Chapter 19
Idaho
Groaning, I reached out and grabbed my vibrating cell phone off the nightstand. "What?"
"I forgot how cheerful you were in the morning," my brother said, voice amused.
"Only before my first cup of coffee. What's up?
" Sometimes it was hard to remember that he was the president of a club where I was a prospect.
We just fell back into the natural role of brothers.
He hadn't given me too much shit about it, but I also tried to watch myself in front of the other men as much as possible.
"Rip called it, we're all here at the hospital. Sloane's having her baby."
I sat up in bed, rubbing a hand over my face. "Need me to go out and keep an eye on the perimeter?"
"Static's there watching out for everything and Syl is watching all the kids. Just check in with him throughout the day. I don't know how long we'll be here. Seek wanted me to ask if you could take care of her dogs for the day?"
"Will do. Anything else?"
"Yeah, you need to get your ass up and get downstairs. The kids are going to be here soon for presents."
"Shit," I muttered. "I'll be down there in a few."
Lockout and Riptide had funded a massive shopping trip before I'd even gotten here and the women had bought gifts for all the women and children over at the apartment complex.
We were supposed to be delivering the presents this morning, but with the unexpected turn of events the mothers were going to be bringing the kids here to get them.
I didn't bother to put on anything over my boxer briefs, instead opting to stumble out to the kitchen in search of coffee.
I poured a cup, debating on whether I wanted to just drink it straight from the pot.
Despite it burning my tongue, I took a huge gulp.
Sleep eluded me last night. I couldn't get the feel of Eva in my arms out of my head.
The last time I'd looked at the clock had been four a.m., and now it was only six.
There was no point in being irritated that the kids were likely hounding their mothers to get over here this early. That was what kids did on Christmas. I'd been guilty of a lot worse when I was younger. Turning, I froze as I saw Eva sitting there, sipping on her own cup.
"Good morning."
She looked fucking gorgeous, sitting there in her pajamas—thank fuck this was a flannel set that covered everything—drinking her coffee.
It was obvious our constant rubbing up on each other wasn't keeping her awake at night.
And why would it? She had nothing to feel guilty about.
I, on the other hand, knew I shouldn't be touching her.
It was a constant battle between my need for her and the knowledge that I couldn't keep her.
I wasn't going to break her in the meantime.
"Want to give me a hand?" I asked, leaning back against the counter. Her eyes slid down over my body before darting away. I used the cup to hide my grin.
"Sure," she told me. "With what?"
I explained that Sloane was giving birth and everyone was in the waiting room for moral support. "That leaves us playing Santa Claus and handing out presents."
"I'd love to help," she said, jumping up. "Just let me go get changed."
"No time," I told her. "They'll be here soon. Just put on your shoes and grab your coat."
She nodded and hurried off, returning quickly.
She looked adorable with her hair pulled up into a ponytail and her face scrubbed clean of makeup, dressed up in red and white checkered flannel.
Seeing her like that made me want to sit around the Christmas Tree, opening presents and drinking coffee. With her.
I took long enough to put on my jeans, t-shirt, and cut, before I dragged on my boots. Grabbing my phone and wallet, I shoved them into my pocket as I walked back into the living room.
"You changed," she accused.
"It takes two minutes for me to get dressed. You take a lot longer. Besides, I can't go down in my fucking underwear to give presents to kids. That's how fuckers get arrested."
She laughed, and admitted, "That's true. What do we need to do first?"
"Follow me," I told her, holding the door open until she walked through. I went down the hall, with her following, and opened Hush's door. My whistle had her eyebrows shooting up. Auron and Jecht came charging through the doorway, ready to be free.
We went downstairs and I let the dogs outside.
Static would keep an eye on them until they were ready to come back inside.
I opened up one of the rooms the club hardly used.
It was stacked with gifts. Each was wrapped, labeled, and ready to go home with its new family.
"We need to get all these out into the common area. "
"Okay." She didn't complain, just rolled up her sleeves and started hauling presents out two by two.
I took as many as I could hold without dropping them, and after about ten minutes we had them out near the tree and sorted by name.
Each kid had at least five presents. I wasn't sure whether the mothers were going to let them open all of them here, or take them home to unwrap.
Whatever they wanted to do was fine by me.
"What do you think?" I asked her, standing next to her in front of the tree.
"It's amazing," she said softly. "You guys are so incredibly generous."
"It's Christmas," I told her with a shrug. "And these kids deserve it. They've been through enough."
She nodded, then looked up at me. "You're a good man, Idaho."
I shifted, uncomfortable with her assessment.
"I need to tell you something."
"What's that, Duchess?"
"Thomas ran a background check on you. He called yesterday and gave me the highlights, then emailed the report to me."
My brows shot up. "I might need to get the name of the company you used. They're faster than mine."
"They know Thomas is my bodyguard and prioritize anything to do with my father."
"Fair enough. Why are you telling me?" I asked, folding my arms over my chest.
She sighed and looked away from me. "I feel bad that I didn't give you the chance to tell me yourself. You've been so open with me about everything else, and you're doing me a favor by letting me stay here."
My lips quirked up at the guilty look on her face.
"Never play poker, Duchess. You'll lose all your father's money.
" She frowned at me, opening her mouth to say more, but I beat her to it.
"I have no problem with you checking me out.
I figured Thomas would anyway. He'd be stupid not to and he doesn't strike me as a dumb man. "
Static poked his head through the door, interrupting us. The dogs rushed past him through the open door, barking happily. "Hey, Bro. They're here. You ready?"
"Send them in," I told him with a grin. There are those who like to joke—mainly Static—that my heart was a shriveled pit inside my chest, but seeing those kids walk in and stand quietly next to their mothers nearly pulverized what was left of it.
It was Christmas morning. They should be running around like little maniacs.
One little girl gave me a shy smile as she stuck to her mom's leg like she was glued there.
"I'll go get Syl and the kids," Static said as he jogged up the stairs. He would randomly check on the perimeter while we had the families here, but there was no real reason for him to stay outside the entire time.
Squatting down, I looked around at the kids.
"There's a pile of presents here for each of you," I told them as softly as I could manage.
They weren't used to men being kind to them.
"As soon as you're ready, you can come find your pile.
" Straightening, I stepped out of the way to leave a clear path to the gifts.
It didn't take long before the club's kids rushed down the stairs, all noise and chaos.
It was hard to tell which preceded which, noise, or chaos.
Generally, you heard the kids before you saw them—a trick they learned from Toxic—but occasionally, there was chaos followed by noise—a trick they learned from Butcher.
Cassie smiled at a little boy about her age who was busy staring at the floor, though he peeked up to look at her every once in a while.
She ran over and grabbed his hand, dragging him toward the waiting presents.
Some of the older children looked up at their mothers for permission. As soon as it was given they ran forward to find which mound of presents belonged to them. The mothers helped the younger kids. Happy kid noises filled the room and I began to relax.
The club kids seemed to realize the cult children were shy and needed to be treated a bit softer, because they were a little more tame than they usually were.
In the same way that their parents were willing to help anyone, the kids saw it as their duty to help.
In this case, it was teaching kids how to be kids.
Gabby handed her tablet over to another girl and they settled back to watch something on one of the streaming platforms. Auron laid down next to them, laying his head on the new girl's lap. She seemed thrilled to have him there.
Sean and a few other boys were already starting a game of cops and robbers with some toy foam blasters they'd gotten.
Jecht was running around with them, and it was almost as if the dog understood the damn game.
I chuckled as he knocked over a boy who'd been about to take a shot at someone's back.
The boy's giggles filled the room as Jecht licked his face.
"Thank you all for doing this." I looked over and found Angie standing a few feet away with a smile on her face.
"You're more than welcome."
"Most of the mothers have found part time jobs, but it's difficult."
"Of course it is. They're doing it all on their own," Eva said from the other side of me. I hadn't heard her approach.