Page 113 of Static

"Is everything okay?" she asked, worry in her eyes.

"It's going to be fine," I promised her. "Me, Rainer, and Torres aren't going to let a damn thing come back on you."

She smiled up at me and went up on her toes to press a kiss to my mouth.

It made me want to toss her over my shoulder and head back inside for round two. A phone ringing cut through the moment.

"Lock and I are both right here," Toxic said, looking over at Butcher, who was holding his phone in his hand. "Who the hell is calling you?"

Butcher rolled his eyes and answered. "Yeah?" His normally grim expression darkened. "Yeah. I hear you." He disconnected the call and stalked off without another word.

My brows shot up and I looked over at Lock. "What was that?"

Lockout sighed and exchanged a glance with Cypher. "Nothing good, I'm betting." As if on cue, Lock's phone rang. "What's going on?" he said as he connected the call. His eyes flashed over toward Butcher's retreating back. "You sure?" He paused to listen. "Well, fuck. Alright."

Toxic shrugged his shoulders, a worried look on his face, when I gave him a questioning look.

"Come on," Lock told the group. "Let's go celebrate."

Wrapping my arm tighter around my girl, I steered her over to where Sean and Grace were playing. We'd deal with whatever came at us in the future. Today? We were going to spend it as a family. With our ally club brothers here, and Fremont gone, there was a lot to celebrate. We'd take the time to revel in our good fortunes now that the imminent threat was gone. There'd be time to worry about what was coming next later. Today was for us. I planned to take full advantage of that, and my old lady, as much as I was able.

Swinging Grace up into my arms, I pulled a permanent marker from my back pocket. "Who's ready to sign Sean's cast?"

"I get first dibs."

I looked over in shock as Scythe ripped the pen from my hand and went over to the boy. Looking down at Gwen's grinning face, I asked, "Are you happy, Sugar?"

She sighed and laid her head on my chest. "This all feels like a dream."

I set Grace down and pulled Gwen into my arms. "Then I'm never waking up." I kissed her, ignoring the cheers from my family that echoed around us. I wanted to do exactly this, every day, for the rest of my life.

CHAPTER 40

Static

"That one is perfect," Gwen said with a soft smile as she pointed at the stuffed elephant.

Grabbing it off the shelf, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and walked up to the front of the store. We'd partied hard for the last two days and sent the Berserkers and the Saint's Outlaws back home with hangovers that were sure to plague them for days.

But now we were all ready to spend time with our families and let things get back to normal. We walked out of the store and I started up my bike while Gwen packed the toy away in the small backpack she was wearing. The drive to the hospital was quick and eventless. We weren't expecting any trouble to pop up any time soon. Or at least that was what we were hoping.

I waited with the elephant while Gwen checked with the front desk. The nurse smiled as she spoke to my girl. Gwen came back to me, beaming.

"Room twelve," she told me.

Leading her to the elevators, I hit the button for the second floor and followed Gwen out as she rushed toward where the others were sitting.

"You're just in time," Lock told us. "They just asked for us to come in."

We all piled into the room and Smokehouse looked up at us, a look of wonder and terror on his face. He was holding his daughter, swaddled in a pink blanket, in his arms.

Gwen and the other women rushed over to Dani to check on her, while we went up to Smoke and the baby.

"Holy shit," Smoke breathed. "I'm a dad."

Hellfire chuckled and nodded. "God help the kid."

"She'll be fine," Priest told him.

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