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I fucking knew it.
Her favorite thing to do was to stand up to the brothers.
Quickly named Hellraiser by the brothers, she would stand before any brother, hands on her little hips and glare at them until they did exactly what she wanted. Everything from picking her up to letting her sit in their laps. Talia was in charge, and everyone knew it.
Even me.
Never thought a three-year-old would scare the crap out of me, but I guess there was a first time for everything.
As the weeks passed the clubhouse settled into a strange new kind of normal. For the first time in years, there seemed to be a flicker of life emerging from the darkness. Almost as if there was hope at the end of the horizon. Brothers who I hadn’t seen smile or heard laugh in years were coming out of their shells. The deafening silence of death slowly faded as life rose once again, lighting everything it touched.
Kali continued to heal but still needed round-the-clock care. Her twin boys took to the brothers immediately, following them around wherever their little legs could take them. Even the baby seemed content. Hellraiser ruled the roost as the brothers gave her whatever she wanted. The little beast even cornered me in the kitchen three days ago when she climbed into my lap, staring at me as I drank a beer. When she eyed my bottle, I laughed. Really laughed for the first time in years. “Forget it about,Hellraiser. You are not getting any.”
“What does it taste like?”
“Piss.”
She wrinkled her pert little nose.
“You like drinking piss?”
I nodded before taking another swig.
“Yep.”
If I’d only known that little conversation would create havoc, I would have kept my mouth shut.
I wanted a beer.
What else was new?
So, I walked into the kitchen to grab a cold one. Only this time when I popped the lid off and took a large swallow, it tasted like piss. Spitting it out across the room, I looked at the bottle, confused.
A little chuckle had me turning to find Hellraiser standing near the kitchen door, a big smile on her face. “I made you piss.”
Stunned that I was just bested by a three-year-old, I tried to catch the little brat, who screamed like a banshee as she ran from the kitchen, straight into her co-conspirator’s arms, who picked her up, grinning from ear to ear as he high-fived the little devil.
“Did you put her up to that shit, Trigger?”
Laughter erupted around me as brothers lost their shit.
Shaking my head, I stormed from the rec room and slammed my office door. It was the only room in the clubhouse that Hellraiser wasn’t allowed in. I made damn sure about that, too. Even had one of the brothers make a damn sign that specifically said, ‘No Hellraiser allowed!’
I was still stewing when Vivian knocked on my door before poking her head in. “Kansas, I need to run to the hospital. I’m out of saline and bandages.”
“Take a prospect with you.”
“Can you watch Kali? I just gave her something for the pain. She will be out of it for a while. Kansas, I’m worried about her. She doesn’t cry. She just accepts the pain. It’s like she’d been conditioned not to cry. What kind of sick fuck does that to a woman?”
“A dead one,” I growled, waving her away. I knew why she didn’t cry around Vivi. Because she waited until no one would see her before she broke down. Her injuries were still healing and with what she went through, her recovery was going to be long.
Before August left, he informed me of everything that happened to the woman. Listening to him detail every injury, even the minor ones, had my blood boiling. Never in my life had I ever heard of a woman surviving such horror.
To make matters worse, I knew the woman.
Well, I kind of remembered her. I knew her grandfather and my parents were friends. I met her grandfather once. He was a nice man. Gentle.
Kaliope Vanderveer. Granddaughter to Albert Vanderveer, Billionaire, philanthropist, and all-around good guy. Well-liked and loved by everyone he met, Albert Vanderveer was one of the world’s good guys. And I had his granddaughter in my clubhouse.
