Page 74 of Biker's Bloodline: Property Of Ghost

Christ. Does Oske really have to make me feel like I’m hideous? Suddenly, I feel thrown off completely. Oske opens the back door of the Jeep and I see the first sign that I might be in over my head. I knew what I was getting into but this is still… hard to face.

Oske lifts the white blanket off of the car seat and exposes a small, caramel-skinned child, fast asleep. His mother sits on the other side of him, looking very frightened and unlike anything that I expected. I glance at her briefly and then back at Oske, who looks at me as if she expects me to back out. I can’t. I signed the contract and not just that, I had extensive conversations with her and know exactly what we’re both getting into.

“I know what I’m doing.”

“I see,” she says. “This is Shay, your new wife, and her son, Caleb. Shay, this is Cody Hollingsworth. I’m going to take you all inside and let you get to know each other with a mediator for about twenty minutes and then I have to get back to Brinley and you two are on your own.”

“I can handle that,” I say, reaching for the car seat. “I’ll take little Caleb, if that’s alright.”

Shay just looks at me with wide, terrified eyes. This woman looks like she’s seen some shit. Judging by the little bit Oske told me about her past, I’m sure she has. I’m also not terribly sure how a bastard like me stands a chance of making her trauma any better. I want a wife for wifely things, but I’m not a fixer. Not emotional. Not the kind of man a woman finds her healing in.

For now, Shay doesn’t seem like any trouble. Oske turns the Jeep off and the two of them follow me into the house. The baby is light. And sleeping, so not much trouble for now, but as I’m carrying him towards my house, my heart pounds.

What the hell am I thinking?

An arranged marriage with a black single mother of a biracial baby. A woman with trauma. Without legal status. With every reason to poison me and run off with my money, if I really think about it… But she agreed to stay here in my house and obey my rules. Oske says that I should trust her and that she has a good reason for wanting to be here.

Truth is, I don’t trust anyone.

The Hollingsworth boys tend towards the hot-tempered and paranoid, I’m no different. We also tend to be staunch disciplinarians. I’m no different there, either. For now, I sense that Shay is a good woman – the kind that I need. We’ll get along just fine so long as she obeys my rules.