Page 12 of Tav

I try to hide my smile. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now go relieve Takoda on bar. After that, get to work making that scary little woman your Ol Lady. We need to find out where the fuck Hammer is hiding.”

“Yes, Pres!”

Blanche

After talking with Lovely after breakfast, I need some space to think about my next moves. I slip out of the house and wander through the backyard, following the path through the trees to the back shed. I unlatch the door and step inside.

The outside looks like a piece of crap, the inside however has a set up wildlife places would kill to have. The inside is warm and damp. There are rocks dotted around, and a clear roof, allowingthe gators to sunbathe and relax. A large lagoon pool area in the center flows out to the waterways behind the property. The boys have a large fenced outdoor area where visitors come to watch them with the gators between tours. The boys have always been industrious and hardworking. Even with their sheltered upbringing they’ve managed to carve out a life for themselves running swamp tours which doubles as a way to transport the women I pick up from the Keep. Eden’s Keep doesn’t care about the boys they discard, but the girls and women are a different story. They come looking.

“Hellooooo my baby!” I coo at the gator that is sunning himself.

He lazily turns his head before sliding off the rock he was on. He slowly walks toward me and stops at my feet so I can bend down and run a hand over his bumpy, rough flesh.

“Figured we’d find you out here while we did all the hard work tidying the kitchen,” Chris says from behind me.

“Yeah, yeah, I was chatting to Lovely. I now have a list of names of the women complicit in Royal’s bullshittery,” I frown down at Smiley, my fingers running over the ridges on his skin, calming me slightly.

“I know you want to do this on your own sis, but we can help. We can do it just as well as you can,” Dom says, leaning down to give Smiley a scritch before moving back.

“I know, but I want to see Mercy’s face when he finds out it was me who brought the whole lot crashing down. Me.”

My brother’s nod and my attention is pulled away when I stumble slightly, Smiley bumping me with his large, rough head, upset that I’m not giving him my full attention. Squatting down, gently grasping under his chin, I give him a scritch on the smoother skin there.

“Aw Smiley baby, mommy missed you! Yes, she did! Yes, she did!”

“It’s always fucking weird when they do that,” Vic whispers in the background.

“Don’t you listen to him Smiley, he’s just jealous, yes he is!”

Smiley was another of my rescues. I happened across him as a baby, teeny tiny, and some fucker had pulled his teeth. Without them he wouldn’t survive for long, so I bought him home and hand fed him. It was a wild time having two busy kids and a gator to look after, but we did it. Since then, my brothers have been taking care of him along with a small number of rescue gators.

“Now would be a good time to break it to her, brothers.”

Spinning at Chris’s comment, I stand to my full height, squinting at them. “Tell me what?”

“You’re going to be a grandmomma!” they yell in unison.

“What!” I screech before getting down beside Smiley and giving him more love.

“Yeah, the sly old dog must have been spending time with Gretchen. The other males are too old or too young, so congrats, Granny,” Dom smirks, and I flip the bird at him.

Making smoochy noises to my gator I give him one more scritch before letting him wander back to his rock.

“You do know that one day he’ll eat your face off, right?”

“Don’t be silly. He loves me. You guys, though, he’d totally eat yours.” I snort as they roll their eyes and get to organizing food for the pack. “OK I have to get going, but first I’ve left an envelope for you with funds for Lovely,” I hold my hand up to stop the bitching. “You need to take her shopping. She can’t keep walking around in that hideous floor length dress and running shoes.”

Chris lets out a sigh. “She has a point.”

“Of course I damn well do. She and the baby will need normal people clothes. Is she going to stay here with ya’ll?”

“We want to keep her with us, get to know her, but because Royal wants little Bee we’re going to send her north. Not saying exactly where, the fewer people that know, the better.” Vic says, a frown on his face. Of all my brothers, he’s the one who struggles the most with what my father and his brother have created. Royal wanting to sell his own child is fucking with Vic big time. Last night I had to talk him down from going after Royal himself.

“North? Is Diligence Martin still the contact?”

“Yep. Still doing the Lord’s work. Relocating people our father doesn’t need or want in his flock any more. Fucker,” Dom says kicking a rock into the pool.

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