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“True.” She shrugged. “But if I am going to have any, it would be nice to take that journey with someone I love.”
Murmurs and head nods came from the women.
“Let me tell you, I know you’ve only been staying with Ozzy for the past two weeks, but take it from me… Never in my life would I have thought a biker could be a great husband and father. I knew nothing about them before meeting Judge and, holy shit, he’s the best man I’ve ever been with in my entire life. He scared the shit out of me at first, but once I looked past the surface…” Cassie smiled.
“Same,” Reese said softly.
Red smiled. “For me, too.”
“And me,” Jet added. “However, I will freely admit Rook is an asshole.” She shrugged. “But he’s my asshole and I’ll keep him.”
All the ladies laughed.
“Hell, I knew what they were like and Cage, while he, too, can be an asshole, is nothing like the Originals,” Jemma confessed. “Thank fuck.”
“Same,” Stella added. “I remember the Originals. Sometimes I wish I didn’t. And Trip pushed me to the point where he almost broke me. Now I see why, and while he still has issues, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather call my partner in life and the father to our children.” She placed a hand over her belly and smiled.
“How about you?” Shay asked Chelle.
“Shade came to me with a lot of secrets. Some he still hasn’t shared with me and many he hasn’t shared with anyone else. But… my girls fell in love with him right away. Plus, watching him with Jude melts my heart. The man might be broken, but even broken things have beauty and value. They just need the right person to appreciate them.”
“Shit,” Stella said softly, wiping at her eyes. “Damn pregnancy hormones.”
“Tell me about it!” Reese exclaimed. “Reilly thinks an alien came down and switched out her sister.”
They all laughed.
“That’s one of the things I don’t look forward to, the emotional roller coaster for the next few months… But the sex!” Cassie bugged out her eyes.
“Oh, the sex!” Reese practically yelled. “I didn’t think I’d want it while pregnant. I can’t get enough.”
“I’m sure Deacon is happy about that,” Shay teased her.
“All I have to do is send him a text and suddenly he’s standing in front of me naked.” Reese laughed. “I learned not to text him unless it’s in a place where he won’t scare off people or get arrested.”
Cassie laugh-snorted. “I’ll have to try that.”
“Speaking of happy…” Stella turned to Shay. “Ozzy seems pretty happy. We were worried about him there for a little while.”
Shay frowned. “Why?”
“Oh, let us tell you a little story,” Stella started.
Chapter Seventeen
Dutch dropped an old, ratty shoebox on the bar in The Barn. It was held together with big rubber bands to keep the lid on.
Ozzy’s heart thumped in his throat. In the past couple of weeks, his brothers hadn’t discussed Shay’s father and the possibility of him having a tie with the Fury.
He blew the smoke from his hand-rolled out of his nostrils. “That it?” he asked, unable to unglue his eyes from it. It was a stupid-ass question because he knew exactly what it was.
It might be another dead end, just like the missing person’s case file for Shay’s father. Jet had convinced her pig brother to read through it and see if there were any clues. There’d been none. Jet’s brother told her any photos attached to the file were long gone, too. That cold case had gone into a deep freeze since no one had touched it in almost twenty years.
The pigs at the time had done some interviews with Marshall Graham’s family, friends and even co-workers, but nothing came up and no evidence was found to consider it foul play. They set it aside figuring he simply walked away from his life. That meant the man left his friends, family and job without a word.
To Ozzy, that seemed suspicious, especially with how Shay talked about him. But to five-o… Maybe to them it was common that adults simply ran away from their lives all the time. They’d get sick of their responsibilities and just bolt. Of course, when they did, they’d simply disappear without a word since they didn’t want those responsibilities chasing after them.
Still, it was fucking strange. His gut instinct was screaming at him that it had something to do with the Originals. That Shay’s father might’ve somehow gotten caught up with the mess back then.
He kept hoping like fuck that wasn’t true, but he wasn’t ruling it out.
There could be something in that box to confirm his suspicions. Or, again, it could be another dead end. If it was, he didn’t know what else to do to help Shay figure out what happened to her father.
