Page 39 of Ronny

I swallow hard and look around the room at the other guys wondering, are you going to stop this?

Ronny moves me farther out of the way, grabbing Maci so she doesn’t get taken into the crossfire. “Stop this,” I yell at them both, frustrated.

“My son has treated Olivia with respect. He has taken care of her and never would hurt her. If you threaten my son in any way or even hint to it, I will beat your ass. I don’t care if you’re my brother or not.” Maverick sounds scary as fuck, but my dad doesn’t back down because he is his own version of scary.

My dad’s jaw is clenched, then he lets out a rough sigh. “Fuck, I know he loves my girl.” He looks over at Ronny. “I don’t even know I do it half the time.”

Maverick nods at Dad like his apology is accepted. Dad holds his hand out for Ronny to shake, and they do, then he does the same with Maverick.

The fight is over. “If you guys are done measuring your penises, can we eat our food?” We all look over in sync at Tiana, who is grinning, and her mom Shaylin is behind her looking proud at her sass.

Meanwhile, Butcher looks bored at the whole thing. “Don’t say penis in front of me again,” Butcher grumbles, and I bust out laughing, everyone following suit.

Family isn’t family if we don’t fight or argue.

We all go into the dining room, where Ronny helps me sit down and scoots my seat in while I hold Madeline, not wanting to stop my snuggles.

Amelia sits across from us. “She have a good night?”

We both shrug at the same time. “Well, she was up every couple of hours,” I tell her, then open my mouth when Ronny feeds me a bite of eggs.

He’s so sweet.

“Maybe let her cry it out?” Maci suggests.

“No,” Ronny says sternly, and I shake my head, “she has been left to cry it out enough the first two weeks of her life.”

I just picture her lying in that dog bed, alone, scared, and hungry, wondering why someone isn’t holding her, changing her.

That’s heartbreaking.

So no, no matter how tired I am, I will not let her “cry it out.”

“Fuck, I could kill that bitch,” Tiana says menacingly, slamming the butter knife down on the table.

I run my hands over her the top of Madeline’s head. “Did you give her antibiotics?” I ask Ronny.

He nods. “Yeah, just right before you got up.”

“I would have loved to have hurt her mother for what she has done to her, but getting Madeline out of there was way more important,” I tell Tiana.

Maverick starts chuckling. “She did punch her lights out, though,” he tattles on me, and my dad looks at me like he is proud of that.

My face reddens at the attention. “If I see her again, it’s on sight,” I confess. I’m not someone who resorts to violence like a lot of people, but the fury I have toward her is down to my core.

She left this angel to die, and she didn’t care. She deserves to hurt the same way but ten times over. I have had some pretty rough thoughts of things I would do to her.

Tiana gives me a secret look with a slight smile that promises violence. Ronny feeds me another bite of food then takes one himself.

My dad and Maverick are acting like best friends again. Maci is quiet and listening to everyone around her, but once she is with just us, she is different.

In the cult we were told to be sweet, to not speak unless spoken to or your tongue will be cut off.

I witnessed a woman’s tongue getting cut off because she accidentally told her abuser no.

He was cruel, one of the worst and one of the head guys. I haven’t heard if he is still alive or not, but the horrible thing is there were so many men in the cult.

The possibility of them still out there is a great one as the cult got disbanded. A huge thanks to Konrad and Etta, who are now retired.

---