“Christopher!” Meggie called, her bare feet slapping against the marble floor.
“Fuck, thank God,” Digger mumbled.
The relief on Narci’s, Bishop’s, and Torrin’s faces was a hypocritical travesty. They relied on the woman to save their miserable lives but saw no problem inflaming the girls and disrespecting her.
They all waited in silence as she hurried from the staircase down the darkened central hallway in a blur of motion. She halted on the other side of the archway, standing in the shadows.
Mort was just able to make out her blonde hair and golden skin. Alotof it.
“Donotlook at Rebel’s phone. Not yet. Not unless Nyx gets out of line again.” Meggie huffed. “I told you to leave it alone, Rebel.”
“Why are you in the shadows, Megan?” Johnnie asked, not quite recovered from Rebel’s all-encompassing fury but still able to get his full asshole on. “You must’ve been crying more than Rebel let on and your face and eyes are all puffy.”
Releasing Rebel, Outlaw turned and looked at Johnnie.
“Here, Daddy,” Rebel said, drawing Prez’s attention back to her.
He reached for the phone. Digger swayed. Bishop gulped. Narci and Torrin clutched each other.
“Oh my god!” Meggie gritted, hurrying forward.
Mort saw the exact moment her barely clothed body registered with everyone. She wore a black silk and lace nightie. The spaghetti straps revealed her chest and the short length revealed her thighs and legs. She must’ve recently gotten out of a shower because her hair was still damp. Her skinwasn’tpuffy. As a matter of fact, she still looked so fucking young it was hard to believe Mort had known her almost eighteen years.
“Jesus Christ,” Johnnie breathed.
Narci stared at her, watched her hair and tits bounce as Prez lifted Rebel’s phone above his head and Meggie tried to snatch it.
Johnnie was transfixed.
“Mom, what are you doing?” CJ demanded. “You don’t have clothes on!”
Prez halted and really looked at Meggie. He glowered at her. “Get the fuck back upstairs.”
“Not until you give me that phone,” Meggie snapped.
“All these motherfuckers gettin’ cock rises lookin’ at you!”
Everyonedenied the accusation. Mort wasn’t sure about their honesty—especially Johnnie’s and Narci’s—but he was telling the truth. He saw Meggie as a little sister. In the early days, he’d hadtwinges of cock stirrings but that minuscule attraction for herandKendall long ago disappeared.
“You got that nightie for your ma on purpose, Rebel,” Outlaw accused, pointing at his daughter.
Rebel smirked. “Nope. Sure didn’t. I picked the first thing I saw so she could remove her towel. I waited until she went back into the bathroom before I came down. I was expecting her to braid her hair after she combed it out.”
“I came out to ask you if you had a short robe,” Meggie confessed. “I think the activation of the sprinklers shut off the HVAC system and I was cold. The heat isn’t coming on.”
Prez, Johnnie, and Narci dropped their gazes to Meggie’s chest. Judging by Prez’s annoyance, her tits revealed exactly how cold she was. Out of respect for Bailey, Meggie and Outlaw, Mort refused to look.
Thinking about Bailey, she wouldneverrun behind Harley, barely dressed, to save a club girl—oranyone—without taking the time to find a robe.
Mort scrubbed a hand over his face. Was he really doing this? Was he admiring Prez, Meggie, and their children? Was he a little wistful that his family was in tatters when he’d always thought they shared a similarly tight bond as Prez’s family?
Bailey was floundering. Harley was floundering. Digger was floundering…nope, that motherfucker was stupid. But the end still resulted in severed connections and misery.
He glanced at his watch. Fuck, he was almost an hour late. He needed to either contact Bailey and ask her to bear with him or cancel altogether. It concerned him that if he did either, they’d get into another argument, so he’d give it a few more minutes and then make a decision.
Meggie wrapped her arms around her chest. Prez took off his cut and handed it to her. She held it with reverence and respect as he removed his shirt andexchanged it for his cut, which he put on over his bare chest. Then, he snatched the shirt from her and stood in front of her. When he moved away, she was wearing the T-shirt. It was so ridiculously big that the Triplets guffawed. CJ, Diesel, and Rebel joined in.
Meggie and Outlaw looked at each other and burst into laughter. He took her in his arms and hugged her, then dragged Rebel into his embrace, too.
