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The salesclerk smiled warmly, taking the card and running it before handing it back to me. With everything bagged up and ready, the three club prospects showed up and started carrying the multitude of bags to the waiting vehicles.
We stopped for lunch at a nice bistro and while the girls gabbed, I stared at the receipt in my hand, wondering how I was ever going to pay Vicious back. I had money in my personal account where I kept what Matrix paid me, but not seventeen thousand dollars.
“Okay,” Remi firmly said, looking at her phone. “The furniture is being delivered at three, and Ravage and the others will be there to help to unload. He said Elizabeth is ready to direct them all where everything needs to go.”
Ari laughed. “That girl knows what she wants.”
“What’s left to buy?” Stella asked, sitting next to me picking up a menu.
“We still need to hit the houseware section because I saw those cupboards in the kitchen. They were bare and Julie texted and said that all the draperies, rugs and paintings should be there within the hour. She is heading our way now. We also need to hit the toy store, Macy’s and Victoria’s Secrets.”
Looking up, I asked, “Why Victoria Secret?”
All the ladies smiled at me as Remi said, “Because Linsey, you need things.”
“I have plenty of things. I don’t need anything new. It’s going to take me a while to pay Vicious back as it is.”
“Oh girl.” Stella laughed along with Daphne and a few others. “Damn, she thinks Vicious wants the money back.”
Remi shook her head. “Honey, forget about paying him back. He won’t take it. Besides, you can’t catch Vicious wearing your old shit. You need new shit to make him think twice before getting on that damn bike of his and running away.”
“Run away? Why would he run away?”
“Because that’s what he does,” Ari advised cautiously, as Remi spoke up. “He gets this distant look in his eyes sometimes and takes off for months at a time.”
“He’d leave Elizabeth?” I asked, shocked. The man I knew would never leave his daughter. I’ve seen the two together. He worships the ground Beth walks on. He adores his girl. A man like that would never leave her.
“No. Elizabeth was in a boarding school before she came to live with us, which left Vicious to do what he wanted, but Beth doesn’t want to go back to that school. She wants to stay and live in the house her father built for her. We all saw the look in his eyes before you showed up. He was getting ready to bolt again. Now, he looks at you.”
Shaking my head, I refused to take the bait. I knew what they were saying. I wasn’t stupid. I saw the looks too, but now everything was different. I had three little girls to take care of. I didn’t have time for anything else. “It’s not like that with Vicious. He’s just helping me out right now. When the paperwork concerning the girls arrives, I will have access to money and I will find another place for us to live. Vicious doesn’t want a house full of girls. It’s his home. Not mine.”
“God, you can’t be that daft,” Stella snarked, rolling her eyes. “The man literally gave you his house. No questions asked. Put you in the master bedroom and gave you his personal Amex card. He told you to buy whatever you wanted. Does that sound like a man who wants you to leave?”
“No, it doesn’t.” Daphne shook her head as she looked at her menu.
“Look Linsey,” Remi said, placing her menu on the table. “Vicious is one of the oldest brothers in the club. He’s been alone most of his life until Elizabeth arrived. Even then, he didn’t know how to take care of a baby, so he bought her a place where she was safe and well cared for. That boarding school Beth attended. Vicious bought the school for her.”
“What?”
“Remi’s telling you the truth,” Daphne added, “Ink told me he bought the school where Elizabeth attended. That’s where Ink found Wrenly.”
Ari added, “Ghost told me Vicious doesn’t know what to do with himself. His parents died when he was young, then his grandfather died when he was sixteen. He’s been on his own for a long time. Vicious is the wealthiest brother in the club. I mean, they are all well off but nothing like Vicious. He can do anything, buy anything, but he doesn’t. The only thing he bought was the school Beth attended. When he asked Ravage to build him a house, it shocked the club. We all thought he’d leave like he always did when things settled down. When Ghost asked him why, Vicious simply said it was because Elizabeth wanted one. If you want my opinion, I think he’s lonely. He loves Beth but doesn’t know how to accept it.”
It was a lot of information about a man I knew to be extremely private. I got the girls’ concern for him, but I didn’t see how I could do anything about that. I didn’t like the fact that he’d been alone since he was sixteen. No child should ever feel that way, but he was a grown man now. Like the girls said, he could go anywhere, do anything. His plate was full with his daughter. He didn’t need or want a woman with three small girls. Hell, I was struggling to come to terms with my new life. I couldn’t imagine Vicious wanting any part of that.
No. It was best to keep my distance. When I had time, I would look for another place for the girls and I. Vicious had already uprooted his life enough by letting the girls and I stay in his house. No sense in complicating things with something that neither of us wanted.
Five
Vicious
Ghost called church right after the ladies took off with Linsey to go shopping for the girls. As it was, the clubhouse was in utter chaos, with all the kids running amok without the women supervising. I never really understood just how demanding kids could be until myself and the brothers tried to corral them all.
It was like herding water.
Impossible.
It was bad enough I had to give up my brand-new bed and return to the clubhouse, but at least I had some peace and quiet until the little hellions woke. I wasn’t complaining per se, I just wanted my bed. My bed in the clubhouse was a piece of shit. When I moved into the large house I had built for my daughter, the only thing I cared about was getting myself a comfortable bed. I wasn’t young and spry like the others and needed something comfortable with a lot of support to sleep on.
