by Evie Monroe
Really. A class act.
And his girlfriend hadn’t batted an eyelash. I’d felt so sick after that I went to the bathroom and retched over the toilet for a good ten minutes. And I wasn’t even pregnant yet.
All I knew was that if Cullen ever thought of treating me like that, I wouldn’t just leave him. I’d kick him repeatedly in the balls first. Hard.
I knew he hated his dad. But he never said much else. I guess he didn’t hate him enough to toss all this stuff away. His father wasn’t a good dad. I figured Cullen must’ve wrestled with that, every day. Would he be like his father?
Ella was his chance to find out.
I knew it scared him.
And Cullen didn’t like to admit anything scared him.
But I bet it scared him even more than the thought of taking a bullet from the Fury. He may have talked a good game, like he didn’t give a shit about anyone or anything else, but some things he’d easily defend, paying no regard to his own safety. The Cobras. Me.
Maybe one day, Ella as well.
I went through a formal dining room, complete with a glass table that Cullen had probably never used.
Then we made it down the hall and went through about ten more giant, dark rooms that didn’t have any furniture. I wondered why he hadn’t sold this place, when I knew there was no nostalgia attached to it, and it was clear he didn’t need all the space.
He had a nice swimming pool, though, with grottos and waterfalls and a hot tub. I could imagine teaching Ella to swim there. There was also a little pool house, butted up against the edge of the property, that probably had an even better view of the ocean. Cullen had told me he’d stayed there as a teen, when his father’s partying had started to get out of hand. I slid open the screen door and started to walk outside, to the deck, but then I worried that would set off the alarm.
When the phone in the kitchen started to ring, I debated if I should answer it. I finally picked it up.
“Hey,” a voice said right away. It was Cullen. “You got the code to disarm the alarm? There’s a delivery truck coming, and you’ll need to let them in.”
“Yeah, I got it. You sent a delivery truck?” I asked. I was pretty sure my list wasn’t all that long. Of course, he only had a motorcycle, so that made sense.
He hung up and when the delivery truck arrived about a half hour later, I disarmed the alarm and opened the door, expecting a few big bags. But the man in the red uniform was holding a massive teddy bear, about ten times the size of Ella.
That was definitely not on the list.
Ella squealed and went running for it, getting lost in the huge fluffy plush animal.
“Where do you want everything, ma’am?” he asked me, stepping into the foyer as I rescued Ella from the bear’s embrace.
“Oh. You can just put it right here,” I said. “I’ll sort it out later.”
And then I watched as he and another man made several trips, bringing in bags and boxes, filling his enormous foyer. I peeked into some of the bags and saw a wealth of baby paraphernalia. The baby proofing security stuff was there, as well . . . did he really buy a breast pump? What was he expecting I was going to do with that? I stopped breastfeeding over a year ago.
After about the tenth trip, I started to worry there wouldn’t be enough space. “Just a couple more things, ma’am,” the driver said, because I must’ve looked concerned.
The last thing they brought in was a brand-new toddler bed and mattress. And sheets with little pink elephants all over them.
Cullen must have had a saleslady helping him. I couldn’t see him doing all of this himself.
About fifteen minutes later, he pulled up on his motorcycle as Ella and I were going through everything. The foyer looked a little like a Kids ‘R Us.
“Did I do okay?” he asked, pulling off his helmet and scratching the back of his neck as he surveyed the disorder in the foyer.
I nodded, speechless, as I weaved my way around the piles of toys and clothes. I kissed him so hard, it struck him by surprise. When he broke the kiss, he grinned down at me.
“Guess that’s a yes?”
I nodded, still unable to get the words out. I felt tears pinching the corners of my eyes.
Because the list of things he’d defend with no regard to his safety?
Right then, I knew Ella had made the cut.
Chapter Thirteen
Cullen
I looked around the fucking hellhole that had become my house and smiled.
My father, the old bastard, had moved in here when I was six or seven. The only toys he kept for me was a collection of Matchbox cars in a shoebox in the foyer closet, because he didn’t want any of my shit fucking up his sweet bachelor pad. He always had the doors to the house open to anyone looking for a party. The liquor was always flowing, with endless lines of coke spread out on the dining room table.
But one thing he didn’t want?
Kid stuff.
I finished putting together the toddler bed and arranged it by the window in the room we’d picked out for Ella, down the hall from my bedroom. “This good?” I asked Grace as I gave it a little shake for good measure to make sure it was sturdy.
She nodded. “Perfect. Thanks.”
She was sitting on the floor, still wearing my t-shirt and a pair of short-shorts, going through all the stuff for Ella. Her hair was loose and messy and I was hoping it was naptime soon, because that meant I could get Grace into bed with me. She pulled out the sheets and started to make the bed.
Ella was playing with the blocks I’d gotten her, looking pretty damn happy. I had no fucking clue what a baby girl would play with, but the saleslady at the department store had been a big help. I told her to just fill up my cart with some of everything a new parent would need for their kid. And she did.
“Some of this we can return,” Grace said, searching through the pile. “She’s really too big for an exersaucer.”
I looked at it. The picture on the side of the box showed a baby that I guessed was younger than Ella. “I have no fucking idea what that thing does.”
“But it’s nice,” she added. “Thank you. I never had a baby shower for Ella. This kind of feels like that.”
“Well, fuck,” I said. “You should’ve had one.”
“And invited who?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips and staring at me like I didn’t have a clue about baby showers. Which I didn’t.
“If you’d been with me, we could’ve invited a bunch of people.”
“Yeah. I would just love to see all the Cobras at a freaking baby shower,” she said with a grin. “We could’ve had finger sandwiches and played Guess the Baby’s Birthdate. Isn’t that what you normally do at church?”
I smirked. “Pretty much.”
Just then, Ella collapsed against the giant bear she was wrestling with and yawned.
“Don’t that mean she’s tired?” I asked, lifting her up and setting the bear against the bed.
Grace gave me a suspicious look and shrugged. “Well, I don’t know, what time is it?”
I checked my phone. “Three.”
She contemplated this. “I usually put her down around four.”
“Will the world end if you put her down early?” I cornered her against the wall, my hands on her bare arms, moving down and trying to cup her tits. No bra. Hell yes. I licked her earlobe. She pushed me away so fast I thought something was wrong. “What? I want to nail her mother.”
She gave me the eye. “Not in front of Ella.”
“Of course. But . . .” I looked over my shoulder at the kid, who was too busy babbling to the bear, trying to get it to talk to her. “I think we’re good.”
She stepped to the side. “She could turn around and see us in a heartbeat. My mother always had men all over her. I’m not doing that to Ella, understand?”
Letting out a breath, I pushed off the wall, just as my phone started to ring. I checked the screen. It was Hart. The king of bad timing.
I
kissed Grace’s temple and held up a finger. Stepping out of the room, I answered. “This better be good.”
“When are you going to realize, man, it’s always good when you’re talking to me?” he said, pissing me off. Hart could really sling the bullshit. “You get in touch with the Fury yet?”
“For . . .” Shit. I’d been planning to get in touch with Slade and I hadn’t. “Not yet. Wrapped up in things. I’ll get to it tonight.”
“Cool, man.”
“That what you called me for? To be my warden?” I asked, peeking into the room. Grace was babbling baby talk to the kid, trying to get her to settle into her new bed. Fuck, yes. I’d obey the rules around Ella, but I couldn’t wait to get Grace into my bedroom.
“No. Actually, I’m at the clubhouse. And there’s a package over here for you, man,” he said. “Says on it that it’s urgent and needs to be opened right away.”
“Who from?”
“Doesn’t say.”
Great. “I’ll be over there after a while.” I hadn’t been planning on going anywhere tonight, but if it was Cobras business, it couldn’t wait. Fuck. I knew Grace would give me shit about it.
“Good. Because you know, Dash and Jet were getting riled. You know. Wondering what the fuck is going down because you’ve been mum lately. Anything wrong?”
Of course they were. I was supposed to be setting up that meeting with Slade and all I’ve been doing is playing house here. I needed to focus. This wasn’t how a president of a club behaved.
And if I let it go too long, the guys would try to take matters into their own hands. Especially Dash and Jet, hotheads that they were. They’d fuck everything up.
“Nothing’s wrong,” I ground out.
“Any truth to the rumor going around that you got a kid?”
Fuck. I didn’t want to get into this. I leaned into the phone and murmured, so Grace wouldn’t hear, “A girl I used to know and her kid are staying with me, that’s all. She was in trouble.”
“All right, man. Don’t get all fucked up about it.”
I wasn’t fucked up about it. Was I? Shit, my voice might have risen a notch. “Okay man, see you later.”
I ended the call. I had to play this cooler than I was playing it. The last thing I needed was the Cobras wondering if I’d gone MIA on them. A president didn’t do that. I could balance these things. I knew I could. I just needed Grace to understand that I had other things to deal with. Delicately, this time.
I went into the room as Grace was telling Ella a bedtime story, her eyes drooping closed. When she saw me her eyes popped opened and she smiled around her thumb. “New bed,” she said.
Grace gave her a little hug. “I think she likes her new digs.”
“Nice. Hey,” I said. “Sorry but I’ve got to go. Cobras business.”
She kissed Ella and stood up, following me out into the hallway. “Okay,” she said, her voice breezy, but I knew better than that.
I got the feeling if I hadn’t just bought out all of Target’s baby department, I would’ve been in some serious shit.
I groaned as I wrapped my arms around her. Shit, she made it almost impossible to leave. She reached up and kissed me, long and slow. “You’ll be home at a reasonable hour?”
“Girl, you and I both know that your reason and my reason ain’t the same thing,” I said with a grin. “But I’ll be an hour or so, tops.”
She gave me a doubtful look. “Cobras business? That means two.”
“I’ll bring home dinner. Okay?”
She nodded, satisfied. “Good. Don’t make me miss you.”
Chapter Fourteen
Grace
Cullen wasn’t the most punctual person on earth. Oh, he’d make sure church with the Cobras started at eight sharp. But when it came to how long he’d be gone when he said he was going out, I knew better than to take his word as gospel. I knew better than to make dinner plans or hang around waiting for him.
He was never on time when it came to me.
So when he said that he’d bring dinner home, I figured we’d probably end up eating at his dinnertime, which was ten at night. Having a baby that woke me up at daybreak, ten had quickly become my bedtime.
But as Ella napped, I decided to keep myself busy. There was a lot of work to be done, cleaning and baby-proofing the house. I got back to work, tossing all of the liquor bottles into the trash. Then I cleaned the kitchen, did some laundry, and baby-proofed most of the rooms that I thought Ella was likely to explore.
When I was done, I felt a little better about having Ella in the house. The place was more like a home and a bit less like a bachelor pad.
I looked at the clock and realized it was after five. He’d been gone almost two hours already.
Sighing, I climbed the stairs. I needed to get Ella up or else she wouldn’t sleep at night. When I got her up, I decided to feed her dinner in the brand new high chair that Cullen had bought for her. I fixed a chicken breast and vegetables and when she started chomping on it, my stomach started to grumble.
When my stomach grumbled for mashed carrots and peas and bland chicken, I knew I had a problem. I was starving.
Ella was wide awake, so I read a book to her but mostly I chased her from room to room. Where was Cullen? Not only was I starving, but my little darling was wearing me out. It was past six, almost six-thirty.
Cullen had made it clear he didn’t want me to leave. He’d armed the alarm when he left and told me to stay put. But that was fine as long as he would be holding up his end of the bargain and coming home when he Goddamn said he would.
Which he wouldn’t.
Ella had been cooped up in the house all. She needed to get out and get some fresh air. Hell, I needed to get out. Maybe I’d take Ella to the beach. And stop by the clubhouse and tell him to hurry his ass up.
That was actually a good idea. For so long, Cullen had always acted like it was either the Cobras or me. Like he couldn’t have both; he could only choose one or the other. I was sure the other Cobras had probably heard stories about me being an old ball and chain. He’d probably told them that I couldn’t deal with him being a Cobra and I’d constantly nagged him to quit it. If I showed up and was supportive, maybe he wouldn’t see the Cobras and me as two opposing sides. Maybe he wouldn’t feel the need to put me second. Maybe he’d realize we could definitely work this out.
A plan filled my mind as I finished scraping up the last of the carrots from the container. Yes, he’d said that church was sacred. Members only. What happened at church, stayed at church. But Cullen was president and used to bending the rules. Plus, if I showed up in my little black number, he’d never be able to hold a grudge.
I wiped Ella’s mouth with a bib. “Want to see where daddy works?” I asked her.
She nodded excitedly and clapped her hands.
All right. I’d gone through a bunch of papers during the clean-up spree and located an address on the bay for a warehouse he was renting. I figured that had to be the clubhouse. I lifted the receiver on his phone and called for a cab.
Then I went upstairs, dressed myself in my slinkiest black dress, and put Ella in her cutest red romper. “Two hot mamas, out on the town, right girl?” I said as I propped her up on the sink and wet her curls to bounce them back into ringlets.
“Mama,” she said, pointing at my reflection.
“Yes, baby. Let’s go see daddy. He’s got a date with us.”
When I finished brushing my hair and applying lip gloss, I looked out the window and saw the cab there. Cullen had a stack of cash in his armoire and had told me to help myself. So I lifted some twenties from the stack and stuffed them into my purse.
Then I disarmed the alarm to step outside and hurried to the cab with Ella in my arms.
Chapter Fifteen
Cullen
On the way to the clubhouse, I stopped in at The Wall, just to have a beer and gauge what the rumor mill was spurting out. Zain was there, had just gotten back from a shift at the garage,
and he and I ended up talking for a while, since he was the one with the inside scoop on what the Fury was up to.
“Still quiet,” he said to me with a shrug, spinning bottle caps on the bar. “Never heard them so quiet before. If I didn’t know better, I’d think they dropped off the face of the earth.”
“Means trouble, you think?”
Vera, a tight piece of ass who was the bartender at The Wall most nights and Zain’s main action—mostly because she gave us free drinks—refilled our shot glasses with tequila without us asking. Zain winked at her and said, “Nah. You never know with Slade. I mean, Blaze was a loose cannon, but Slade’s even more fucked in the head. He alternates between touched and just good old, straight-up batshit.”
“Yeah?” I tossed back the shot and signaled to Vera for another one. And this was the guy I was going to be having a nice, friendly conversation with? Couldn’t wait.
“Hey. Thought you were going to meet with him. Did you ever get in touch with him?”
“Yeah. For the last time. I’m gonna. Gonna give him a call tonight and set it up.” I punched him. “Geez, fucking Christ, you guys nag worse than a bunch of bitches on the rag.”
He grinned at me and popped a handful of peanuts into his mouth. “Speaking of bitches. I hear you have one at home at the famous McKnight bachelor pad. Isn’t that against your rules?”
Holy hell, news about me did not miss anyone. I thought of Grace, all hot and gorgeous in my bed, the way her skin felt under my touch, the way she looked, curled up in my sheets. A pretty little dream, one I couldn’t wait to wake up to. “Yeah. An ex. Just visiting.”
“Gotcha.” He raised an eyebrow and continued feeding himself peanuts. I got the feeling he didn’t believe me. Change the subject, Cullen.
“So, back to Slade. You think he’ll shut me down? You think he won’t want to talk it out?”
Zain slumped over the bar. “See, that’s the thing with Slade. You just can’t fucking read him. He likes to be the mystery man. Leaves you guessing.”