“Yeah. I heard. That had to be scary,” she replied, getting close to my little girl.
“Gou … nd ’ent boom,” Remy continued, and I was pretty sure she meant ground. Her use of words was getting better and better every day.
“Yeah. We had to go to the ground, but we were safe,” I said, hugging her.
Remy nodded. “Mmmmmk dare.” That one was new, but Blaze caught onto it quicker than I did because she smiled wide.
“Micah was there? He kept you and Mommy safe?”
Remy’s head bobbed, then her thumb went in her mouth, and she laid her head against my chest.
“He ran in to get Austyn,” I told her, not knowing if she had heard everything.
“That boy. Or man. Hell, it’s all so different. It’s a good thing, don’t get me wrong. It’s just an adjustment to the man he’s become. He’d never allow someone to be hurt if he could help it, and running into a burning building sounds like something the man in him would do.” The pride in her words was evident.
“Better than the pissant he used to be,” Austyn started, and my head turned to her. She’d told me some things about Micah, but not the pissant stuff in detail. Austyn looked to me. “He used to say bad shit about the club. It seems he’s over it now, and the brothers seem to be over it for the most part, so we’re letting it go.”
Blaze shook her head, giving Austyn the mother glare to end all mother glares. “Yes. Let it go.” It came out more as a mother’s demand than a statement. The Ravage MC respected their women, and the women respected each other. The elder generation held even more respect, leading up to Ma who was the matriarch of the MC. It was amazing watching them all together.
In this instance, Blaze was showing her rank in the system and expected Austyn to follow it. I had to admit I was curious if she would or not. The woman had, had a traumatic day and all.
“Right.” Austyn conceded, but there was a big story there that I’d need to hear at some point. Micah was the father of my child, after all, and I wanted to know everything about him. Before we hadn’t really spoken about him. It never came up, and I never put two and two together. Now, I wanted to know.
“I think we have ice cream inside,” Blaze said, looking at me, and I smiled, catching on to her game. She loved Remy, and she didn’t have to play anything to get to spend time with her. Even bribing her with ice cream. It made me overjoyed that Blaze wanted to spend time with her at all. She then directed her attention to Remy. “You wanna come and see if we can get some, Remy?”
My little girl looked up at me, silently seeking a feeler for what she should do. “Go ahead, baby. Eat some for me.”
Remy appeared to not want to go, warring with staying with me or getting a yummy treat, but then she reconsidered, reached out and took Blaze’s hand. Watching them walk away, it was confirmation that my little girl had a grandparent, and it hit me hard in the chest, threatening to knock the wind out of me.
That would’ve been a great picture to take, but before I could pull out my phone, they were gone inside the building. The feeling still remained, though, and I clung onto it with both hands. I loved that for Remy.
“So, she knows?” Austyn asked.
“Yeah, but I don’t know if Micah told her that we weren’t introducing them as grandparents yet. I’m assuming yes because she didn’t say anything.”
“She would’ve if he hadn’t said somethin’, so I think you’re good.”
Austyn was right. The way Blaze was so smooth with Remy, she knew and was keeping it to herself for now. It made me want to tell Remy all the more. Remy could trust these people and have a strong family unit. One that I could never give her back in our old life. The emotions whirled around me, and it might sound selfish, but I really wanted to see Micah.
“Any word from Ryker or the guys?”
Austyn bumped my shoulder with hers, knowing exactly what I was really asking. Not that I didn’t love my cousin … but... “Or Micah?”
“Well, yeah.” My phone hadn’t rung yet, so I had no updates. Not that he owed them to me, but it would be nice to know he was safe.
“Nothin’ yet. I’m sure they’ll be here in a while and give us directions. More than likely we’ll go on lockdown for a while.”
That started my pulse going. “What is a lockdown? At least in Ravage terms?”
“It means we all come to the clubhouse, find a place to sleep, and live here for however long it takes to figure out who the hell is trying to kill us.”
This did not sound fun. “I thought when Micah said to pack a bag he was talking about just for a night or two and maybe at his house.”
Her brow quirked. “You’d be good with stayin’ with him?”
My head shook. “I don’t know. Everything happened so damn quick. I haven’t had a chance to really think about the situation.” I just knew that with him I felt safe, and right now I needed that.
“You’re family, Ensley. Like it or not. That means if the club goes on lockdown you will too.” I was family. We were family. That felt damn good. Scary because we needed to go on lockdown, though.
“What about work?”
Austyn clicked her tongue, and I didn’t know if that was a good thing or bad. “That we’ll have to work out, but let’s just take it step by step.”
The sound of pipes came from the parking lot, and Raiden and Axel pulled in, parked, shut their machines down, got off and took off their helmets, putting them on the handlebars of their ride.
I didn’t know much about Harley’s, and couldn’t tell you the first thing about them. All I did know was their rides looked awesome. I’d never been on a motorcycle before.
They approached as Austyn accused, “Where the fuck have you been?”
Raid and Ax, their names shortened, were the newest members of the Ravage MC. I was here for the party they threw for the two of them getting patched in. They were still low men on the totem pole, according to Ryker. He’d tried to give me a biker 101 crash course, but if there was a grade, I would’ve failed it.
They were twins, Buzz and Bella’s kids. At twenty-years-old, they took hot biker to a whole new level. Both had dark chocolate hair that curved around their ears, except Ax had these natural lighter brown highlights around his face. They both had striking blue eyes, and the only physical difference I could make out was Raid had a scar next to his eye on the right side. It was like having two identical turtles and putting nail polish on one to tell them apart. If Raid didn’t have the scar, no way could I tell them apart. They were that close in looks.
Not that I was interested in them or anything. Just making an observation as a single woman with eyes in my head.
“Busy. They told us to come here. We’re here,” Raid said.
“Glad you’re not dead,” Ax responded to Austyn, who growled at him.
“You’re an ass.”
Ax held out his arms. “Yep. Always have been. Always will be.”
I didn’t know a whole lot about these two. Sure, we’d crossed paths over the years, but I’d never sat down and had a conversation with them before.
Ax turned his attention on me. “Got Micah’s kid, huh?” He didn’t wait for a response. “Sorry about that. Sucks to be Remy.”