––––––––

CHIEF'S MOTORCYCLE shut off outside Nene's house. Johanna stood in the hallway out of sight, having hurried from her room the second the loud rumbling reached her ears. Finally, the day of the Brikken Family Day party had arrived—two weeks after her twelfth birthday. Everything fun happened this month, including no more school for the summer.

But, if Momma Nene found out she'd grabbed Chief's attention first, manipulating his time during his visit, there was a chance she'd get in a mood and make her stay at home and miss all the fun.

Momma Nene had some weird rules.

Twice, she'd forgotten to put her folded clothes away in the dresser and ended up having to do the dishes five times that week instead of the normal three.

Lindsay and Ashley, sisters and her best friends from school, had divorced parents and they'd told her that on the weekends, they had to wait outside the front door for their dad to show up. She couldn't understand grownups.

Chief wasn't her dad. Momma Nene wasn't her mom. But, she couldn't tell people that. Even her teachers believed she lived with her real mom and her parents weren't married.

The front door opened and closed. She stuck her head around the corner and caught Momma Nene throwing herself at Chief. A loud sigh of acceptance escaped Johanna, and she walked back to her room, leaving the door open. The rules were unfair. She hated to wait because Chief only came to the house twice a week. Sometimes it seemed like forever between his visits.

She sat on the bed and picked at the string on her cutoffs. Loud kissy noises came into the room. She looked into the hallway and watched Momma Nene lead Chief by the hand into the other bedroom across from hers. Gross.

Getting up from the bed, she shut the door. The only good thing about Chief spending time in Momma Nene's bedroom was after he walked out, cause then Momma Nene would ignore her, and Chief would take her with him to the clubhouse.

She'd waited and waited and waited for today. Chief promised to take her to the Brikken Motorcycle Club's summer get-together and then bring her home really late. It would be her first time to see everybody in the club altogether, and there would be kids her age there, too.

Momma Nene's giggle floated through the one-story house. Johanna groaned in disgust. Chief came over to have sex with Nene.

She knew about sex.

Lindsay, who was thirteen, a year older than her, told her how a boy's wiener got hard and went between a girl's legs when he was happy.

It grossed her out to think of Chief and Momma Nene having sex. She was never going to let a boy put his dirty wiener on or in her until she was older. Boys were irritating.

Chief wasn't a boy.

He was old.

She loved him most in the world.

When Momma Nene refused to let her go roller-skating for Lindsay's birthday party, Chief took her on his motorcycle and stayed outside the rink so she could go be with her friends. He even took her to Dairy Queen and bought her a Blizzard and asked for double the Oreos.

She wanted to live with Chief in the clubhouse, but he wanted her to go to a good school where the bus picked her up in front of the house.

Momma Nene didn't like having her around. She never said that to Johanna, but she could tell. And, she'd eavesdropped on Chief's private conversations with Momma Nene. He'd be upset if he knew it was hard for her to live here.

It wasn't bad. It just wasn't fun.

She never told Chief why Momma Nene didn't like her. She kept it a secret. Like the secret about how her real mom used to leave her with strangers all the time.

Chief wouldn't allow her to speak about her real mom or her past. She'd tried last year to ask if he knew where her mom went, and Chief got angry and stayed away for a whole month. She'd spent the whole time sick to her stomach and scared he wouldn't come back. Momma Nene even took her to the doctor.

She went to the door and peeked out. Only silence came from Momma Nene's room, and Johanna smiled. It wouldn't be long now.

Rushing over to her desk, she brushed her hair again. Excited for her first grown-up party, she wanted to be pretty and act nice, so everyone liked her, and Chief would ask her to go to another get-together.

Brikken Motorcycle Club was the most important thing to Chief. It would be important to her, too.

A knock on the door made her squeal. She tossed the brush and hurried to open her bedroom door.

"Need your help, bug." Chief held out his hand, a hair band dangled from his finger. She snatched it from him and stepped back, anxious to leave the house with him before Momma Nene changed her mind.

He only trusted her to tie his hair. She was good at making sure all the strands stayed tight for when he rode his motorcycle.

Chief walked over to the bed and sat. She found the hairbrush she'd thrown, scrambled on top of the mattress, and kneeled behind him.

He weighed a lot and made her bed tilt. She planted her hands on his shoulders and leaned around him to see his face. "Ponytail or braid?"

"You pick." He shook his head, and the strands tickled her arms.

She brushed the tangles out of his dark hair. The gray strands hidden in all his hair fascinated her. A long time ago, he let her pull a couple of them out. She'd saved them in her jewelry box, which was a stupid thing to do now that she was older. But, she hadn't thrown them away and always made sure she was careful not to lose them.

Dividing his hair into three sections, she braided tightly starting at his neck. The end reached clear down to the T on the patch of his vest.

She was good at braiding. Even Momma Nene couldn't braid.

"All done." She rolled off the bed and stood. "Ready?"

Chief chuckled, his dark eyes crinkling at the corners. "What are you excited about?"

"The party." She grabbed his worn vest. "You promised, remember?"

"Yeah, about that..." He tilted his head and looked at the ceiling. "Maybe next year."

He teased. The smile almost hidden in his beard gave him away. There were many times he appeared mean and stubborn, but with her, she could see through his whiskers.

"Chief!" She jumped in front of him. "Let's go."

"Hold your horses, Johanna." He picked her up. "We need to wait for your momma."

She wrapped her arms around his thick neck, her legs around his waist, and whispered, "I thought it was just you and me going."

Some of her happiness disappeared. If Momma Nene came, she'd boss Johanna around and not let her run around the clubhouse the way Chief let her when she went alone with him.

"We need to follow her car, bug." He carried her out of the room.

At the front door, Momma Nene said, "Put that child down. She's too old for you to carry that way. The neighbors see you holding her, and they'll start to talk."

She tightened her arms and legs. She'd never be too big or too old. Chief was huge. The biggest man she'd ever seen.

"Shut your mouth, Nene. If she wants me to carry her, I'll carry her." Chief tickled Johanna's side. "You want down?"

"No." She squeezed him. "Carry me all the way out to your motorcycle."

"You're the only one allowed to boss me around, bug. You remember that." His long strides took him across the patch of grass in the front of the house.

He always had a lot of things he wanted her to remember.

She was never to mention the apartment where he found her.

She was supposed to tell everyone at school that Momma Nene was her real mom.

If someone asked if Chief was her dad, she was supposed to say she doesn't have a father.

She kept all the things he wanted her to remember on her laptop he'd bought her for her birthday. She'd never forget.

At the Harley, she jumped down to the ground. "I'm too old for you to call me bug."

He handed her a helmet. "Says who?"

"Me." She latched the strap under her chin and pushed the front back as it threatened to cover her eyes. "I'm twelve. That's a name for someone younger. I'm so close to being a teenager. You could call me Jo."

"That's a guy's name," he said.

Chief sat on the motorcycle and frowned at her. Afraid she hurt his feelings, she leaned in and kissed his whiskered cheek, patting his beard. "I'm sorry."

He motioned his chin to his shoulder. "Get on, bug."

She climbed up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, letting him call her the nickname he always used for her without any argument. Inhaling the leather of his vest, she kept her feet on the pegs, ready to go.

Momma Nene pulled out of the driveway in the car. Chief rode away from the house. For now, it was only her and Chief. She wished it could be that way all the time.

***

THREE HOURS INTO THE Brikken party put on for the families to get together, Nene yelled at Johanna from her spot at the picnic table outside the clubhouse. Chief's head whipped away from the group of MC brothers around him and scanned the crowd of members and their families until he spotted Johanna in the field standing in the bed of an old pickup.

The teenagers played music from an old boom box away from the grownups. Some of them danced, others talked while the boys copped a feel with the nearest girl. He gazed back at Johanna holding hands with one of D-Con's daughters and jumping around, fitting right in with the older kids. She danced like every twelve-year-old girl. No inhibition and all arms and legs.

"Johanna, get over here." Nene marched away from the table, her ass swishing in warning.

More and more often, he'd witnessed Nene become stricter with Johanna. He'd chalked it up to her never having kids, and expecting too much from the child.

He kept his spot.

Johanna jumped down from the side of the truck and dragged her feet across the field toward Nene. He narrowed his eyes. It was good for the girl to have fun with kids her own age. There was nothing Nene couldn't do for herself.

Nene pointed to the clubhouse, her mouth doing its own beating. He'd been on the receiving end before when Nene demanded something be done around the house, and he'd been gone on a ride or when she'd had a problem with one of the other women in the club and spouted off to him. He only allowed that because he wanted her set up and available to him. Nene had been a part of his father's life. He wanted her around.

Johanna ran off toward the clubhouse. He headed that way, cutting her off halfway to the door. He'd hoped Nene would warm to having a daughter. Four years later, Nene showed her true colors. The only person she could get along with was him when he gave her dick.

He stepped in Johanna's path. "Where are you going?"

"Momma Nene wants me to get cups for everyone." Johanna slipped her fingers into his hand. "Can I stay with you tonight? Please?"

Nene liked to drink.

He tugged her into the clubhouse. "You can't spend the night here."

Johanna's shoulders sagged. "Okay."

Her acceptance of his answer worried him. "Get the cups, bug."

She hurried into the kitchen and returned with a stack of red Solo cups. Her happiness over being included in the get-together obviously dampened by chores, she walked away from him without saying another word. He followed her out, keeping an eye on her as she delivered the cups to Nene.

Johanna wandered off into the field but veered away from the pickup and the kids. She sat down on the grass, crossed her legs, and lowered her head. He needed to do something with her arrangement.

Just why he stepped up to become Johanna's protector escaped his reasoning, nor had he wasted time trying to find an excuse beyond protecting a child's innocence from the club's criminal activities. He only knew when he'd looked down into her sweet, innocent face full of curiosity instead of fear, she'd moved him. Her eyes were more expressive, her personality more addictive, than anything he'd ever experienced.

Living a life where women asserted themselves, became badass versions of a male, Johanna was the opposite. She obeyed and wanted to please. She used her female softness and vulnerability with him. The way a woman's personality naturally leaned before hurt, fear, and men ruined them.

He'd protected her from life's hardships when he'd taken her from the apartment and returned three days later after finding her mother strung out on heroin. To make sure nobody came looking for Johanna or reported her missing, he'd supplied her mother with enough black tar to kill herself. She'd died higher than humanly possible with no thought of Johanna.

It was for the best.

At the time of discovering Johanna, she'd known no real value. Unimportant to the mother who should've put her first.

He'd recognized she had an empty space in her life that he could fill. A place that would not affect his lifestyle and yet if he looked closely at himself, Johanna filled a hole inside of him that being the president of Brikken, the son of Rollo, the leader of men failed to satisfy.

And so, he planted himself in her life. He provided and gave, he made her feel special with his time. She was beautiful, inside and out.

Keeffe stepped over and faced him. "Everything okay, Chief?"

Ten years older than him, Keeffe had also ridden beside Rollo as his vice president. Through the years, Keeffe proved his worth many times over. His decision to keep Keeffe as an officer in the club came from sharing the same sentence in the state penitentiary in his mid-twenties. Nothing bonded two people more than forcing them to rely on each other to stay alive.

He trusted no one, but if he had to gamble and pick one person to cover his back, it'd be Keeffe.

"It will be." The can of beer in his hand had turned warm. He drank anyway. "Have you seen Karla?"

Keeffe pulled a drag off the joint pinched between his fingers. "She's over on the side of the clubhouse talking with Trish and Cendra."

"Get her for me." He finished the beer and threw the can toward the front door of the clubhouse.

He had a club to run. A shipment of bikes ready to go out next week. The prospects had one more loyalty check before the members voted next meeting. He had Chano and Ricky at odds over a fucking woman. On top of the club business, Olin got a ticket for breaking Tacoma's curfew when he decided to go joyriding. He had no time to deal with Nene and her treatment of Johanna.

Karla walked around the corner of the building, stopped, and held her hand over her eyes searching for him against the setting sun. He took her all in. Five feet five, long brown hair, hips out to there, and tits pushing against a too small T-shirt. The eighteen years he'd known her, she'd filled out in all the right places and stayed as sweet as could be for a mother of his three sons, who gave her hell most days.

She spotted him and walked over. "Keeffe said you wanted to talk to me."

"I need you to take Johanna and care for her like you do our sons." He spoke low, keeping their conversation private.

In the distance, Johanna lounged back on her hands, her legs outstretched, and watched the other kids. He needed to change her situation today. She shouldn't have a care in the world and be hanging out with kids her own age.

He reached over and pulled Karla to him. "Do this for me."

"I can't take her, Chief." Karla leaned against his side. "Your sons are only a few years older than her. She won't stand a chance in our house the way you let those boys run around, doing what they want, sleeping with girls twice their age. Johanna is a beautiful child, but she won't fit in with our crew. It's hard enough keeping the boys out of trouble. Look at Olin, already out trying to prove himself."

"Johanna's only twelve years old. Jett, Olin, and Thorn won't even look twice at her. She needs a gentle hand. Nene's...she's not meant to be a mother and treats her more like a guest in the house who is required to act like an adult. You've done right by my sons. You'll care for her, too. She needs a mother's love, babe." He'd put Johanna with Nene because she needed a firm hand to forget her past. Nobody questioned how Nene came about having a child. But, Johanna needed more now that she'd settled into life at Brikken.

"Chief." She exhaled loudly. "We've got four bedrooms in the house. There's no room for her. She's already settled into school as Nene's daughter. You can't uproot her. She's on the verge of becoming a young lady and needs stability and to feel like she's accepted."

"Put Olin and Thorn together. Johanna can have her own bedroom." He glanced down at her. "How old is Jett?"

"He's seventeen." Karla slapped his ass. "You need to know the ages of your kids. They look up to you. They want to know you love them."

"I do," he said, gruffly. "I'll move Jett and his things into the clubhouse. He's close enough to eighteen, he can work around here after school and start working toward his patch when his birthday comes around."

"You're breaking my heart," she whispered. "He's too young to join up with Brikken."

He leaned forward and lowered his head to look into her eyes. "Do you have a heart?"

Karla slapped his chest and laughed softly. "I've been told I do...on occasion."

"Yeah, well, you know the deal, babe. You take care of my kids, and I take care of you." He kissed her hard. "I'll let Johanna know I'll be taking her to you tomorrow. Get those boys working on clearing out Jett's room in the morning. I'll let Jett know he's moving out. At his age, he'll be happy about the change in his living situation."

Karla kissed him back hard, if not passionately. "There are times, Chief, your stubbornness and refusal to do the right thing push me too far. I'm not ready to lose Jett to the club."

He grunted. She'd do anything for him. She might not like his decisions, but she understood the way he ran his family. Jett would someday take over Brikken, the same way he'd stepped into being president after Rollo was murdered.

"Why do you care about that girl so much?" asked Karla.

His reasons were his own.

Karla sighed, accepting her role in his life and knowing she had no other choice in the matter. He watched her walk away. Unlike Nene, Karla understood how to bite her lip and let go of her displeasure. She'd be good for Johanna.

He'd gotten Karla pregnant with his son when she was eighteen years old, and he was prospecting under Rollo. It took all his income from Brikken to put her up in a house, and he had the fucking good sense to make three rules. She needed to stay home and raise Jett until he was eighteen years old if she expected him to supply the house and the money. If she wanted a separate life, she was on her own, and he'd pay for his kid's support.

She could fuck who she wanted because he was done with her. Too young to settle down, he wanted the life given to him by Brikken. Plenty of women and parties.

If he felt like spending the night with her and the kids, she'd welcome him to her bed. She'd taken advantage of that rule over the years.

But, then two more sons came his way because Jett needed siblings. He'd grown up an only child. He didn't want that for his son, so he'd extended his agreement with Karla.

His shoulders ached. He rubbed the back of his neck. Now, Karla would be a mother to Johanna.

He sighed, his chest warming. He and that girl — they had a special connection.

By living with Karla, Johanna would get a soft hand and even softer words. Older brothers, who may or may not accept her, would become her family. She'd receive a mother's love and someone to help her get through growing up.

He rubbed his hand over his beard. The only thing that worried him was that Johanna would be too content living with Karla, she wouldn't need him anymore.