Page 488 of Lodestar

“Apart fromyou. I’d prefer to owe Lucifer a favor.”

That had me cackling. “Good one.”

“I mean it.”

“I know you do.”

“Plus, we need more than your fortune if we’re going to make a difference.” Rachel sucked in a breath, her Type-A ass straightening the many items of stationery she’d brought with her to the meeting room.

AKA her dining room.

“Rach?” Rex, her Old Man, hollered from down the stairs. “Where are you? Got a kid that needs feeding and I tried but she prefers you.”

Rachel’s nose crinkled. “I’m so sorry, ladies.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” was Alessa’s kind retort. “Sommer needs to eat and we’re all friends here.”

Amara either didn’t agree or didn’t care. “What about Lily? She rich. Bottomless is her bank account, no?” she queried. “Anyway, she your assistant. Why she no here?”

Lily Lancaster was not only Rachel’s assistant, but she was the daughter of the one-time Sparrows’ money man—Donavan Lancaster.

On top of that, she was the Old Lady of the MC’s Road Captain, Link, and Kat and I had lived at her house until we’d moved out. Alessa and Maverick still lived in her pool house.

She was also a darling.

And if I said that, it meant she was pretty much ready for canonization.

“I’m in the dining room,” Rachel belatedly called out to Rex. “Lily isn’t here because I have her working on other projects right now. I can’t hit her up for cash every time I?—”

“Just wait. I will. Especially if it means I don’t have to attend a fucking gala,” I retorted, earning myself a cool glare from Rachel.

Alessa started cooing over the baby the moment Rex ambled through the door.

Amara, as disinterested as I, stared at her nails.

A flustered Rachel took Sommer, and Rex pressed a hand to her shoulder, squeezing gently. “No rush, babe.”

Sommer didn’t agree as she immediately started fussing.

“You can feed her here. I’ve seen more interesting tits than yours before, Rachel,” I said easily, rocking back in my chair, waiting for her to glower at me.

Something had triggered Rachel’s anxiety this morning—she’d been persnickety since we showed up—and she and I had a difficult relationship at the best of times. Today, I was being a pain just so she had somewhere to focus her annoyance.

Anxiety was a bitch, and it was new for the lawyer who made ice look warm and cozy on a good day to be showing her emotions. I figured Rex thawing her out was messing with her mojo.

On cue, Racheldidglower at me, but she worked some magic with her shirt and Sommer disappeared beneath it.

Rex, his hand still on Rachel’s shoulder, pulled some other kind of magic stunt because one second, she was sitting on the chair, and the next, she was perched on his lap whilehesat on the chair.

The moment she rested against him, she released a sigh.

It’d be sweet if I was into that shit.

“What are you guys arguing about? I could hear you bickering upstairs.”

“I not bicker.”

Rex frowned. “You’re a natural bickerer.”

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