Page 58 of The Devil's Conflict

Shadow sighs. “Yeah, she’s been hinting a lot lately. But Quinn is right, we don’t have the time for a dog right now. Or if we do, it’ll be with me all the time because Quinn sure as hell isn’t going to want to take care of a dog, and three kids.”

“And you’re telling me that if she didn’t put on the water works, you wouldn’t cave?” I scoff. “Face it, man, you’re putty for that little girl. She pushes long and hard enough, you’ll have two babies strapped to you, and a dog trailing behind.”

Shadow doesn’t deny it, which is answer enough. Instead, we head their way, and everyone turns to smile at us. Well, all but Macy, who is still pouting and unhappy that she’s not getting her way. Quinn looks harassed, but she smiles when Shadow moves to wrap his arms around her and whispers something in her ear.

“Ladies,” I say in way of greeting as I make my way to stand with Thea.

“Hello, handsome.” Rose grins. “Come to join in the fun?”

“More like coming to see what havoc you’re plotting,” I drawl.

She rolls her eyes. “Party pooper. Thea, are you sure you want to spend any more time with this old dud? I mean, he clearly can’t keep up with the rest of us.”

Thea laughs and grins. “Oh, I think he can keep up where it counts,” she replies with a wink up at me. I smirk down at her, before lowering my mouth to hers and nipping at her lip before I kiss her quickly. She doesn’t pull away or act upset that I have, so I take that as a good sign.

Rose is beaming at us as she says, “Honey, my man is into his sixties and still puts me to shame.”

“Uncle Sniper,” Macy says loudly, bringing me abruptly to the present. I look down at her serious face and can already tell this is going to be an interesting conversation.

“Hey, sugar,” I say with a smile. “What’s the matter?”

“Is Thea my new auntie now?” she asks curiously, looking at Thea briefly before looking back at me. “You know, since you kissed her and all. Why are all the adults kissing each other? It’s gross.”

I hear Thea chuckle at that and I have to bite back a laugh of my own. Shadow grumbles, and the other women giggle, even Quinn. I school my features to match her seriousness and reply, “You’ll understand when you’re older. And Thea can be your new auntie if you and her like. But that’s something you need to talk to her.”

“Why do adults always say that?” Macy demands, putting her hands on her hips, clearly displeased with my answer. Then she throws up her hands and walks away, clearly done.

“She’s upset that we’re not going home,” Quinn explains quietly as Shadow follows his little girl. “She doesn’t understand why we have to stay here, so we’re trying to distract her, but she’s out of sorts today and easily irritable.”

I nod in understanding. “Don’t worry about it. It’s an adjustment and she’s only six. Once she realizes it’s not so bad being here, I’m sure she’ll snap out of it.” Then I smile teasingly. “Or she figures out she has a whole new group to con out of their money.”

Quinn groans. “Don’t tell her that. I’m already trying to teach her that she shouldn’t be doing that, but you lot just encourage her.”

“Uncle’s privilege,” I shrug. “We’ll do the same with your new two, and Syn and Stone’s little one. Just think, you’ll never have to worry about giving them an allowance with the amount of money they’ll collect from us.”

Quinn chuckles. “Yeah, that’s true. I better go and check on her, otherwise she’s going to have Shadow wrapped around her little finger and I’ll have a puppy before the day is out.” She heads off and I turn back to Thea and Rose, both of whom are smiling.

“Bullet, Shadow and I have to head out and check on a few things,” I tell them both. “So keep out of trouble. At least until we get back.”

“Now, what could we do?” Rose asks innocently.

“Far more than I want to think about, woman,” Bullet’s voice says darkly as he comes to stand with us. Then he turns a droll look on Thea. “And don’t think I don’t know you’re already recruiting this one to help you.”

Thea doesn’t even bother hide her grin. “I mean, you have me around here, and I’m relatively new in town, so I need some friends. You don’t want me to not have any friends, do you?”

Bullet mumbles something I don’t quite catch, but by the laugh that chokes out of Rose, she definitely heard. Instead of answering, Bullet looks at me, “Let’s ride.”

I nod. “Stay out of trouble, baby girl,” I tell Thea, leaning down to kiss her again, lingering just a little longer this time.

“What’s the fun in that?” she murmurs when she pulls away. “Try not to break a hip, though, huh? I have uses for it later.” Then she laughs when I slap her ass in retaliation, and I pull away.

Shadow makes his way over, looking defeated, and I glance over and see that Macy is still pouting and looking upset, even as Quinn leads her over to where Syn is set up with the dogs to chase after Sage in the bite suit.

We head out to our bikes, and Shadow sighs. “Fatherhood is hard, brother. I want to give in just so she’ll smile, but Quinn all but gave me the look of death over her head when I almost did.”

“Man, kids are always going to be hard, but she’ll thank you for it when she’s older,” I assure him as I straddle my bike.

“Take it from a man who raised three boys that about had us pulling our hair out,” Bullet muses from his seat on his own bike. “If you give in to every little thing, you’re going to pay for it when they’re older and acting spoiled rotten. She’ll get over it once something comes along to distract her. And then you won’t have to worry about your woman being pissed at you. I went behind Rose’s back when the kids were little and got a dog, and even though he turned out to be the best dog we ever had, for a few months, it was just about the end of it all because Rose was so pissed at me.”

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