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“You and Crow had a thing?” Gia asked.
“Oh yeah, they did!” Claire teased. “And we were all jealous as hell.”
“Don’t listen to my sister! It was a long, long time ago.” Raine swatted at Claire. “He’s patched in over with Jury’s crew now and is happily married to a sweet, beautiful woman named Melissa. They have two boys and she is pregnant with her third, just like I am. That’s all ancient history.”
“What’s ancient history?” Diego suddenly appeared and draped his hand over his wife’s shoulder.
“Me and Crow.” Raine dimpled sweetly at him.
Diego raised an eyebrow. “You and Crowwhat?”
“I’llstillnever tell.” Raine said with dancing eyes. When Diego growled and made a lunge for her, she took off like a flash of lightning, laughing all the way. It wasn’t long before he caught up with her, hauled her over his shoulder, and gave her ass a playful swat. Then Diego put Raine back down on her feet and kissed her until she was breathless.
“Those two.” Claire shook her head with a smile.
The sound of Prosper’s voice boomed through the outdoor speakers.
“If you good for nothing sons- of- bitches and the lovely ladies who put up with your bullshit will come around to front of club house, we can start the ceremonies.”
A hundred or so men yelled out a collective cheer ofHells Saints, Hell Yeahand fist pumped the air in raucous unity. Then everyone made their way to the makeshift stage where the formal part of the evening was about to begin.
Prosper stood at the podium and talked into the microphone.
“This has been a hell of a year for us. We’ve had a whole batch of new babies born into our crew this year, and about a dozen graduations. Some of you dumb fucks even had kids graduating from college. I still don’t know how the hell that happened when the bunch of you put together couldn’t come up with a high school diploma. Those kids all must have taken after their mamma’s!” Prosper grinned when a whole pack of feminine cheers sounded out from the yard.
Then his tone turned serious. “There were also too many damn losses. We pay tribute to the boys who laid it down this year. We honor them by carving their names in stone because they were tough mother-fuckers. Jericho Stevens, Wings Holleran, and The Captain.” Then Prosper raised his fist in the air and shouted. “Some men walk through the gates of hell…”
“…And some men ride!”Came the loud and heartfelt response from the crowd.
While Prosper continued on with other club awards for this or that, Riker hung his arm around Gia’s shoulder.
“You having a good time, honey?”
“Maybe too good a time.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know I’m crazy about Rourke and I love being a mom, but god, it feels so nice to get away from the house for a while and relax with a glass of wine and the company of friends.” Her tone was so guilt-ridden it made Riker smile.
“How many times have you called the house?” He asked her.
“Only six.” She grinned. “That’s the thing, I think about him every second, but still it’s nice to get away for a couple of hours.”
Riker leaned down and gave her a soft kiss on the mouth. “I called three times myself. Dolly said once more and she’s not going to answer.”
Gia laughed. “She told me that too. But she still answers.”
“Did I show you this?” Riker held out his hands palms up. They were red and peeling in places. “I’m getting dish pan hands from changing what feels like a million diapers a day. What the hell are we feeding that boy to give him mass quantities of purple baby shit?”
“It’s the beets. He’s been a little constipated, so I’ve been mixing a tiny bit of mashed beets in with his rice cereal, Rourke loves it, but I have noticed lately that it goes right through him.” Then she began to rummage around in her purse. “I have lotion for your hands. Here, this stuff works miracles. It has lavender healing properties.” Riker went to grab the tube but stopped mid-air and shoved his hand back in his pocket.
“What’s the matter?” Gia held the hand cream out to him.
“Jesus. I just went straight from being a tough mother fucker to girly man mode.” Riker gave her a look of horror.
“What do you mean?”
“I used to hang around at these parties talking about the newest Glock out on the market, or how to cover up road chips on a crash helmet. Now I’m sitting here with my woman discussing colored baby poop and putting lavender lotion on my dishpan hands. I went from talking badass to talking baby shit.”
