made sense. You have people here to help you. Don’t need me, I’m sure, but you still reached out. That means something to me, Lana. If you want to cry or scream, I’m never going to complain.”
Bronco’s words might be nothing more than a man trying to keep things friendly with the mother of his surprise baby. I’m also sure he doesn’t want to piss off River and the Reapers.
But my hormones and love-deprived heart reject logic. They insist he feels the same magic as I do. With a little time, we’ll get to know each other like normal people, becoming more than a biker and a stripper who fucked in the back seat of an SUV and made a baby.
BRONCO
Growing up, I didn’t have a sitcom-style family. My father wasn’t a gruff man who meant well. My mother didn’t smother us with love and life lessons. My family was trashy in a way that wouldn’t be entertaining to anyone. But my sisters and I did what we could to survive with a violent father and a stone-cold-crazy mother.
My girls don’t live that kind of life. Their father might be a murderer, but that violence isn’t supposed to touch them. Then a few years ago, Summer took a bullet to the stomach fired by a member of the Crushed Skullz Motorcycle Club.
Healed now, my oldest child never mentions what happened. Things changed between us, though. She pulled away a little. All her life, I promised to keep her safe, but I was the reason she bled.
For fifteen years, I’ve lived in an oversized, custom-built house located at the center of the Woodlands at Dry Creek subdivision. The gated community is exclusive to the Executioners. I had plans for this place even before I found out about Summer. My widowed sister, Barbie, lives in the house next door with her son, Conor. My oldest sister, Bambi, lives with her husband and my club brother, Rooster, on the other side.
Returning from Shasta, I split off from Lowell and Anders. I warn my VP not to talk to his wife yet, since Topanga has a big fucking mouth. I want a chance to share the news on my terms before she pulls out her phone tree and gets to gabbing.
In my traditional-style, two-story house, I find my eleven-year-old daughter sitting in the sleek, modern kitchen I designed from the things my mom used to babble about for the dream home she never got.
While Mom is long gone, Sidonie remains my ray of sunshine and a pain in the ass. Today, her long blonde hair shines next to her pink shirt, and she seems in a relaxed mood.
“I don’t like you being here alone,” I tell Sidonie when she explains Barbie left earlier, and Summer is at a friend’s place.
“I keep the security on and never open the door for anyone,” she says and hands a piece of turkey from her sandwich to her black-and-white border collie. “Uno will keep me safe when you’re not here.”
Rather than arguing the point, I say, “I need a family meeting.”
“Who’s in trouble?” Sidonie asks, grinning at me.
My youngest—scratch that, my middle daughter—is a tenderhearted child. Sidonie has her mom’s fair blue eyes, freckled nose, and a sweet smile that always makes her look dreamy.
The daddy’s girl is at my side after I convince Summer and my sisters to stay put long enough for a chat. We sit in the two-story family room, where my oldest daughter struggles against the urge to check her phone for the hundredth time since sitting down. My brassy blonde sisters are getting long in the tooth, but they still retain the natural beauty they inherited from our mother.
Sitting on the couch’s arm, Barbie messes with Summer’s wild dark blonde hair while Bambi leans back in a chair and smiles at me.
“Well, get to it, boy.”
No matter how old we get, my sisters will always talk to me as if I’m a child needing them to wipe my ass.
“Last summer, I met a woman.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Bambi says and rolls her blue eyes. “Use a condom, Bronco.”
“When we’re done here, you can show me again on a banana how they work.”
Barbie glares at me. “So, who is this tramp?”
“What’s happening?” Sidonie asks, holding my hand so I’ll pay attention to her.
“A lady had my baby.”
Barbie grunts. “That’s what they want you to think.”
“Her brother-in-law is River Majors. Can’t imagine she’d pull this move when the test will answer the question in two days.”