to answer. Putting the phone beside me on speaker, I sighed when she answered, “Hey, baby, you okay?” Then, when I didn’t reply fast enough, she peppered, “Ama?”
“Momma, I love you.”
“I know you do, baby. I love you, too. What’s wrong? Did one of those SOB’s hurt you? You just tell me which and I’ll knee them in the—”
“Momma!” I chided. “No! They’ve done nothing. I’m just… they’re all busy.”
“So?”
“Well, I wanted to sleep. It’s been a long day.”
“It has,” she said with a sigh. “How’s Bubbles?”
“She’s okay, but she lost the baby,” I told her sadly. “Jinx was devastated when he made it to the clinic after church. I think—” Wincing, I whispered, “I think he was sadder than she was.”
“Not surprised. That whole thing there was a clusterfuck.”
“You sound sad.” I knew my momma, and sympathy for the sweetbutts wasn’t something I often heard in her voice.
“I am. That baby did nothing wrong. If I thought it would go anywhere, I’d tell her to sue the ATF for mistreatment. It’s their fault—”
“I don’t think she was looking after herself. I heard what the doctor said. She wasn’t eating right, and she’d been taking none of the vitamins you need… For how long she’d been carrying, the baby was too small.”
“Then I’m even sadder for the child and hate that bitch even more.” Lucie grunted. “Anyway, what’s wrong?”
“Do you ever—” I broke off, unsure of what to say, how to phrase this. “Have you ever heard Daddy Ryan’s voice in your head?”
When Momma just fell quiet, I wasn’t sure what to think, then, she stunned me by admitting, “A long time ago, sure. I heard him all the time. After he died, I went to pieces, baby. You needed me and I let you down for a little while. I was sleeping all the time, and just… I needed some direction. He was the one who told me it was time to come home.
“He was there for a while, but when I settled in, when your daddies and me got together, I heard from him less and less. Ryan said it was because I was safe now. Protected. He’d set himself up as my white knight,” she murmured with a smile in her voice. “And he never let me down.”
“When was the last time you heard from him?”
The way she hesitated? I had my answer, and knew she wouldn’t say a word.
“When I was taken?”
“He told me to make Jodie-May pay,” she rasped. “So I did.” After clearing her throat, she asked, “You heard from him?”
“I heard him that day and today too.” I gulped. “I miss him, Momma.”
“Baby girl, I’ve missed him every single day since he’s been gone. Ain’t a day that passes where I don’t think of him. Ryan and your other daddies, they’re the loves of my life. Not a moment goes by where I don’t feel blessed to have them by my side.”
My eyes pricked with tears, not just because of the love between them, but because I empathized. “That’s how I feel about Saint, Keys, and Ink,” I whispered, my voice raw from emotion. “It’s like…”
“They’re the blood in your veins.”
I pressed a hand to my face. “Yeah. Like that. Like I’m whole without them, but not alive.”
“I know what you mean, baby.” Momma sucked down a breath. “We’re lucky, you and I. Not just one soul mate, but several. But you gotta look after them, baby. You’re in a unique position. Most women can only handle one man, heck, some can’t even handle that. And we’re in a different world than most.
“You know what kind of temptation is thrown their way every single day. You have to protect what you’ve got, and you have to be prepared to fight for it. Can you do that?”
“I’m not weak, Momma.”
“Never thought you were, baby,” came the instant reply. Hell, it was so instant that I believed it. “You’re not the weak one, we are. We love you so much and we’re terrified. I never ever want to experience even a fraction of the fear I felt the day you were taken. It would kill me, and that memory is so powerful that it petrifies me to this day. It’s that shadow of the memory that makes us put our fright onto you. But you’re my daughter, and I never raised no weak little miss.”
My lips twitched. “I can make them happy.”
“I know you can. Sure, they might not think they’re happy in this little