“Roxanne going to resurface when she good and fucking ready.”
“I know.”
“No matter what she facing, we here for her. I’m going to be your strength so you can be hers.”
He always had been and he always would be. Without Lucas, Bailey wasn’t sure how she would’ve gotten through the devastation of her father’s death. With him at her side, she’d conquer any and everything, from the most painful heartache to the greatest success.
“I love you, Lucas.”
Taking her hand again, he pulled her into his lap and kissed the top of her head. “I love you, too, pretty girl.”
“Roxanne, if you don’t fucking call Bailey, I’m hunting your ass down and dragging you the fuck back to Hortensia,” Mort snarled, later that afternoon, after he’d gone to Prez. In turn, Outlaw called Riley, who connected them to Roxy. He hadn’t meant to yell at her—she was going through shit herself—but Bailey’s sadness just about killed him.
“You got to find me first, Mort,” Roxy said.
True, that. Maybe, if Prez hadn’t left Mort alone to have a private conversation with his mother-in-law, he might be able to get Roxy to call Bailey. Working with what he had, Mort decided to fake more knowledge than he had. “Riley found you. It’s just a matter of calling him and demanding he tell me where you at.”
“Ever heard of a burner phone?”
Ssssccccrrreeecccchhhh…Roxy had his ass there.
Unable to think of a comeback, Mort scowled at the phone.
“I been hanging around the club for how long?” The weak quality to her voice frightened Mort. “I picked up a trick or two.”
“Roxanne, I’ll give you whatever you ask for if you place one call to Bailey. Fuck, I’ll hand over my entire fortune to you just to stop her from worrying.” He glanced toward the door. “Please.”
Silence, and then a watery laugh. “If I ever doubted how much you love my Bailey, that doubt would be gone,” she said and sniffled. “I don’t want Bailey to see me with the way I’m looking or sounding. You understand that, don’t you? I’m her momma. The last thing I want is my baby’s pity. I already feel less than a woman with all my hair gone and all the weight the steroids making me gain.”
“Fuck, Roxanne, since when you became such a superficial bitch.”
She laughed again. “Who would’ve thought it? Two things I never worried about—what I already had and what I never had. But that’s not important right now. I don’t feel superficial. I just feel stripped of my dignity.”
“Your ass all alone and don’t have nobody to tell you how fucking pretty you are,” he shouted, hating to hear her sadness. Generally, Roxy and Bailey were upbeat, happy women.
If something upset them, Mort always found a way to fix it. Adding Roxanne’s unhappiness to Bailey’s made the situation seem even more unfixable.
“I created a bank account for Bailey, and trusts for Lou and Harley,” he told her, wanting to include her just as he’d started doing when she lived with them. “The will was finally probated.”
“That’s tight, baby. I’m so happy for you.”
Mort hung his head. “Why you not cussing my ass out? How bad off are you?”
“As soon as I feel better, I’m going to cuss you from here to Kingdom Come.”
“You swear?”
“I promise, Magician.” She snickered at the name she’d called him during their first phone conversation when he’d been such a fucking dick to Bailey and Roxanne wanted to cut him. “I’m going to call Bailey. Let her know I’m fine and not to worry.”
“Are you?” he asked, almost dreading the answer.
She sighed. “I will be. I believe that and you better, too.”
“I do. I don’t fuck with you New Orleans girls.”
Ice clinked through the line. “Ice water,” she said, then picked up the conversation again. “We some bad bitches. That’s why Only by Nicki Minaj my anthem.”
“Digger back from his honeymoon. Meggie threw Bunny a cold-ass bachelorette party, complete with a dick-swinging motherfucker Outlaw laid down the rules to.”
“You didn’t?”
“Fuck, no. I know Prez threatened Jax enough for all of us.”
“How’s Kendall?”
“She just got back. Prez was going to kill her for real,” he said, and explained the situation.
“I told her to stop riling that man up. She got a crazy man herself. She want to piss a man off, do it to her own. Lord Jesus, I need to put Kendall over my knee. Wait until I see her.”