a bunch of times.”
“And you don’t know how a stove works?”
“Never had one.”
His forehead pinches. “How’d you cook the meat?”
“We didn’t use meat. Cost too much. We could go to the ninety-nine- cents store and get a pack of noodles and a can of sauce for two bucks. That was like three meals for us if it was only us two. Four or five if I was home alone.”
He drops his stare to the counter and turns back to the food.
“We had a hot plate for a while. My mom would make things if she got a hair up her ass, which was maybe once a month if that. She usually ate out with her clients, though, so I’d heat up a hot dog or soup or something.”
“She’d go out to a restaurant and leave you there with nothing?”
“It’s not a big deal. It was normal where I lived, other kids were running around late, scrounging just like me.”
He frowns. “Have you lived in the same place all your life?”
I jump up on the counter. “Yep. Same trailer since I was born. Out of all my mother’s fuck ups, she at least did that right. We didn’t always have food or hot water, electricity was off a lot, but she never did lose the place.” I scoff as I think about it. “Probably ‘cause then she’d have to spend some of her payment on a hotel room like most the other girls she ran tricks with, but no, she liked to pocket as much as she could.”
Maddoc drops the knife in the sink with force, spinning to glare at me. “She’d fuck around with you there?”
Almost every single night.
I lift a shoulder.
“Raven.”
I shake my head and look over at him, finding he has a death grip on the counter. “It’s life, big man.”
He gets in my face, misplaced anger staring back at me. “That’s not life. That’s a piece of shit person putting her daughter in danger.”
I eye him and the longer I do, the more his worry seeps through.
He jerks away when my hand lifts and goes back to the job at hand.
“Check your rice, Raven.”
I roll my eyes and jump down.
Like I know what that means.
“Yo.” The other two walk in, beers in hand.
Cap laughs at me. “He put you to work?”
“He’s trying to teach me.” I lift a fork of white mush. My shoulders fall. “But I’m a shit student in all areas, it seems.”
“You still feelin’ the vodka floats?”
“Nope. Now I’m feeling the pounding on my temples.”
He and Royce laugh and start pulling out the dishes and shit for dinner.
We all move to the table like we’ve done every night since they pulled me into their little world.
Little world...
I look to Cap and right as I do, his eyes lift to mine and he gives a small, sad smile.
I drop mine to my plate.
“Her name is Zoey.”
My head snaps up and all movement around the table pauses. Dead fucking silence surrounds us, no one even dares chew.
“She’s two,” he continues. “Be three in June.”
My ribs star to ache. “What color are her eyes?” My question comes out quieter than I planned.
His mouth twitches. “Sometimes green, sometimes blue.”
“Like yours.”
He laughs lightly while nodding. He drops his eyes to his food. “Just like mine.”
“Captain...” I breathe, glancing from Royce to Maddoc, both who stare at me.
I don’t want to ask, but I want to know everything. So I wait.
“She’s with a foster family.”
I frown, sitting back in my chair.
“Zoey’s mom hid the pregnancy from me. I had no clue I was going to be a dad until after I already was.”
“What the fuck?”
“She was there, all was good, then Perkins called her from class that afternoon.”
Fuuuck. Now it makes sense why they freaked after my meeting with him.
He got in her head.
“She was gone after that. Took off, hid away, and came back in the summer. When school started, she was suddenly going to Graven,” he continued.
“I didn’t care. I wanted nothing to do with her when she showed back up, wrote her off completely. But someone wanted me to know.” He looks to his brothers who offer small nods of encouragements. “Found delivery records in my gym bag two weeks into school. Confronted her, finally got the truth from her. Then I found out she signed over her rights, gave my little girl up.”
“She can’t just do that. How did she just ... do that?”
“She lied to the right people. Said she didn’t know who the father