AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Bike!” Macy said excitedly, bouncing on her toes.
Denver screwed up his nose. “Even Macy gets to ride on the bike. It’s not fair, Mom!”
“Denny…” Carly warned.
“Luke Leighton told everyone today that I didn’t have a dad and didn’t get to do cool stuff like he does with his dad.” Denver pouted, and my heart sank. Denver was eleven, he and Meyah had different dads, neither of which had manned up and stuck around for their kids. I’d tried my best to be there for them as much as possible, but Carly was so over protective of them, that she never gave in to my offers to take them around the club for family shit or on runs or camping like we sometimes did.
She wasn’t a fan of the Brothers by Blood MC. She never hid that fact.
“Luke sounds like a douche,” I muttered, earning me a sharp glare from my sister-in-law.
“Meyah, take Macy and Denver upstairs, I just need to talk to Uncle Leo,” Carly said quietly, moving through the doorway and into the kitchen. Meyah gave me a soft smile as she herded the two young ones out the door, their footsteps trudging slowly up the staircase.
“You shouldn’t be using that kind of language around children.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m an adult, I’ll use whatever language I want.”
“Macy called one of the kids at playgroup today a bastard,” she said, hitting me with a hard stare. I fought against the smile I felt creeping onto my face.
“What’d the other kid do to her?” I knew it wasn’t the right response. Okay, so a three-year-old shouldn’t be using that kind of language. But every kid at some point tested these things out. Tried to see how far they could push it.
I wanted Macy to be strong. She was my daughter. And my daughter wasn’t about to take shit from anyone. She was surrounded by men who held their heads high and stood up for themselves and their families.
“You really want to raise your daughter like that?”
“Like what? You mean… like a biker?” I threw back, trying to keep myself calm.
Carly gripped the edge of the counter in frustration. “She will grow up hard. When will she get to be a little girl? When will she get to figure out who she is, and who she wants to be? Because right now, the only choice you’re giving her is curse words and leather.”
I wanted to tell Carly to fuck off. I wanted to take Macy and storm out the door. Carly and I had never seen eye to eye. Kim and her parents had passed away in a car accident when Carly was just nineteen, and Kim was fourteen. Carly had taken over custody of Kim and raised her from there.
Kim and I started dating when we were juniors. The connection we had was undeniable even with her being the girl next door and me being the local bad boy. The shitty part was, I knew even though I didn’t want to hear her opinion on how I was raising my child, deep down, she really just wanted what was best for Macy.
We both saw Kim in that little girl. She was our link to the woman we’d both lost. So I needed to try and listen and take her opinion because Kim would have wanted Macy to have her family together.
“That clubhouse is not the place a little girl should grow up, Leo. She sees all those men swearing and drinking. And the women you have there…” her face contorted into a look of disgust, “… being promiscuous and wandering around half-clothed.”
“Those women have helped raise, Macy. They look after her and watch over her.” My mind drifted back to seeing Hadley holding Macy tightly in her arms as she searched for me through the crowd. She could have walked away, Macy wasn’t hers to worry about or deal with, but she took the time to make sure that she was safe and come find me.
“When are you going to settle down, Leo?” The question surprised me. Carly had never talked about me moving on from Kim or finding someone else. I always thought that maybe she liked the idea of me relying on her for help.
“Macy needs a home. Somewhere she can be comfortable, somewhere she can grow up.”
A part of me wanted to argue, but even I knew that she had a point. It was something that I’d been thinking of more and more recently.
I did want to give Macy a home.
I wanted to give her stability.
Somewhere that she wasn’t being shuffled from person to person every time I was called away to church or X-Rated or to deal with problems. Being the Sargent at Arms, the safety of the club fell on me. I had to make sure things ran smoothly, deals were set up right, and every person with links to the club was looked after and kept safe.
Blizzard and I were also watching over the relatively new security firm we’d created, and at the moment it was booming which was why I had recently spent ten days away in Troy. Kit had seen the success of the venture, and I’d gone down there to help them set up their own part of the firm.
My life was crazy, and as much as I’d like to think I made time to spend with Macy, I had been slacking.
“I’m gonna make more time for her.” The words sounded so sure and confident coming from my mouth. But even I knew it was going to be hard.
