I’d run a little late this morning; I'd stayed at the hospital holding Jade’s hand for longer than I should have. Reluctant to say goodbye and leave her, I’d stalled until the last minute— because I hated the reason I had to leave her and come here. Usually a barbeque at the compound was a fun event, a time for all the old ladies and kids to join the brothers and just relax and shoot the breeze.
But today was different.
Cobra and a group of guys had gone to deliver the weapons. The deal was finally going down. I suspected it was Cobra’s way of getting everyone’s respect back, to show that he was back at the helm and as strong as ever. The barbeque was a cover so that anyone watching would think it was just another family day at the MC quarters. But it wasn’t. Everyone was cagey, pretending to be enjoying him or herself, but acting a lot more subdued than usual.
It didn’t surprise me when Cobra ordered me to stay at the clubhouse to look after the women and kids while he took a team out to do the job, excluding me, Ratbag and Hammer. In a way I was relieved. I knew Summers was watching me with hawk’s eyes, so if I were at the club all day he could watch as much as he liked. That must have also been part of Cobra’s reasoning. He didn’t want me to lead him straight into the cops’ hands.
“Ryder!” Jamie screamed as he saw me, and practically tripped over his own feet to get to my side. The way his face lit up when he saw me made my heart squeeze. I loved the kid. I brushed his hair with my fingers before throwing him in the air. Since the time we’d spent together in the Beverley Hills house, we had a special bond that would never be broken.
“Hey, little man. Have you been a good boy for Mama?”
He nodded vigorously, his smile wide. I dug into my pocket and produced a candy bar. I'd be in trouble with Mia, but what the hell, every kid deserves to be spoiled a little now and then. He squealed with delight as I helped him open the wrapper so he could get his sugar hit.
I lifted him onto my shoulders and made my way over to greet the rest of the crowd. Grabbing a beer from the cooler, I chatted to most of the people, trying to act as normal as possible, in spite of a gnawing feeling in my gut that wouldn’t settle.
Narrowing my eyes against the glare, I looked up toward the sky. Dark clouds hung low, pregnant with rain, and had shifted in front of the sun. A shiver ran down my spine.
“Have you seen the kid’s face?” Ratbag laughed. “It's full of chocolate. Mia’s gonna have your balls if she checks it out.”
Shaking off the foreboding swirl in my gut, I swung the boy off my shoulders and grabbed a paper napkin to wipe the evidence. His hands were covered in chocolate too, but he was licking them clean. He held out a small finger, inviting me to taste. “Nah, kiddo, chocolate and beer don’t mix.”
I cleaned his hands before he got the chance to wipe them on my clothes. Not because I was particular about my jeans, but because I hated how that would remind me of Jade all day. After a bath, she usually rubbed moisturizer into her skin and wafts of coconut and vanilla fragrance filled the air—it was very close to how chocolate smelled.
Ratbag fetched a ball from the veranda. He twirled it on his finger and showed off his mad soccer skills. “Let’s play some ball, huh?”
“Yay,” Jamie screamed and ran off to round up the other kids.
Chapter Forty-Four — Ryder
We kicked the ball around for a while, the kids running up and down in a pack. Hopefully Jamie would get rid of some of the energy that the sugar spike had given him so that I wouldn’t be in trouble with Mia. I knew better than to mess with a mother and her kids.
I decided to slip inside and leave the youngsters with Ratbag. I hadn’t greeted Mia yet—she and some of the women were preparing salads in the kitchen. I wanted to check in on her to see how she was handling what was going down.
Stopping in the club barroom to grab another beer, I bumped into a few bitches playing pool. Because most of the guys were away today, the clubhouse was open to everybody who was part of our strange family, even the club whores who weren’t usually invited to family events. Cobra was being cautious—he preferred to have everyone together under our roof so that we could keep an eye on things. Weird stuff had happened in the past—like the time a club whore was used against us and wound up dead—so I understood why he deemed it safest to keep all the bitches close. That way it was us who controlled the situation, and not our enemies. It made sense to me.
April, one of the bitches I’d hooked up with randomly before, saw me first. “Hey, Ryder, come play with us.”
Not missing the double entendre, I shook my head. “Nah,” I grunted, sorry that I’d been so engrossed in my thoughts that I hadn’t noticed she was there.