Roman-1(Lane Brothers, Book 5)(48)

I keep calm for the next two hours as we move to join the guests by assuring myself that everything is fine and that we’re all going to survive this in one piece. Then I see Will Sparrow and about thirty masked bikers all trudge in and start taking up spots around the perimeter of the room.

God help us all, I think when Ma spots them and immediately start clucking in glee. Only Ma would take a look at hardened criminals and bikers and start plotting how to get them over for regular lunches and marrying them off to every eligible female present.

“Oh God, please tell me Mama is not introducing Will Sparrow to Prissy Bates,” Mel mutters and I laugh for the first time all night when I see Will’s blue eyes take on a decidedly predatory sparkle when Prissy curls her lip and sneers at his long hair and tatted arms.

“Well now, that should be interesting,” I muse, grabbing a glass of orange juice from Miah and passing it off to Mel.

“Interesting? They’ll kill each other in an hour. I met her yesterday and that woman makes me look like Mary fucking Poppins!” she hisses, almost grinning when we hear a feminine snarl and see Will taking stock of Prissy’s ass.

With his palm.

That keeps us all entertained for a good ten minutes before I literally feel the shift in the air and Miah tenses beside me.

“He’s here.”

I know it like I know that Mel is looking right at the motherfucker without knowing it, and that Wyatt has subtly shifted to hide his wife’s body when Lynn prances in a minute later.

They’re both masked and concealed to the point that no one should recognize them, but I’ve been a hunter for years, and I know when my prey comes within spitting distance.

“Will, nine o’clock, bro,” I mutter into my sleeve, covering the move with a cough as I watch Will step in front of Prissy and nod imperceptibly.

I keep my eyes on Case while he moves through the room, and it almost stops my heart when I see him headed for Ma with a swagger that has my hackles rising.

“Shit.”

Miah and I are moving a second after I shove Mel behind Jace and Trace, and I see Case reaching into his jacket before we’ve made it halfway across the floor.

“Ma!”

The explosion that resonates around the room is deafening, and I hear it only faintly over my pounding heart when I leap the remaining distance, only to see Pop standing over Case, his blue eyes so deadly that I pause for the briefest second to just stare in awe.

“You and that no-good sister of mine thought you could come into my home and harm my family, boy?” he snarls, aiming his piece straight at Case with a sneer.

“No one comes near my wife and breathes another day. No one!”

“George, honey, calm down,” Ma soothes, stroking Pop’s face with a shaking hand and trembling lips. “You’ll give yourself another heart attack.”

Pop smiles at her tenderly before looking back at Case and nodding at a point just beyond my shoulder.

“You shot me, your own family,” Case gasps, making Miah growl in warning.

“You want to know why my family survives while you rats scuttle around like blind fools, thinking we’re defenceless? Because we’d die for each other, every one of us. That’s a family, boy. You and that mother of yours are nothing to me. Enjoy the hole Miah puts you and that viper in.”

Case is gasping and bleeding as EMTs rush in to stop the bleeding while Lonnie cuffs a screaming Lynn.

“Why?”

It’s all I can bring myself to ask when Case just lays there, glaring up at me with so much hate it makes my skin crawl.

“She deserved everything your father wouldn’t give her. I was going to give her the life she wanted. She’s my mom. I—”

“Failed.”

The cops arrive not too long after and I watch as Will and his crew all pile out after them, throwing Miah a chin lift that does not ensure Lynn and Case will make it to the hospital in one piece.

I can’t even find the will to care as Mel jumps into my arms and smiles at me with enough love to light up the entire city.

“Well that’s done. A little bit anticlimactic, since I planned to shoot him myself with the gun Mama gave me, but hey, there’s always a next time, right? So, you ready to get married or what, Lane?”

I start laughing even before she waves the judge over and starts yelling at the murmuring, shocked crowd to shut the hell up so she can legitimize our son.

To say that my wedding is a fiasco and bound to hit the society pages is the understatement of the century, but who the hell cares at this point? All I want is to marry my girl and get the hell on with life now that we have one to look forward to.

“Come on, baby girl. Claim me.”