Nudging him with my arm, I look over Sue's shoulder and about have a fucking heart attack. My beer hits the grass a moment before I'm sprinting across the park.
"Lulu!" I shout, drawing attention without care. The more eyes we have on her the better. There's a man in a fucking MC cut standing beside her with a grin.
MINE. PROTECT.
The beast in me rises to the surface, but I'm careful not to hurt my Little girl when I drag her away from the big burly man. All I see is a threat. "What are you doing here? Who are you?"
A tiny gasp draws my attention to a woman scrambling away from me. Her ashy blonde hair whips around her face as she backpedals and rams her curvy hip into the table.
"Oh no!" Lulu cries, rushing toward the girl. "It's okay. That's Preston. He's the big boss man here and I'm his."
Confused as fuck, especially when the girl backs away from Lulu, I turn to the stranger on my property. "What's going on here? Who let you in?" If he so much as touched a hair on either of their heads, I'll kill him.
"Daddy, stop!" Lulu gasps, her eyes wide with horror. "That's the president. He's the one that saved me that day and sent me home to you. "
The deep breath that I force through my lungs barely contains the instinct to get him out of here. "Explain," I growl. "As far as I know one of your own had his bloody hands on my woman and threatened her life."
"He's been taken care of," the man rumbles, sounding murderous at the mention of that prick. "What your Little one said is true. I'm the president of Falcons Cry MC, but my name is Marcus. It's nice to meet you. I sincerely hope you're keeping her safe and out of trouble."
"That's not your concern," I growl only to be cut off by my fierce baby grabbing my hand and stomping her foot.
"He's my friend. Stop it. He saved the girl from some very bad men and brought her here for safety. You can't hate him, he brought a new friend for us," Lulu declares.
“How do you know this, Lulu?” I ask, voice tight because why the hell has she been talking to him and how did he get on our property?
“Ah, that would be my bad,” Kevin says, stepping up from behind the table of food with a hand raised. “Um. I didn’t think there would be a problem. Marcus is a friend of mine. He helped my sister out of a bad situation last year. I walked with them here from the gate so the little lady could find Bash. Lulu got nervous when she saw us and we told her what was going on. I trust Marcus. He’s a good man. I swear it, Preston.”
Damnit. Being associated with this man could put a target on our backs in the future. But he helped Lulu and now he's saved another scared woman. And apparently Kevin’s sister last year. Fuck, and Sue knows him.
I feel my friends ready to help me at my back and it bolsters my mind. Their heavy gazes on me and the Littles already surrounding the woman force me to think about this.
"We protect them, no matter what," I say to Marcus, needing to read how much he actually cares about vulnerable people. Can I rely on this man to uphold our main goal at Reclaiming Red?
Marcus nods. "Good. If I find another, I'll bring them here. Take care, girls," he calls out.
To my surprise, Lulu sniffles. Is she sad I’m sending him away? Goddamnit.
"Why don't you stay for a burger?" I offer, after I've taken in the worry in Lulu's gaze. My life revolves around making my girl happy and if she really wants this biker to be our friend, I’m too weak to tell her no.
Kevin releases a relieved sigh and backs away, mouthing the wordsorryat me. To be fair, I’ve dropped the ball on meetings and keeping everyone up to date on some concerns I’ve been having.
After I went to Sue and demanded we make a plan to protect ourselves from the MC guy Lulu ran into, Sue laughed. She disclosed that she had a few cousins in his club and we had nothing to worry about.
My fears faded a bit but still, I should have followed up on it and let everyone on the property know. I had almost forgotten about the whole thing entirely after my friend put me at ease.
Seeing a big, mean looking guy in a leather jacket next to my girl stripped all my knowledge away though. My one-track mind told me to protect Lulu.
For a moment Marcus studies me and the way Lulu clings to my arm. His eyes fill with warmth and something akin to sadness when his lips turn up. "It's been a long time since I had a group of Littles make me smile. You got any beer?"
Bash interrupts the moment with a shout as he joins the huddle. “Holy shit! Tina, honey, is that you?!” We all watch the new girl fling herself into his arms and dissolve into a fit of tears.
My friend looks gutted and scared as he holds the woman tightly. “Where’s your Daddy? Fuck, why didn’t he call me!?” Bash picks her up and walks them toward privacy while murmuring in her ear.
I have so many fucking questions but they clearly need space and I have a stranger standing in front of me still.
My focus slips right back to my girl as I hoist her up onto my hip. She looks worried about the woman, gnawing on her bottom lip and wringing her hands as she watches them go. "Baby?"
As if I snapped her out of her thoughts, her attention snaps back to Marcus. "Yes. Daddy has beer,” she says sweetly.
