Chapter 24

I’m lacking the ‘zippity’ part of my doo-dah day.

-Dante to Cobie

Dante

We were at another Uncertain Saints MC party.

I was asked to attend this one because it was one of the Little Saints birthday parties.

I’d avoided those parties like the plague because every single one of those motherfuckers were now married with kids. I’d gone the last time with Cobie on a whim. I’d been in no mood to deal with anyone or anything after that conversation with the stupid chick in the diner.

So, I just went for a ride. I found myself taking a familiar route, and I wound up at the Uncertain Saints clubhouse. A place that I never thought I’d willingly end up at ever again.

One of their members had been married to my sister.

And I’d hated him.

I’d hated him with a passion because he’d been in the process of divorcing my sister when she was killed. Though, my dislike of the man had died down after Wolf had found his new wife, Raven.

Raven had been the deciding factor in me trusting the man again, and while we hadn’t become exactly close, I could at least tolerate him now.

In the past, the Hail House—our club that we’d opened a few years back—was off limits to them. After Wolf, Travis and I had repaired the breach between us, we’d gotten to the point where we now hung out with them occasionally—or at least Travis did. I hadn’t had much to do with them seeing as not long after that breach was healed, my wife and children had died.

I’d been invited, but Wolf’s calls had been ignored right along with the rest of my family’s.

Until a few weeks ago.

I’d been back three times, one of those times with Cobie.

This time, though, Cobie was obviously pregnant.

She was also sporting a huge rock on her finger signaling she was mine and would be legally in just a few short weeks.

Plus, this time Mary would be introduced to them for the first time.

I hadn’t brought her with me to many places. This would literally be the first time anyone besides close friends and family would meet this little girl—this amazing, sweet little girl who has become my whole world—and learn that she was mine.

My girl, Mary, was unique, and there would be a lot of kids there running around.

I knew that those kids were from good stock, but I didn’t want them to hurt my baby’s feelings.

“Dante, you need to chill.”

I winced and realized what I was doing at once.

“Okay,” I said as I unstrapped Mary from her car seat and hitched her up on my hip.

The first person to meet us was Griffin Storm, a badass Texas Ranger who looked like he was angry as fuck at something that his kid had just done.

“How many times do I have to tell you to stay away from my bike?” Griffin growled.

Cobie’s hand met the skin of my arm, and she started to squeeze.

I patted her hand and assured her without words that everything was okay.

Griffin might talk a good game, but when it came to his kids, he was a sucker—just like the rest of us.

“Now, go inside and tell Mommy what you’ve done.”

His kid ran inside moments later, and Griffin glared at her back until she’d made it inside and slammed the door.

“What happened?” I asked.

Griffin turned his angry eyes to me, and they moved from me to the little girl in my arms and then to Cobie. His eyes skimmed down Cobie’s body, and then the glare slipped from his face as he caught sight of her baby bump.

“You have kids yet?” he asked the woman at my side.

“Only Mary.”

I grinned at Cobie’s words.

I loved that she claimed my girl as hers.

Fucking. Loved. It.

I waited for Griffin to ask more, but he didn’t.

His eyes went to Mary.

“This Miss Mary?”

Mary, hearing her name, looked directly at Griffin.

And I watched the big man lose his heart just like every other person who looked into her big blue eyes.

Mary leaned over and practically threw herself into Griffin’s arms.

Griffin caught her easily and hefted her up onto his arm just like I’d had her moments before.

“Yum-Yum?”

“Uhhh,” Griffin said, looking to me for guidance.

“Yum-Yum is our cat,” I said, tilting my head at the cat that’d magically appeared on top of Griffin’s bike. “Every cat is now Yum-Yum to her.”

Griffin turned and growled.

He picked the cat up by the scruff of the neck, then handed it to me. “Take this for me?”

I took the cat.

“What’d he do?” I looked down at what I thought to be a harmless cat.

“What hasn’t he done is a better question,” Griffin grumbled.

My eyes went down to the bike, which sported lengthy scratches on the gas tank that looked like they came from a particular cat that I might be holding.

I held back my grin.

Griffin sighed and gestured with his head for me to follow him.

“Might as well go inside and listen to the music.”

We followed along, coming to a halt right inside the entrance as Griffin’s daughter tearfully told her mother a story.

“And why was the kitty outside?” Lenore, Griffin’s wife, asked. “We told you not to even bring him. Then you took him outside, didn’t you?”

Griffin’s daughter nodded her head.

“Then what happened?”

“He got on Daddy’s bike, and I tried to pull him off. B-b-but, he scratched the paint when I did.”

Lenore winced.

“You know that Daddy just got his bike repainted after you decorated it with your nail polish,” Lenore chastised their girl gently.

I bit my lip and looked up at Griffin who looked far from amused, causing me to let out a low chuckle.

Lenore looked up at me then, and her eyes widened.

I was still rather emaciated looking, but I was slowly gaining my color as well as the weight back.

I’d been out of the hospital, and back with Cobie, for a week.

In that week, I’d been busy.

Since I was back at work, I took Mary with me.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust my mother to watch her, it was because I didn’t trust Drake not to attack an innocent little girl in his haste to get to me.

So, for now, where I went, she went.

At the office, Travis was always there to help. Half the time, Rafe was, too.

I had a feeling he expected Drake to come at me there, so instead of wasting his time trying to look for him—which proved futile since no one could find him at his usual haunts—he’d set up shop at the office and was waiting.

“You look like you’ve lost weight.”

My eyes went back to Griffin’s wife.

I nodded. “I have.”

She didn’t say what she was obviously thinking—‘you look like shit.’

I knew I looked like shit, she didn’t have to tell me.

“He’s getting better,” Cobie interjected. “Do you have a bathroom I could use?”

Griffin’s little girl, happy to no longer be the center of attention, came at me with arms raised.

I handed her the cat, and she took off without another word.

Griffin and Lenore watched her go before they both turned back to Cobie.

“It’s through here. Come on, I’ll show you.”

Lenore gestured to Cobie, and Cobie followed.

We waited until they were both gone before heading in the direction of where all the other men were gathered on the porch.

Griffin and I walked out onto the porch, and all eyes turned to us.

“Who ya got there, Griffin?”

Griffin tickled Mary, who giggled like a sweet, angelic cherub, completely winning over the deck full of men.

Wolf came up and held his hands out.

Mary went willingly.

“Trusting little booger.”

I looked over to find Mig, another member of the Uncertain Saints, looking our way.

“She is. Never meets a stranger, that’s for sure,” I agreed.

Mig grunted and held out his hands, Mary leaned over.

I snorted as the men then passed my girl around.

None of them had anything to say about Mary’s unique qualities.

Which made my heart fucking soar.

I didn’t ever want Mary to feel like those things that made her different and special were oddities or things that she needed to hide or be ashamed of because they weren’t. They were what made Mary, well, Mary, and she was perfect exactly as she was.

She was a blessing, a gift—my gift.

Mary had saved my life.

I’d fight every fucking demon on this planet to make sure she was never hurt by someone’s cruel words.

Even a band full of men who I knew could kick my ass in my weakened state.

“Noticed you have a pregnant fiancée.”

I looked over to Griffin, who’d said those words.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“How’d you manage to do that while you were locked away?”

I grunted. “It happened before I left. Found out after I got back.”

“I hear you’ve got a few problems.”

I grunted in reply.

“More than a few,” I agreed, my eyes going to Wolf.

“I’ve been lookin’ myself.” Wolf read the look accurately. “If I see him, he’s going down. That’s a promise.”

Wolf was a Texas Ranger with Griffin, and I had no doubt in my mind that he’d take him in if he saw him.

“Thanks,” I muttered. “This feels really fuckin’ weird, still.”

Wolf chuckled darkly. “I keep waiting for you to throw another punch.”

I would have five years ago.

Now? Well, now I wasn’t as angry about it as I once had been. In fact, I wasn’t angry at all anymore.

“The night is still young.”

Wolf burst out laughing. “Sure the fuck is.”