“Gross! Screw you, Harmony!” Dalton pushed past me and his sister, shoulder checking her hard but me harder.
“Hey! What did I do?” I demanded.
“Sorry, Eedee,” he muttered in that sullen preteen way. He was pretty freshly thirteen, so he was at that age. Dante had been the same way. I, of course, had been doing preteen girl just as spectacularly.
“After you,” Harmony said, and I looked after Dalton. When I was sure he was out of earshot, I muttered, “He better not have peed on the seat.”
Harmony giggled, and I shut the bathroom door. The seat was blessedly, urine free.
7
Sage…
By the time Krampus was over, there weren’t many of us left in the media room. Ranger had passed out before it started and we just left him. Dalton had stuck it out, but Reaver had gone and fucked off to his wife and his club room a while ago.
Slice was passed the fuck out in the couch below mine, and Dante and Harmony had gone to bed. Harmony midway through Die Hard, and Dante about a quarter of the way into Krampus.
Eldritch was stretched in one of the black leather recliners and I looked down to Eden, who was curled like a kitten beside me, her head on my pillow in my lap.
I winced and eased my way out from underneath her to a whimper of protest.
“Easy, baby girl. I’ll be right back,” I murmured. I was set to clear the path out back and make sure the door to her daddy’s club room was unlocked.
I stretched, grunted in some satisfaction, and hit the head on the way out to open up the outbuilding so I could carry Eden to bed.
I went out, opened it up, and went down the long hall. I twisted the knob on Revelator’s door and froze when it opened. Dante and Harmony were looking in my direction, eyes wide, Dante’s bare ass on display for the whole fuckin’ world to see, Harmony hiding shyly beneath him.
“Aw, fuck!” I shut the door and shook my head.
Son of a bitch.
“Better get it while the gettin’s good!” I called through the door. “Your parents are gonna be fuckin’ pissed,” I grumbled but I kept that shit to myself as I pulled my phone out of the inside pocket of my jacket and sent a text to the club chat letting Ghost and Rev know what was up.
Ghost, Rev, caught Dante and Harmony fuckin’, just a heads-up.
My phone started blowing up and Dante and Harmony were about to find out the fuckin’ hard way that club loyalty went to their fathers and not them by default.
Did I feel bad narcing on them? Only a little. I was more concerned about what to do about Eedee.
I called Rev.
“You fuckin’ kidding me, bro?”
“Serious as a fuckin’ heart attack,” I said. “Went out to open shit up. Eedee’s passed the fuck out on the couch and I was going to put her to bed. Open up your club door and caught ‘em red-handed.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, I’m going to break his fucking head.”
“No need to do all that,” I said, shaking my head, breath pluming the air. “I’d honestly let it go ‘til morning. It’s dangerous as fuck, no point trying to drive over here all pissed off. They’re safe, damage is done. They’re gonna be roasting in hell all night wondering what you and Ghost are gonna do. I was honestly calling about Eedee,” I said, scratching my eyebrow with my thumbnail.
“What about my little girl?” Rev growled.
“She’s sleepin’. I was callin’ to check in with you about putting her to bed in my club room.”
“Oh, shit… yeah, that’s cool with me,” he said. “I trust you.”
You shouldn’t, I thought to myself, but out loud I said, “Good deal. See you all in the morning.”
“You fuckin’ know it,” Rev said unhappily.
“Go easy on ‘em, Rev. They’re just kids,” I reminded him.
“Old enough to fuckin’ know better. I hope he put a fuckin’ raincoat on it.”
“Dante’s not dumb. I’m sure he did.”
“Ghost is losing his shit in the chat.”
“I bet he is,” I said soberly. Ghost was, shall we say, the more sexually conservative of us, especially where his girls were concerned. That was for Shelly to potentially sort out, though.
Not my circus, not my fucking sideshow, I thought bitterly, then looked up and back to the back door of the club.
I took a few cleansing breaths of the frigid air. The snow was fuckin’ deep out here. Pristine. The night sky clear and shot through with stars. At least it was just cold and wasn’t snowing anymore. We’d been getting some serious record cold and snow the last few years. It was making me think it might be time to move to someplace warm.
Never happen, that voice in the back of my head whispered. It knew better than I did that Eden’s home was here and there would be no way I would take her from it. She was like her mother. Thrived on family.
“Motherfucker, you already lost this war,” I muttered to myself, walking back to the media room. I sighed as I hauled open the back door and stomped the snow and ice from my boots.
“What’s up?” Slice asked, stretching when I woke his ass up.
I filled him in, quietly, so as not to clue in anybody else – read kids – into what was going on.
Slice laughed softly, and I shook my head and grinned ruefully.
“I called it,” he murmured, and I nodded.
“Yeah, bet’s not over yet. Gotta wait for part two.” How their moms and dads were going to react.
“Gonna let Eedee sleep in here?” he asked. I shook my head and his eyebrows went up.
“Called Rev, let him know, gonna put her to bed in my room.”
Slice nodded and stared at me a little pensively. “I got you, bro.”
I frowned and shook my head. “It’s not like that.”
He gave me a look like he didn’t believe me and said, “Oh, no. I know.”
“Man, fuck you,” I grumbled, and he grinned.
“Got enough of that going around tonight,” he said and both of us sputtered and tried like fuck not to laugh and wake anybody up.
“Right, see you tomorrow,” I said.
“See you tomorrow, bro.” He waved me off, yawned and settled back down. “I’m gonna stay here, make use of my room,” he said. “At least before people get here.”
I didn’t say anything to that. He was trying to cover for me, to let me stay with Eden if I wanted too, which was the problem. I wanted to. I really wanted to, but I didn’t know how that would go. I mean, fuck, I meant it when I’d told Rev he doesn’t have shit to worry about.
“Come on, baby,” I whispered and rubbed Eden’s back through the blanket. “Come on, I got you.”
She groaned a little and sat up, stretching groggily. She grabbed her big purse off the end of the couch and a little unsteady on her feet, let me guide her out of the media room. We made a pit stop for her at the bathroom, and I used the one next door while she did her business. When she came out, her face was freshly scrubbed of makeup and I caught a faint whiff of mint.
“Where are we going?” she asked softly, so tired, and stifling a yawn that I had to smile. She was like this tiny sleepy kitten and so trusting, it made me feel just a little sick with guilt when I touched her shoulder and she moved along ahead of me.