Page 32 of Ink

Echo glared at his wife and growled. “No thinking about what any other man gets up to in bed.

“That’s not what I was doing,” Violet huffed.

“We were just kidding around with the new girl,” Courtney chimed in.

“Yeah,” Thea agreed with a nod.

Onyx shook his head and laughed. “Gotta love how the sisterhood sticks together around here.”

Violet crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you making fun of us?”

“He better not be,” Echo warned.

Before the conversation spiraled out of control, I called, “Anyone in the mood for a fresh cobbler?”

“Me,” they all yelled back in unison.

I had only been staying at the Hounds of Hellfire compound for less than a week, but I already felt more at home here than I had in my own house since my parents died. It had taken everything that had come to light about my uncle for me to finally realize he had tarnished so many happy memories of my childhood home. My dad was probably rolling over in his grave due to how his brother treated me.

The last time I cooked anything from my mom’s family recipes was less than a month after their accident. I made my grandmother’s famous peach cobbler with homemade vanilla bean ice cream and had been so excited to share it with Uncle Alec.

But his reaction was the opposite of what I expected. His nose scrunched as though he smelled something bad, and he made a tsking sound. “You really should pay closer attention to what you eat, Annika. It would be a shame if you gained any more weight.”

My parents had always told me how beautiful I was, so his words had come as a shock. From that point on, I never baked another dessert. Until today.

I pulled several large cans of fruit out of the pantry. “It’s better with fresh peaches than canned, but I can make do with these.”

“There’s a big bag of Bing cherries in the fridge.” Courtney stood and crossed the room to dig through the produce bin for them. “I had a craving for them a few days ago, so Pax stocked up in case I wanted them again.”

“Only so he wouldn’t be stuck going out for them in the middle of the night,” Onyx mumbled.

I pointed a wooden spoon at him. “Keep riling the pregnant women up, and you won’t get any cobbler.”

He pretended to zip his mouth shut and toss away the key, making me giggle. Then I got to work on making three kinds of cobbler—peach, cherry, and a mixture of both. When I pulled them out of the oven, I felt closer to my mom, knowing I did her recipe justice.

“Who wants a piece?”

Once again, everyone in the kitchen yelled, “Me,” in unison.

I dished up six plates. “Next time, I’ll make some homemade ice cream to go with this. Luckily, we had a tub of vanilla in the freezer that I could use.”

Matteo’s club brothers and their women were much more appreciative of my efforts than my uncle had been.

“If this tastes as good as it smells, you’re not going to get a single complaint about the perfectly fine ice cream in the freezer,” Courtney assured me.

“Holy fuck, this is amazing,” Onyx mumbled around a spoonful.

“Mm-hmm,” Violet agreed.

Echo flashed me an appreciative smile after seeing how much his wife was enjoying the cobbler, then took a bite of his and murmured, “Damn good.”

Thea just nodded and spooned another bite into her mouth.

The kitchen was quiet while we all polished off our servings. Onyx was the first to finish. He patted his stomach with a wide grin. “I gotta admit, I appreciate the benefits that come with my brothers claiming their old ladies.”

“What the fuck did you just say?” Echo demanded, glaring at him.

Onyx held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “I meant the food, man.”

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