Man of Steel(32)

“She’s still hurting, it’s in her eyes. He in jail?”

“The case starts Monday.”

His jaw ticked and the veins in his arm throbbed as if he were holding himself back, and just like that Slash became my boy.

“What do you say me and my boys come along on this run, see how you do things.”

I slapped his shoulder and sipped my beer. “Don’t see nothing wrong with that.”





Things were going good, looked like everyone was having a good time. My kid’s laughter could be heard ringing out as she played with her friends, which was always a good thing for me. I saw the women in some type of huddle and was about to tease Jake about what the fuck they were up to when I noticed the dynamics.

Most of the women were bent over Lily’s hand, which could only mean one thing; they were gushing over her ring. There was one person who wasn’t taking part in the festivities and from the look on her face she was loaded for bear. Her eyes connected with mine and she made a beeline for me. Well shit.

“How could you do this to me, how can you embarrass me like this?”

“Not here and not now.”

“I can’t believe you’re actually gonna marry her, whatever happened to all your big talk about Holly, and giving her the life she deserves?”

“She does have the life she deserves, because I’m there twenty-four seven if she needs me and she never wants for nothing. What did you think, that by some miracle we were gonna get back together?” She folded her arms and tapped her feet.

“We’re leaving.”

“My kid’s not ready to go she’s having fun; don’t do this shit. It’s neither the time nor the place.” She stomped off and to keep the peace I decided to let it go. There was no point in spoiling everybody’s fucking day. No, just my kid’s; one more thing that Deanna fucked up with her selfish bullshit.

When Holly started kicking and screaming I headed over there, it broke my heart every time I heard her cry, and there was nothing worst than leaving her in that state. “Hey baby it’s okay, daddy will come get you tomorrow and do something fun.” I picked her up and tried to calm her before shit got out of hand.

“No I don’t wanna.” She stiffened up her little body and fought to get down. Deanna tried taking her out of my arms but she wasn’t having it. When she tried wrestling her away I almost lost my shit. “Don’t manhandle my kid Deanna, I don’t care how upset you are you don’t ever do that shit.”

“Let’s go Holly I’m not gonna tell you again.” She totally ignored me and growled at the poor kid who had nothing to do with this shit. I started to walk with them back to the car. Halfway across the yard I saw Deana throw a triumphant look over her shoulder.

I had no doubt what I would see when I turned around and wasn’t the least bit surprised when my eyes met Lily’s. Although the argument had been kept low the other women’s body language spoke volumes. They knew what the fuck was going on.

I dropped my head in frustration at the whole fucked up situation. I felt like I was being pulled in ten fucking directions at once and none of them good. Holly was my main concern no matter what. She was the only innocent here and I was bound to protect her at all cause.

On the other hand, my woman was also my responsibility. She lets me into her body, that’s the most intimate and trusting thing in my book, for a female to do. That shit is supposed to mean something, and how I handle this little flare up will go a long way proving to her once and for all whose side I’m on. All I could hope for right now, was that Lily knew her man well enough to know that I would never fucking go there.

She let me know just how much she was with me by meeting me halfway when I returned. The scene at the car hadn’t been pretty and when she walked up and wrapped her arms around me that went along way to easing the strain. I was suddenly very tired and so fucking done. I wasn’t about to spend the next few months in a tug of war with Deanna, which I knew is just where this shit was headed.

It sucked, but for now I had to put my personal shit aside and think about Stephanie. The next few days were gonna be rough on her and she was looking to the Steels to take care of shit. So I accepted my woman’s hug and her whispered words of encouragement and trooped the fuck on. I’ll deal with Deanna and her shit later.





Chapter 16




At the end of the night, we all headed back home. Tonight’s detail had come and picked up Donna and Stephanie’s tail, and some of the boys were headed to the clubhouse while I was headed for home and bed with my woman.

Even though she’d been understanding after the shit had gone down, I knew her well enough to know that she was still a little raw. And who could blame her? I was gonna have to lighten the mood and get us back on track. We were supposed to be celebrating our engagement for fuck sake.