” I shrug. “It's gotten a little complicated.”
She laughs. “It always does. When I met Nitro, Wraith and Tank, it was so much fun. I wished my life was more exciting.”
“How did that work out for you,” I ask.
“Well, once I survived the explosion and the kidnapping it got a lot better.”
Emily leans in. “Don’t forget the second kidnapping. When my father grabbed you.”
“Oh, right, yeah. After that it got a lot better. Now it’s just a normal level of excitement. Mostly.”
My jaw drops. I could live here and have stories to tell for the rest of my life.
“Speaking of which,” calls Alessa, who's been listening in. “Any news, Kaylee?”
Kaylee blushes. “I’m not sure. I’m late but I haven’t taken a test yet.” She looks at me, almost apologetically. “When it comes to them, I can’t keep a secret to save my life.”
Summer claps her hands. “That’s exciting! Trying is the fun part.”
A new brunette sits down near me. “It’s a lot to take in. I haven’t been here that long and I’m still getting caught up in all the drama.”
“Shelby, right?”
She nods. “Yep. I’m with Phoenix, Havoc and Sledge.”
“Have you been kidnapped?”
“Not exactly, but I did sneak in when they had to storm a rival club after someone kidnapped my little girl.”
I take a deep gulp of my gin and tonic. “Right, that makes sense.”
I won't claim I understand how everything works around here, but I'm getting a sense of it. And what I'm starting to figure out with Reaper, Scrapper and Mack, is something all these women already have with their guys. Families. Kids, homes. Probably not a regular life the way most people would see it, but at the same time, about as normal as things can get when you shack up with three—or four—big tattooed bikers who are literally willing to kill to keep you safe, and at the same time can be trusted to watch the babies while you have a little social time.
I'm only twenty-one. Two weeks ago, the idea of settling down, if you can call this that, would never even have occurred to me. I’ve never thought much about getting married or having kids. I've got a career to work on first, but at the same time, I'm pretty sure the boys won't demand any of those things of me, if I don't want them. But I'm starting to realize—like really realize—that maybe one day I could have that with them.
“Have we shocked you?” Summer puts a friendly hand on my shoulder. “Reaper, Scrapper and Mack are good guys. All the Screaming Eagles are, or at least it seems that way to me. They're rough, but there's something about the comradery, the feeling of family here—I've never seen anything like it, and I grew up in a place where everyone said the right things but was horrible under the surface. This is a hundred times better.”
I smile. “A little shocked, mostly overwhelmed.”
“Don’t worry. It’s not like you have to give up your life if you do decide to stick with them. Faith runs a bookstore. Natalie's has a bakery. Emily finished a nursing degree, and I'm working on a degree for early childhood education. We all have our things. Heck, even if you happen to get knocked up—which has been known to happen with so many virile guys around—there are a lot more hands to share the work with. It's like a dream come true, if you ask me.” She grins the grin of a mom who knows her triplets are well taken care of and she's free to relax with her friends.
“Hey, you're Mila, right?” One of the old ladies drops onto the couch arm next to me and shows me her phone. Her brown hair is styled into a cute pixie cut, and she's wearing thick-rimmed glasses that nicely frame her steel gray eyes. She's also wearing a friendly smile. “I'm Faith. You've probably met my Dad, Eagle-eye.”
That explains why the steely gray looks so familiar.
“I help your guys with the FixerUppers account. I know you've been looking at it.” She smirks knowingly, and I think I'm turning red again.
“Um, yeah, sometimes.”
“Don’t be shy.”
“Oh God, they haven't shown you, have they?”
She breaks out into a deep belly laugh. “Let’s just say that I used to monitor the account because at the start they didn’t want to. And then Alpha, one of my men, was there when they started sending you dick pics and he made me stop. Now I just help them with planning and filming.”
“Can we all help?” asks Natalie with a laugh, the one with the bakery. I'm starting to remember who's who here.
Faith grins. “I'm pretty sure all of us here have some pretty good ideas of what kinds of sexy things we'd like to see our guys doing on film. Brainstorming session?”
A cheer goes up, and then the day devolves into suggestion after suggestion, each one dirtier and more outrageous than the other. And I get dragged right into the middle of it, like I've been one of their friends for years. The brotherhood that the Screaming Eagles have seems to have created a bit of a sisterhood, too.
Maybe the guys were right to send me here. There's no way I'll stop worrying about Danny until I know more, but it's hard to be too down when I'm surrounded by a bunch like these girls. And when the suggestion of tear-away pants come up, I can't help but get involved.
Don’t worry, Danny. I won’t stop until we get to the bottom of this.