“This is some luxurious shit.”
“Callie insisted on the best for the team. Phil, Freddie, Jack, and Harry sleep here. Diaz, Solace, Ashford, and Merrick also do.”
“It’s a beast,” Levi said, eyeing the double-decker tour bus. “How does it handle?”
“Believe it or not, it’s easier than the RV to drive,” I replied, and Levi chuckled.
“Damn, Callie didn’t scrimp on the pennies.” Levi whistled again as we entered deeper.
The upper deck of the bus was split into ten bedrooms and three bathrooms. Downstairs were two more bathrooms, a generous kitchen area and a separate living area, which took up a third of the floor space. There were also two small offices. One belonged to Phil for editing his footage, and the other Harry used for research. It was luxurious, and we all appreciated it. No bedbug-ridden hotel beds for us.
The luggage compartments under the bus held furniture for the summer and a grill, which only took ten minutes to put up. The guys also stored their seasonal clothing there. Summer clothes in the winter and vice versa. It saved space in their bedrooms, which weren’t exactly large.
Levi wandered around as I pulled the fixings out for sandwiches. Callie had insisted on a full-sized refrigerator and freezer being installed. She rightfully guessed nobody wanted to go shopping on a daily basis, especially when coming off a long night shift. Unlike many ghost-hunting teams, Callie didn’t clock off at two or three a.m.—no, she kept going until dawn. And even during the day when we slept, the cameras continued rolling. Needless to say, Phil had a tough job editing.
“Damn, Sunny, this is better than a house,” Levi stated, coming back down the stairs.
“Thank Callie for that! This wasn’t my idea. If I’d had my way, we’d have stayed in hotels.” I laughed.
“Wanna say thanks for this. It means a lot. Brother, it’s not common knowledge—the club knows—but Madi had a miscarriage six weeks ago,” Levi announced softly.
The knife I was holding clattered to the worktop as I dropped it and turned around. My gut clenched when I witnessed the sorrow in Levi’s eyes. He relaxed the false act he’d been putting on and let me see his grief.
“Shit, man,” I said, moving and clasping his shoulder.
“Madi should have been safe; she was eighteen weeks. Fuck, Sunny, we saw the baby. She was fully formed, had fingers and toes and everything,” Levi whispered brokenly. He ducked his head into my shoulder, seeking comfort.
“Fuckin’ surprised you’re functioning, brother,” I murmured as my tee became wet. Levi didn’t raise his head from where it lay on my chest, and I knew he was crying. It wasn’t our way to comment, so I stayed where I was. If Levi needed to grieve, then I was only too willing to help him.
“I had to get Madi away. Tamsin just announced she was pregnant, and it nearly killed her,” Levi muttered.
Shit, I could only imagine. Tamsin was one of Madisen’s cousins, and they were incredibly close.
“Who’s looking after Lily and DJ?” I asked, referring to Levi and Madisen’s kids. Lily had been born in June twenty-twenty-two, and DJ arrived October twenty-twenty-three. Levi had been one of those who’d knocked his old lady up before the war. Between Rage MC and Hellfire, their part of South Dakota had experienced a baby boom.
“Derek has them, with Brandi, Cami, and Tamsin. Madi didn’t trust Derek not to tie them up in the backyard,” Levi snorted and pulled away. He wiped tears from his eyes, and I reached out and squeezed his shoulder.
“Damn, you dumped them on Derek?” The head of the McKenzie family popped into my mind, and I winced.
Derek ran the biggest crime family in Florida, and I’d never seen him in anything but a designer suit. I couldn’t imagine the immaculate man with two kids, who were often snotty, wet, and smelly! It was a well-known secret in the club that Madisen was his baby sister, but nobody would ever spill the beans.
“Yeah. Madi broke a fortnight ago. Derek cleared his schedule and flew down. We came up with this plan to distract her. Knowing she had this helped her a bit,” Levi explained.
I felt like shit for complaining about them coming. But there was a problem… “Levi, Callie is pregnant. Is that going to upset Madisen?” I asked gently.
“Chance announced it a few weeks ago when you told Clio. Madi knows, and I think she’ll be okay. Callie’s three months, which is less than what Madisen was,” Levi replied.
“Brother, I haven’t got the words to express my sympathy,” I murmured.
“It seems selfish as we’ve still got Lily and DJ. But Sunny, you should have seen her. She was a fully formed baby. That’s what broke us the worst, ya know?”
“I get it, brother. Something like that isn’t easy to recover from,” I agreed.
Levi and Madi had to be devastated. And woe betide anyone who told them they were young enough to have another. Fuckin’ idiots. Another baby wouldn’t bring the one they lost back.
“I’ll ensure Madi is in the thick of things,” I promised.
“Thanks, brother, we both could use the distraction.”
