will start school in August,” Lucie retorted. “She’s bound to talk about her mommy.”
Wolfe rubbed his jaw. “She’ll need to know a part of the truth. She’ll have to say you went away for a while. People will just think you’re dead.”
“That’s reassuring,” she snarled. “Fuck, Wolfe, you want to tell our daughter, the daughter who’s already grieving her father, who’s been moved nearly a thousand miles, that she needs to tell everyone her mother has gone away for a while?”
He shrugged. “Why not? She knows it’s a lie. You’ll be with her at night after school, for fuck’s sake.”
I winced because he had a point.
She reached up and rubbed her temples. “We’re going to mess with her head more than we already have.”
“We don’t have a choice,” Wolfe told her carefully, and I cut him a look and saw he was trying to be strong, but was feeling just how fucked up this was as much as Lucie.
“There’s always a choice,” she whispered.
“Yeah, and in this instance, it’s either you being killed by Ramon or letting him work to set you up,” he countered. “This really is the best of two evils.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose. “You’ve already decided on this, haven’t you?”
“You came to us, Lucie,” I reminded her, “because you know we’ll do whatever we have to, to keep you safe.”
“And letting a cartel foot soldier lop off my fucking finger is keeping me safe?” she growled, lunging forward, but Dagger hauled her back onto his lap and kept his arms threaded about her waist.
“Yeah, it is,” I retorted. “We’re doing the best we can with the shit that’s been handed to us, Lucie. You can’t seriously think we want this for you. For fuck’s sake, none of us knew what the hell was going down when Ramon rolled up. We were as in the dark as you.
“But, we’re going to act in your best interest because the Guerrera Cartel aren’t people you fuck around with. Only your goddamn father would be lunatic enough to threaten Ramon’s son and get away with it.”
“Brass balls,” Axe muttered, and I couldn’t disagree with him. People said I was messed up in the head, but fuck, that was nothing compared to Bomber.
“This can’t be happening,” she whispered, more to herself than us. When she covered her eyes, denying me the sight of those beautiful orbs that transmitted so much to me, so much emotion, I felt like I’d lost my life raft.
Inside, I was raging. If Bomber wasn’t already dead, I’d have slaughtered him where he stood.
Licking my lips, I promised, “We’ll make this work.”
“We have to,” Wolfe said heavily, but the look he shot me said otherwise. “I know this might seem like a stupid time, but we need to talk about the council. We’re short, and we need to start promoting. If the Guerreras come after us, as well as the beef we’re currently dealing with from the Knights, then we need to be in full working order.”
She dug her fingers in her eyes and murmured, “Wheels and Rodeo are your choices, right?”
Wolfe snorted. “How the fuck did you know that?”
That had her sniffing. “I listen to people talk. Just because they’re not talking to me all that much doesn’t mean I can’t hear.”
His lips twitched at her snark, but he tensed at her words—I was just as pissed that the MC wasn’t letting this go.
“I think we need an emergency church,” Dagger stated grimly. “We need to flush out the rat.”
“They’ve been here for years. They’re friends with us now. They’re our brothers. No amount of emergency church is going to flush him out.” I cut him a look. “Don’t worry about it. I’m working on it.”
“See that you do.”
“Yes, mom,” I retorted drily.
“We’ll call church once we make our decision on the new council,” Wolfe instructed. “Once things are set up, we can focus on keeping Lucie safe. I just wish we had proof that the drugs were planted, at least then, we’d be able to get the brothers on our side.”
None of this fucked up situation was ideal.
“Wolfe just talked about this beef we have with the Knights, baby girl. What do you know about it?” I asked her, my voice soft and quiet.
Wolfe glowered at me, but I just shrugged. There was no point in keeping her in the dark. No point at all. We had both Lucie and Amaryllis to think of, and hiding shit from Lucie would only put them