“You wanna bet? She stays with me.”
I knew we weren’t planning on going out this weekend, that most of what we were doing was on the comps and going through the old man’s files so she could stay with me. “I could work from here if needs be but she will not be out of my sight at any point from here on out until she’s about twenty-fucking-five years old.”
Right now it might be hard to tell whom she belonged to since Ty and Dev were busy fighting over her, but I was all clear in my head. As of a little more than an hour ago my mission in life changed. My only fucking purpose now was to secure and protect that little girl. Fuck everything else, especially the mission that was looming in the background with the desert Fox; fuck.
My kid started to fret so I took her from Dev, who had been in the middle of cooing at her. She stuffed her hand in her mouth and looked at her daddy all miserable and shit and I forgot everything else.
“What’s wrong with her?” I looked at the others who were all stumped. I was tempted to call one of the females but I didn’t trust their asses right now. “I think that means she needs changing.” Quinn tried sniffing her. “Get the fuck away from her.” I moved her out of the way. “Fuck is wrong with you?”
“Language.” Lo studied her like he knew what the fuck he was talking about. When she started eating my shirt I think we all knew what was going on. “She’s hungry, what the fuck am I supposed to feed her? I don’t have anything in the house.” I was about to go into total panic as my brothers threw around ideas.
“How about asking her mother?” I gave Con the death glare and headed for the fridge. I showed her an apple but she just kicked her legs and fussed even harder. Everything I showed her she turned away from until I was ready to pull my hair out at the roots.
“Hey, she came with a bag.” Ty pulled his phone and made a call, and from his end I knew he was talking to the deceitful bitch who’d had my kid for over a year and didn’t tell me. “Bad news bro, she’s still on the tit. Only mother’s milk. Apparently she eats that soft shit, but around this time it’s you know…” He circled his chest with his face going red. Fuck this. They were all watching me like ‘what the fuck are you gonna do now asshole?’ “Everybody out.” They looked at me like ‘what the fuck’ but I wasn’t in the mood to trust anyone right now. I knew Lo and Con might be on my side, but their women could talk their asses into anything.
“What do you plan to do? You can’t just let her cry herself out from hunger, and you don’t have a tit full of milk.” I glared at Lo because he thought his shit was funny. “Very funny, I’ll take care of her thanks, now run along.”
Ty stopped short like he wanted to argue but I pushed his ass out the door with the rest of them. What the fuck was I gonna do? I hadn’t figured in this factor. I walked up and down with her thinking, until her screams grew louder.
“Okay baby, daddy will take care of it.” I found a way to secure her while I ran next door. “I’ll be back in two minutes I promise.” Merciful fuck who could stand to see a kid cry? Her eyes were large pools of water that tugged at my heartstrings and broke my fucking heart in two.
My face and everything else changed as soon as I cleared the door and headed out into the night. The yard was already clear but knowing my family, they were already congregated together somewhere trying to decide my life for me. No one was getting any sleep tonight I was sure. I heard the din of voices coming from Lo’s place and figured that’s where she was. I opened the door and all eyes turned to me.
“You, come ‘ere.” I didn’t wait for her answer, just turned and left the way I came. No one said anything but I knew they were all thinking plenty, nosy fucks. She followed behind me without uttering a sound, which was just as well because if she said the wrong thing right now with the mood I’m in I might snap.
I held the door open for her when we reached my place where I had sat my daughter on the floor surrounded by cushions until I got back. “Feed her and then get the fuck out.” I didn’t even look at her when I walked over to the baby and picked her up from the floor.
Her poor little face looked pitiful with tears and I promised myself that my kid was not gonna have too many reasons to cry in the future.
This one looked like she wanted to argue but one good glare soon had her getting her act together. She took the baby out of my arms and the only reason I let her was because I couldn’t feed her my damn self. My plan was to keep her as far away from my kid as possible, just like she’d done to me. “Where the fuck are you going?” I’m trying not to curse in front of my little princess but these fuckers around here aren’t making that shit easy. “I’m taking her into the bedroom to feed her.”