The asshole is still there, but now he’s looking at Ollie with too much interest for my taste. I step in front of my kid and push him behind me. Both Maddy’s and the guy’s eyebrows rise as they take in my action. No hiding that I’m being protective, and I don’t care if it offends them.
Okay, maybe I care a bit as I watch Maddy frown. I heard a few of the people at the party call her Mama Bear, so no doubt she’s protective of her own three kids, and probably anyone else’s who gets close. Since the first day I met her, she’s been nothing but nice. I don’t get that a lot. I’m from New York—we don’t do nice. Since I got Ollie, well, we’ve moved too many times to find anyone willing to be. No need to be nice to a stranger who ain’t sticking around. Sure, we got smiles and nods, even a few hellos, but never had anyone come over with baked goods as a “welcome to the neighborhood” before. Which is ironic since the house we rent isn’t even close to Maddy’s place. But I guess it’s in the club’s neighborhood.
“Yeah, think we got enough sun for the day. Thanks for inviting us. It was nice.”
I turn and push Ollie forward to the door, always making sure he goes out first when we have to turn our backs on someone. I’d rather they shoot me than him.
“We should do it again sometime.” I cringe a bit at the note of desperation in Maddy’s voice before I look back. She’s taken a few steps closer to us—following us out, I’m sure. “Teddy would love to have Oliver over anytime for a playdate.”
Ollie looks back at her and then at me. I curb the guilt as I squeeze my eyes tight for half a second before I open them again. I saw the want there. The desire to play with someone his own age for longer than one time before we have to move again. I’ve done what I can, but even if we stay in a place long enough to attend school for a few months, he never gets to see them after the school day is done. It’s not safe for them or him.
It was that guilt that got us here, that had me agreeing to come to this monstrosity of a birthday. Who even throws a one-year-old a shindig like this? Well, maybe back home with the families, but Maddy went all out. I half expected her to say this was a four-in-one party, which would explain why there was so much of everything going on for every age group in that backyard.
“Yeah, maybe,” I say, but everyone knows I’m lying. I see it in Ollie’s shoulder drag and the small frown Maddy tries to hide before she plasters a smile on her face and nods quickly.
“I’ll drop by next week.”
She’s trying so hard, but I can’t lie to her again. I don’t nod at her or anything, just turn and walk out the door.
I don’t have a problem lying. Done it all my life, it seems. I hate doing it to Ollie, or when it’s about Ollie and he’s standing right there. Each time I do, I see what little spirit he has left die a bit more. I don’t even know if we’ll be here for a few more days, much less next week. I might have signed a six-month lease for the place, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to keep it.
As the screen door shuts, I wrap my arm around Ollie and sink into the warmth he gives me as he leans on me as we start the walk home. I didn’t bring the car, as I foolishly thought we could have one day of peace. The walk won’t be long, though. While the main roads make it a ten-to-fifteen-minute drive, there aren’t any fences on the open green pastures between here and the neighborhood our place is close to. It’ll take almost as long to walk as it would to drive by taking the shortcut. And maybe by the time we get to our place, I can figure out a way to make my kid smile again. At least for a little while, before I have to pack us up again.
Before we get too far, I hear Maddy talking. I can only assume it’s to the guy with the knife, and as I chance a look behind me, I confirm my suspicions. Both of them are staring out the door at us.
“What the hell did you say, Bass?”
“Me? Why do you think it was me?” There’s indignation in his voice.
“’Cause despite what the brothers might say, you aren’t as charming as you think you are.”
For the first time since we’ve been here, I wish we could stay. Maddy just did the impossible and doesn’t even know it. She made me laugh. Something that’s rare even on a good day, and never on a day with an episode from Ollie. The girl really is something else.
Too bad we can never be friends.
Chapter 3—Bass
Ican’t get the woman’s words out of my head. I’ve seen a lot of shit in my life, and I recognize what PTSD is. But this is the first time I’ve seen it in a kid. And don’t even get me started on how long before I realized that’s what the kid has.
At first, I chalked it up to a scared kid not being around the “big bad” before. Not that we Hounds would ever hurt a kid, but we’re strangers. They have no idea what we’re capable of. I honestly just thought it was a typical kid’s reaction, that he hadn’t see a weapon before or something. The club might have kids around, more lately than before, but that didn’t meanIspent much time with them. I’m here for a few laughs, and that’s about it.
But as I sit at the bar at the clubhouse, nursing the whiskey the prospect manning the bar gave me as a “welcome home” gift, I keep replaying the scene in my head. No matter how many angles I try to force on it, only one is true: That kid went through some serious shit. And I made it worse for him.
“There he is. The man of the hour.”
I grunt as I hear Chains’ voice behind me and feel him approach at my back. I look up and see his reflection in the mirror behind the bar, noting that he isn’t alone.
“Oh yeah?” Casper says, sliding up on my left as Chains takes my right. “What makes him so great?”
Ijust shake my head, as I already know they’re teasing me. They must have missed me a ton to be starting in on the jokes so soon on my return.
“Don’t know many who can strike out with a woman within twenty minutes of being home. Man, did you lose your touch up north, or did you not get any practice in the last ten months and forgot how to flirt?” Chains says with a wide grin as he accepts the beer the prospect places in front of him, Casper grabs his beer as well, and they cheers.
I let their chuckles surround me as I take another sip of the whiskey. The burn warms me as always, but it still doesn’t clear my head of the words that keep rattling around inside.
“What do you know of her?” It’s rare that I’m the one who brings the jokes to a stop. Hell, I’m usually never serious. This might be a first for me outside Church or a mission. Even then, though, I’m still cracking jokes half the time.
Casper raises an eyebrow as Chains shrugs before he answers. “Not much. Flint ran her through the system, but nothing popped.”
