Page 6 of Royal

A COUPLE OF HOURS LATER

I’m in front of the school, picking up Penny from kindergarten. The excitement on her face never gets old when she sees me waiting for her.

The door opens, and her teacher comes out. Penny has a Band-Aid on her hand that she is cradling.

I’m out of my truck and to her in a split second, bending down to her level. “What happened, baby?” I ask her, seeing her little eyes fill with tears.

The teacher sighs, rubbing her face. “We have a new kid at school. Penny was swinging, and the other girl wanted to play, so she pushed her off.”

That pisses me right the fuck off. “What did her parents say about this?” I pick Penny up off the ground, and she is crying freely. My baby has always been tenderhearted, and this hurts my heart.

I wish nothing ever happened to her or made her upset, but one day she is going to learn to punch the bullies’ shit and make them pay.

Some parents are against violence, but if someone deserves it, give it to them, I say.

The teacher looks across the parking lot, where a little girl is glaring at her with a couple that looks like her parents.

I open the truck's back door and set Penny in her booster seat. “Will you watch her for a second?” I ask the teacher but don’t even give her a second to respond before I’m tearing ass across the parking lot.

A guy gets out of the driver’s side, and I hope like fuck that he is the dad. “What is this about?”

“My daughter was pushed down and injured at school today by your daughter. I just wanted to see if we could work it out between them so this doesn’t happen again.”

I know by the amused looks on the parents’ faces that they’re not interested in what I’m saying, I haven’t given someone a good ass beating in some time, and I’m itching to do it to this fucker’s face.

He looks like he is half out of it, and I bet I can make him come to his right mind. “If your daughter wasn’t such a pussy then she wouldn’t have cried over a scraped hand.”

That just runs right through me.

I give him a nod, then walk away because this shit is not going to happen right in the middle of the school parking lot.

Though I give them my back, I turn to look over my shoulder just slightly. “Big mistake.” The smirk falls off the mom’s face because I know she is seeing my cut truly for the first time.

I’m an enforcer for the Grim Sinners Rebels. We don’t let shit slide, regardless of how small it is.

But over my princess being bullied? It will never be let go.

I get in the truck and take Penny to McDonald’s, where I let her eat and play for as long as she wants before taking her to the clubhouse, where Knight takes care of her hand, which is way below what a surgeon would be doing.

He asks her what happened, and she tells him the whole story. Annie walks into the room and runs to Penny, seeing her hand. Annie is around the same age as Penny but got put in another kindergarten class since there are so many of them. She didn’t attend school today because of a dentist appointment.

“Vulva pushed me off the swings.” She sniffs and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand.

Annie gasps dramatically, while Knight and I try to hide our smiles. “I will play with you tomorrow. I’m bigger,” Annie reassures and takes her hand, then they run away to play together.

“I’m going to kick the dad’s ass. He is a prick, and they think bullying is funny,” I tell Knight.

He growls, “I hate fuckers like that. They better not start their shit on Annie.”

In case it does happen again, I will talk with Penny tonight. I want her to stand up for herself. I have seen her do it before, but she doesn’t resort to that unless she feels she needs to.

“Annie is protective over Penny, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she kicks the little girl’s ass tomorrow,” Knight says, and I bust out laughing because it’s true.

I shake my brother’s hand. “These girls will give us gray hair before they even become teenagers.”

Knight cringes at that. “God, I don’t want to think about that or the fact that they might start dating.”

Now that just ruins my day. “Don’t say shit like that in front of me.”

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