“Hey!” Jesse yelled. Layla and Emmie both grabbed for his hands as he jerked to his feet, but he was too quick for either of them as he got in Dad’s face.
Height-wise, Dad was a few inches taller than the Demon, and he was a little thicker in the muscle department as well, but Jesse wasn’t intimidated by the enforcer. “What’s wrong with her marrying my kid? He’s a good boy…most of the time. As long as he isn’t around his brother, he’s fine.”
“He’s the good twin,” Layla agreed, her voice slightly shaky, but her smile was warm. “And he will take perfectly good care of your daughter. He loves her, and you heard as clear as I did, she said she loves him too. They aren’t babies anymore. They’re having their own. You can’t stand in their way and expect them to take you on their adventures through life, treating Lyric like that.”
“Watch me.”
Mom jumped up so fast, I almost got whiplash watching her. She punched Dad in the chest as hard as she could, but he didn’t even flinch. Taking a step into his space, she tilted her head back as far as it would go so she could glare up at him. “Now, you listen to me, James Masterson. My daughter just said she’s getting married and having babies. We are not missing out on a single minute of that. Let me repeat that so it gets through that hard-ass head of yours. We. Are. Not. Missing. Out.” With each gritted word, she poked him in the chest. “She’s so much like you, she will be stubborn enough to cut us both out of her life and not let either of us close again until you accept that boy. So, you accept him. Right fucking now. Because I will not let your stubborn ass ruin this for me.”
His jaw clenched so hard, it was a wonder he didn’t break his teeth. “Willa—”
“Unless the next words out of your mouth are ‘Welcome to the family, son,’ you can shut the fuck up right now.” She put her hands on her hips, standing between him and us. Mom was so damn tiny, Dad could have lifted her over his head with one hand if he really wanted to. But instead, he stood there, not daring to touch her. And slowly, his shoulders began to droop under the force of her intense glare.
Their gazes locked for a long moment, and I think we were all holding our breath as we waited for him to finally speak. When he turned his dark eyes to Lyric, I closed my eyes, waiting for the inevitable explosion.
“Welcome to the family, son,” he said with a heavy sigh.
Tears instantly filled my eyes, spilling out before I even lifted my lashes. “Really?” I whispered. “You mean it?”
He combed his fingers through his beard agitatedly but nodded. “I mean it. I only want you to be happy, Mila.”
I started to jump up, but Lyric caught me before I could straighten, reminding me to take it easy to avoid problems with my blood pressure dropping. Giving him a watery smile, I kissed him quickly, then carefully straightened before throwing myself into Dad’s arms.
When his arms wrapped around me in return, I let out a happy little sob. “Does this mean you’ll walk me down the aisle?”
“Of course, sweetheart,” he answered without hesitation. “That’s my job, right?”
“Right,” I whispered brokenly. “Thank you, Daddy.”
His arms tightened around me. “You haven’t called me ‘Daddy’ since you were like eight,” he murmured quietly. “I like it.”
Smiling against him, I cuddled closer. “Thank you. This means everything to me.”
“Yeah, well, let’s hope I don’t regret it.” Releasing me slowly, he turned to face my future in-laws. “You two.” He pointed at Jesse and then Emmie. “We will never discuss what I did for you all those years ago. Are we clear? You ever breathe a word to anyone about what happened, it will be your last.”
“I try to forget that day every morning when I open my eyes,” Emmie told him, getting to her feet. She stood there, facing down Dad just as fearlessly as Mom had only minutes before, only she couldn’t possibly know the big MC enforcer wouldn’t hurt her. None of us did, and I was beyond nervous for her. Yet she did it anyway. “What happened that night…it stayed at that farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. We don’t speak of it. Ever. We’re family now. I take care of all my family, just as you showed me years ago, you take care of your own.”
“Plus,” Lyric spoke up, wrapping his arms around me from behind as he looked at Dad over the top of my head. “You’ll find out quickly enough that having Emmie Armstrong as family will make your life a hell of a lot easier.”
Dad pressed his lips together in annoyance. “Don’t give a damn about that. All that matters is that you take care of Mila and her babies. Because if you don’t, you’ll see firsthand what I did that night for your family.”
“If he doesn’t take care of them,” Jesse said, his voice hard and just as menacing as Dad’s, “I’ll help you.”
The two older men locked gazes for a long moment. Then, as if coming to a mutual understanding, Dad stuck out his hand, and Jesse shook it. “An Angel and a Demon are family,” Dad said with a sudden grin. “That’s got to make for some interesting jokes.”
Chapter 19
Lyric
“You have a client waiting,” Mila called out from the front of the shop.
I lifted my head from the sketch I was working on for one of the college guys. It was a massive dragon he wanted on his back. The guy had virgin skin, but this thing was going to look wicked on him.
Since my parents had arrived the week before, we’d been busy getting the shop ready to open and making wedding plans. Mila had been so busy, she only saw her parents whenever the moms needed her input on something. So far, they hadn’t stressed her out once over the wedding preparations. I put that down to Dad watching them like hawks the entire time, though. He promised me he wouldn’t let them get out of hand like they had with Lucy’s wedding before she practically had a nervous breakdown over the whole thing.
“I didn’t realize I had an appointment, babe,” I called back. Dropping my pencil, I walked out of my office.
Mila stood behind the counter, her back to me as she looked up at the men standing in the front of the shop. Her uncles were back, it seemed, along with her father. This time, Masterson was standing by Mila’s picture I’d bought from the woman at the deli, tracing his index finger over the artwork.
“How did you convince Miss Patty to give this to you?” my father-in-law-to-be asked, turning to face his daughter and me.
“Money talks,” I said with a shrug. Kissing the top of Mila’s head, I looked down at the appointment book in front of her. “What’s up, babe?”
Her gray eyes lifted from watching her uncle Bash flip through one of the books with pictures of my work in it. “We seem to have a walk-in. Think you have time to take care of them?”
“Which one?” I asked, glancing from her uncle Bash to her uncle Hawk then to her dad.
“Figured I needed to make sure you could provide for my little girl,” Masterson said. “Which means I need to see for myself what kind of skills you have.”
I gave him a grin. “You know what you want?”
“Surprise me,” he said, challenging me with the look in his eyes.
Mentally groaning, I kissed Mila again. “You taking it easy out here?” I asked, turning my full focus on her.
She rolled her pretty eyes at me. “Yeah, babe, I’m fine. I’ve been sitting out here taking calls and working on this new computer system you have. I haven’t even broken a sweat.”
“Good. Why don’t you go get something to eat? Or you can go back to the house and talk wedding details with our moms and Aunt Emmie.” I kissed her once more, unable to stop myself. I was surprised her lips weren’t raw from all the kisses I gave her throughout the day.
“Actually, I was going to meet up with Monroe for a late lunch.” She grabbed her purse and headed for the door, but I stopped her, exchanging the keys to her little sports car for the ones to the SUV. “You said one of your tires was low this morning,” I reminded her.
“But I could have dealt with it. Uncle Bash is right here�
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“I’ll stop by the garage on the way home and get you four new tires,” I interrupted. “I’d feel better if you drove the SUV anyway. It has better safety features.”
She rolled her eyes again but stood on her tiptoes to brush her lips over mine. “Drive carefully. I’ll see you tonight.” Glancing at the others, she waved. “Bye, Dad.”
“Be careful, Mila,” Masterson told her as she left. Once the door was closed behind her, he turned to me. “You even going to be able to fit in her car?”
“I’ll figure it out,” I told him.
What I really wanted was to push her car off a cliff so I could get her something bigger and safer without her making a fuss over it.
The one she had was a cute sporty little thing, way too fast for her for my peace of mind. Why her dad let her have it to begin with was beyond me, but I was sure she’d batted her long lashes at him and got her way. She tried to pull that stuff on me, and while at times I wanted to give in just to make her smile, when it came to her safety, that shit didn’t fly.
“You sure about surprising you?” I changed the subject. “You gonna slit my throat if you don’t like it?”
“Not making any promises,” he said with a smirk.
Laughing, I walked back to my office and pulled up a piece I’d been working on for my dad. It was going to be a surprise for him, but it was a good piece, and I could design him something else before his birthday. Something better. Printing it off, I got everything else I needed ready before going back out front.
“You going to watch?” I asked the other two men. “Or do you want something of your own?”
“Spider does all of our work,” Hawk said, even though his eyes kept going back to my artwork books. “And now, Maverick too.”
“Doesn’t mean you can’t try out all the skills in the family,” I said with a knowing smirk at them both. They’d practically been drooling over some of my pieces, and I knew they each wanted one.
There was hunger in their eyes, the need to have their skin inked again. It was addictive, the feel of the needle, the sight of the ink mixed with blood as a piece of their soul came to life. I knew and understood that addiction better than anyone, and it was one I was never going to give up.
Three hours later, the ink was done, and Masterson was inspecting the skull on his left shoulder. The skull was the face of a clock, but there were no hands, because time was meaningless anyway.
“Fuck, that looks good,” Bash said as he studied the enforcer’s new ink. “Admit it, Spider. The kid has some skills.”
Masterson clenched his jaw for a moment, then nodded as he turned to face me. “You think you would apprentice Maverick?”
“Thought he already apprenticed under you.” I started cleaning up my workstation.
“He did, and he’s good, but if you teach him your skills too, he would be even better.”
I paused what I was doing and looked up at the man in surprise, knowing what he’d just said was a compliment and it must have cost him to say it out loud, especially in front of his MC brothers. “Yeah. I’ll apprentice him if he wants me to.”
“And I was thinking,” Masterson said, sitting back in the chair so I could tape on some gauze. “If you still want to be partners—”
“I do,” I told him before he could even finish. “I want Mila to be happy. Us working together, being a family, that’s what will make her happy.”
“If you still want to be partners, we can make it work,” he continued. “You can still keep this place, and I’ll run my shop. Maverick can go between the two, wherever he’s needed.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” I agreed. “Let me talk to my aunt, and she can figure out the numbers for me to buy in.”
“You’re not buying in,” he said with a firm shake of his head. “Consider it a wedding present.”
“I can afford to buy in,” I tried to argue, but he lifted a hand, cutting me off.
“You are family now, boy. You aren’t buying in to anything.” He pulled his shirt back on and stood. “Hawk will have Gracie draw up the contracts and you can get your lawyer to look them over, but I won’t screw you over, boy. Willa would kick my ass if I even tried.”
Standing, I held out my hand to him. “Thank you, sir,” I told him sincerely. “This means a lot to me—and to Mila.”
“Her happiness is all that really matters,” he said, his face thoughtful. After a moment, he shook his head as if to clear it and looked at the other two men. “Well? You two getting ink or what?”
When I got home that evening, my parents and Aunt Emmie were in the living room with Willa. The four of them were spread around the large room, each of them with legal pads in their laps, but it seemed more storytelling was going on than actual wedding work.
“Good to see you getting along so well,” I commented as I glanced around at their grinning faces after walking in on them laughing their heads off at some story Dad had been telling. No doubt about whatever trouble Luca had gotten us both into when we were stupid kids.
“Lyric, honey,” Willa said with a soft laugh that reminded me of her daughter’s sweet giggle. “I thought my kids kept me on my toes when they were tiny, but apparently you and that twin of yours take the cake.”
“Thick as thieves,” Mom said with a resigned sigh, shaking her head at me. “And as full of tricks as Houdini.”
“Through thick and thin,” I said with a wink at her. “Most of the time, at least.”
Her still-beautiful face became sad. “Yeah. He’s a hot mess, isn’t he?”
Not wanting to think about Luca’s problems, I looked around for Mila. “Where’s my bride?”
Willa’s brows pulled together as she looked up at me. “I thought she was with you at the shop.”
“She left this afternoon to have lunch with Monroe while I gave the Angels tats.”
“I knew that husband of mine couldn’t resist getting some new ink,” she said with a snort.
While she and Aunt Emmie talked tattoos, unease twisted my gut, and I grabbed my phone, hitting Mila’s name. It went straight to voice mail without even ringing. “She was charging it before she left, so I know that damn thing isn’t dead,” I muttered to myself, clenching and unclenching my free hand into a fist at my side. I tried calling again, hoping it was just an issue with her phone and the call would go through this time. But it went to voice mail immediately once again.
“It’s off?” her mom asked sharply, and I nodded, my jaw clenching.
Mila was okay, I told myself. Her phone just died. She wouldn’t let me buy her a new one, just had someone replace the cracked screen, so it was acting up. Or she and her sister didn’t want to be interrupted while they talked, and she turned it off and got distracted. She got distracted a lot lately; pregnancy brain was how all the moms kept jokingly describing it. Mila didn’t think it was funny, though.
She had been trying to get her sister alone so they could chat about their pregnancies for the past week, but both of them had been too busy for more than a quick phone call here and there. Mila thought her twin was purposely avoiding her, and when she’d finally gotten her to agree to sit down for lunch together, she’d relaxed a little.
“Let me call Monroe,” Willa murmured as she grabbed her phone off the table in front of her. “Maybe they just stopped by our house and got distracted.”
But I hadn’t seen either of their vehicles when I’d passed their house only minutes before. As soon as she hit connect on her youngest daughter’s contact, I clearly heard it go to voice mail too. Her face began to lose color, but she gave me a grim smile and called her son. “Mav? Are you home? Where are you then? It doesn’t matter. Have you seen either of your sisters?”
My unease only doubled with each passing second. Gritting my teeth, I pulled up the LoJack app for the SUV while she continued to grill Maverick. The vehicle came with it when I bought it, but I hadn’t turned it on until Mila started driving it. Even if she was just going to the groc
ery store, I wanted to be able to see where she was at all times. Another reason I’d wanted her to take the SUV over her own car earlier.
Seeing that it was located at a café on campus, I glanced at Dad. “Can I borrow your SUV? Driving Mila’s car was hard enough earlier.”
“I’ll come with you,” he said, getting to his feet. Bending, he kissed Mom’s lips and followed me out the door after I promised Willa I’d let her know Monroe was okay once I saw Mila.
The entire short drive to the café, I felt physically sick to my stomach. When Dad pulled into the parking lot of the campus café, I jumped out before he’d even come to a full stop. I saw my vehicle and Monroe’s Jetta parked side by side, but no sign of either sister. Jogging into the café, I glanced around, praying they were just sitting in a booth talking girl shit and time got away from them.
But they were nowhere to be found, and my palms began to sweat as Dad walked in behind me.
Stopping some girl in a black apron, I glanced at her name tag. “Hey, Tiff. Did you see twin sisters in here earlier, by any chance? About this tall.” I held my hand up to just below my heart. “One with glossy black hair, the other’s more of a chocolate brown. Gray eyes. One might have been a quiet little thing, the other sassy and mouthy.”
Her lips twitched with amusement. “Yeah, I did, actually. That was hours ago, though.” The amusement died as if a thought came to her. “One was crying, though. Seemed really upset.”
“Which one?” I demanded, and Dad touched my shoulder, reminding me to stay calm without saying a word. The thought of Mila upset and crying was making me crazy, though.
“The quiet one. She was crying when she got here, actually. I asked if she was okay, but she only ordered a comfort tea and went to sit down back there to wait for the mouthy one.” Tiff pointed to the back corner. “I didn’t really see them leave, but I did notice they weren’t here about thirty to forty minutes after they arrived.”
Savoring Mila (Angels Halo MC Next Gen & Rockers' Legacy Book 3) Page 12