***
CONNOR
I could feel the heat waves coming off Dani and her new posse, but I was sure she knew better by now than to come at me. I was pissed as fuck and trying my best to hold it in. Fuck yeah I agreed with my brother. I’m the first to tell them when they’re wrong, but this shit is fucked up.
If Dani had done some shit like this to me, her ass would be on fire. I don’t care what happened, and I’m a hundred percent sure it wasn’t as bad as all that, because he’s my brother and I just know, nothing justifies keeping his kid from him all this time.
She couldn’t pick up the phone during the pregnancy, after the birth, who was there when my niece was born? She had a fuck load of time to come to her senses and I’m sure it was probably tearing Zak up right now thinking about all that.
Gaby had said her piece and Susie had just come back from following Cord outside no doubt giving him her thoughts on the subject, but if Dani opened her damn mouth about this shit I’ll blast her. She must’ve seen the look on my face because she calmed the fuck down. I beckoned her over to me and when she reached me I pulled her in and with one hand on my child that was even now asleep in her womb, whispered in her ear.
“I don’t want you getting upset, you get upset I’m gonna get pissed and that’s gonna be it for you and your new playmates. We’ll deal with Zak and work this shit out, you do not let your sisters talk you into shit.”
I felt it was better safe than sorry when dealing with this bunch. Fucking Gaby was already looking like she was loaded for bear and I wasn’t in the mood for anymore bullshit.
“Are we clear here?” She nodded her head and I looked down at her to be sure we were on the same page. I know my girl, she takes on other people’s shit and though I didn’t want Vanessa to feel out numbered I didn’t want her thinking that what the fuck she had done was acceptable either. These women were a fucking handful as it is they didn’t need to be getting any more ideas about how to fuck with our heads. Better they learn now the consequences of fucking with a man and his kids.
My mind switched to my brother and the shit he must be dealing with right now. We all knew what family and kids meant to each of us, what being there meant to us. Right now I’m pretty sure he was hurting and beating himself up for something that I was pretty sure wasn’t his doing. I wasn’t about to let that shit go on for too long, fuck that.
“Alright you lot let’s go beard the lion in his den.” I waited until Cord came back in from outside, doing who knows what the fuck, since he looked like he’d just gone a round or two. I didn’t even wanna think about that fuckery.
Ty bypassed the rest of us out the door, muttering something about babies and some fuck else. I gave Dani one last look of warning over my shoulder before following the men into the night. When it’s not one thing with these fuckers it’s another I’ve known more peace in fucking Baghdad.
Chapter 9
ZAK
We sat watching each other for a good five minutes. She was studying me, and I was studying her, and wondering what the fuck? She couldn’t talk yet but the baby sounds she made as she pointed at my face or patted my cheek were music to my ears. I’d already checked her over to make sure she was okay, that she had all her fingers and toes, and I wasn’t sure what the fuck she was looking for, but she was looking me over pretty hard herself, and babbling away.
“I’m your daddy.” Those words sounded foreign and I had to clear my throat after saying them. She patted my cheek and grinned with about six teeth showing. How the fuck do babies do that shit? I didn’t even know her, but already she was everything. Just like her fuck of a mother; I’m not thinking about that female, not now, I just wanted to concentrate on my daughter. Shit, I needed shit, didn’t babies need food and shit, and clothes she needed clothes.
I picked up the phone in a near panic just as there was a knock at the door. I approached it cautiously just as I heard the phone ringing outside. Cool, I’d been calling Quinn. I opened the door to find all six of them out there. They didn’t even wait for an invite just all filed past me. “Hey don’t hog the kid bro.” Ty reached for the baby and I found that I didn’t want to let her go. “Selfish fuck hand her over.” He held her like a sack of potatoes and I snatched her back.
“That’s not the way you hold a kid, and watch your damn mouth around her.” Shit, how was I gonna pull this shit off? I didn’t want my little girl growing up cussing up a storm, but being raised around this bunch, and I’d be fucked if she was gonna be raised anywhere else, there was a good chance she was gonna have a potty mouth.