Page 51 of Walker

“Baby, you’re my old lady. We might not have discussed that, or made it official yet, but I claimed you. That means you and the kids are under club protection.”

“The kids!” I almost shouted. “They’re upstairs.”

“Go get them while we take a look around.”

I nodded and then ran upstairs to go get my babies. “Pack a bag for all of you with a few days clothes and something for little man to play with,” Walker called up to me. Even though he couldn’t see, I nodded my head again. It didn’t even matter where he would take us, as long as we weren’t left here to fend for ourselves.

“Mom, what’s going on?” Ariel asked as she opened the bathroom door for me.

“Walker and some of the MC members are here. He wants us to pack a bag while they look around.” Ariel smiled at me.

“I knew he would save us.” I leaned in and kissed the top of my daughter’s head.

“Essential clothes for a couple days. No bullshit and only one pair of shoes, Ariel. There isn’t a lot of room.” I didn’t know if we would be staying in Walker’s room at the club, but that was the amount of space I would pack for. Maybe the club had roll out cots or something we could put in there for the time being. It wasn’t exactly the way I planned to tell my kids that I was in a close enough relationship with Walker to share a room with him, but I didn’t see how it mattered anymore.

He came for us.

They saw that he came for us.

That was more than any declaration of dating. That meant they could count on him, and they’d know that moving forward. We quickly packed and then made our way downstairs. I held onto Joshie’s hand, and he clutched his motorcycle in the other hand as his eyes tracked all the strange men in our living room. When he saw Walker, his eyes lit up and he let go of me to fling his little body at my boyfriend.

“Hey little man,” Walker said as he scooped him up and noticed what he had in his hand. “You still liking the motorcycle?”

Josh nodded his head and held it up proudly. I knew he wouldn’t talk because there were too many strangers, and he didn’t have a lot to say to people he didn’t know.

“Right on, little guy,” Hollywood cooed to my son. “We’ll have you riding one of your own very soon.” He lowered his voice, though his eyes tracked to the side to meet mine as he added, “Just don’t tell your mom about it.”

Josh glanced back over at me with wide eyes, as if asking silently for permission to do that. I managed to smile for my boy even though I was still shaking in fear on the inside.

“We’ll get you a helmet first,” I managed to tell him, and my boy lit up like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Walker came over and pulled me into his side while he held onto my son and then nodded for Ariel to get over there with us.

“Spike is outside. He already checked your car over. We’re going to put you guys inside and head to the shop for now. We have some prospects setting up a bigger room for us at the clubhouse until we can get shit under wraps here, okay?”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Aunt Tillie refused to take us and basically said she was done with mom,” Ariel confided in him.

“You called your sister?”

“I needed a safe place to take my kids, but she refused and said we couldn’t bring our trouble to her doorstep.”

“Her husband was okay with that?”

“Her husband is the reason she refused us.”

“Pussy,” I heard one of the bikers comment and Ariel nodded in agreement.

“Let’s get you guys out of here.” He glanced between me and my kids again. “What are you doing out of school?”

“Dina was causing trouble, and she got a ride home from someone,” I explained. “I still haven’t heard the full story because threats to my family seemed more important.”

“We’ll deal with all of it. Pretty sure it’s all connected anyhow.”

“What?” I asked.

Walker shook his head. “Get to your car. I’ll get Josh buckled in; Ariel can handle herself. You’re going to follow behind me and some of the guys are going to fall in behind your car. We’re going to Spike’s shop for now and then we’ll transfer to the clubhouse once everything is ready.”

“Okay.”

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