Page 13 of Babe

“He’s touching you,” the one with glasses said, obviously confused. And still hostile, considering the glare he was throwing my way. I ignored him.

Ace huffed. “Yes, he’s fucking touching me,” he snapped. “Thank you, Captain Obvious.” I snorted and gently squeezed him. He relaxed a bit, but he still didn’t drop the gun. “Put the guns on the floor.” No one moved. He put his finger on the trigger, swinging it at the silent one. The man had a thick beard a little unkempt, and he was wearing a beanie. Tattoos littered his skin. He just evenly met Ace’s gaze. “Jax,” Ace growled, “drop it. Now. Please. Gunner isn’t harming me. He didn’t kidnap me. He fucking rescued me.”

That relieved some of the tension. Jax set his gun down and kicked it across the floor, nodding once at Ace. Cameron muttered something I didn’t catch before he did the same, kicking his gun away, too. Jax crossed his arms over his chest, arching a brow at Ace. “Start explaining, kid. You’ve been missing for days.”

“And what did you do to him?” Cameron demanded, looking at me. “He doesn’t let people touch him. Ever. And he’s never polite. He’s a little shit.”

I curled my upper lip in disgust. This guy was a piece of fucking work. Ace glared at him as he lowered my gun, clicking the safety back on. “If you keep being a dick, I’m going to call Abbie and tell her you don’t deserve sex for a week.”

Cameron glared at him but kept his mouth shut. My lips twitched in amusement. Dropping a kiss to the top of Ace’s head, I slowly released him, giving him the opportunity to keep me with him if he wanted. Instead, he turned and looked at me as my arms dropped back to my sides. I cupped his cheek. “I’m going to make some coffee,” I told him. “You want a cup?”

He nodded. “Yes, please, Papa.”

The one with the glasses choked. “Papa?” he asked, glaring at me. “You better not be taking advantage of him, you fucking?—”

“Shut up, Arlo,” Ace snapped, turning to glare at him. I gently squeezed his shoulder before I headed to the kitchen, leaving him to deal with his family. This was his fight. And while I wanted to step in for my boy, I trusted him to handle this on his own.

“Are you seriously telling me to shut up, Ace?” Arlo snapped back. “Do you know how worried we’ve all been? Francesca had the baby, and you weren’t there. You went M-fucking-I-A?—”

“Frankie had the baby?” Ace asked, his voice sounding small. Immediately, I spun back around, heading back to him. His eyes welled with tears, surprising all of his brothers. They stared at him like he was a stranger as a tear slipped down his cheek. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with them? “She had the baby?” he croaked, repeating himself.

I wrapped him up in my arms, pulling him against my chest. Arlo frowned at him. “You knew she was having the baby, kid. You told her you’d come by as soon as you finished your job here. Instead, you decided to play house with a fucking stranger?—”

Jesus Christ, I was going to punch this mother fucker in the face.

“Hey, can you shut the fuck up for like two seconds?” I growled at him. He narrowed his eyes at me, but I didn’t back down. I stroked the back of Ace’s head as he tried to gather himself, being careful of his head wound. “He suffered a head injury—a pretty nasty one. He doesn’t remember shit from the day before I found him. He was bleeding and unconscious, and it’d rained the night before. He’d been out in cold temps and soaked to the bone for hours. Maybe chill the fuck out a bit? Stop being a dick.”

“Who the?—”

“Arlo,” the one who hadn’t said a word yet growled, “enough.” Arlo glared at him but kept his mouth shut. “Can we sit? Talk? Figure out what’s going on?” he asked me, taking a step forward. “I’m Shaw—the president of the Ghost Born MC.” He gestured to the one standing just behind him—the one who definitely came from some kind of military background. It was all in his stance, the way he was looking around at everything—calculating. “This is Konrad. You know the others. We’re his brothers. His only family. And we’ve been worried sick about him.”

I nodded once. “Please sit.” I looked down at Ace, who was now quiet and just clinging to me. “You good, baby boy? Need another minute?”

He shook his head. “No,” he said quietly, slowly pulling away from me as his brothers sat around my living room. Jax and Konrad grabbed chairs from the dining room table, straddling the back of them. “Can I have that coffee now?”

Leaning down, I pressed a soft kiss to his lips. He sighed, his eyelids fluttering shut. “Yeah, baby, you can have that coffee. Go on and sit down. Deal with your brothers. I’ll bring coffee in just a minute.”

He nodded and leaned up, pressing a kiss to my Adam’s apple before he reluctantly pulled away completely, heading over to sit on the coffee table. I noticed he purposefully avoided touching any of them. My heart clenched in my chest, pain for him sliding through my veins.

What had my baby boy gone through?

CHAPTER SIX

Ace

My brothers were uncharacteristically quiet as they stared at me. I gritted my teeth, beyond annoyed. They’d busted up inside Gunner’s home, inside my safe space, as if they had some kind of right to. As if I wasn’t an adult capable of taking care of myself. Shaw and Konrad had trained me extensively on hand-to-hand combat, as well as knife-wielding and guns. I wasn’t some kid anymore, even if they liked to think I was. I was an adult now. I could take care of myself.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Konrad finally said as Gunner walked into the room, holding two mugs of coffee. He handed me one before standing beside me, his hand coming down to rest on my shoulder. I relaxed a bit. Gunner would always be there. Would always be ready to comfort me and be my strength when I felt off-balance. And boy, did I feel off-balance right then.

“How would you feel if someone broke your door down and busted into your safe space?” I snapped at him. He had the decency to look chastised. Shaw winced. “You owe Gunner a new fucking door, by the way. You could’ve knocked like sensible adults.”

“We thought you’d been kidnapped,” Shaw quietly explained. “We heard him saying your name, and we just?—”

“Lost your shit?” I demanded, feeling bratty and sullen. They were always on my case about my explosions, but it was okay for them to act without thinking first?

Gunner gently squeezed my shoulder. I lifted my mug of coffee to my lips, sighing when the sugary goodness exploded over my tastebuds. Gunner made the best fucking coffee ever.

“You would’ve done the same if it’d been one of us,” Cameron said, scowling at me.

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