Page 21 of Grumpy Sunshine

In fact, his hand moved up to cover my ass and I knew damn well and good he wanted to spank it.

The thrill that went through me as he did that had my heartbeat skyrocketing, which wasn’t a good thing when you were already upside down.

His strides were long and angry, and I did have to admit it wasn’t the most comfortable thing to be bounced on his shoulder straight into the diaphragm.

He carried me directly inside, then placed me on a stool in the middle of some very large men before he backed up.

Yep, wasn’t good.

Wasn’t good at all.

I stalled for time by fixing my hair, making it to where it didn’t hang all in my face so I could see everything in case I needed to run.

Not that I expected to get very far.

All five men surrounding me looked very spry, albeit large and intimidating.

Maybe I shouldn’t try to run at all…

I licked my lips and said, “Uhhh…”

“Explain,” Chevy, one that I realized I didn’t know at all, growled.

“I, uh…” I started but stopped.

What exactly did I say?

That my mom stole my rent money and I tracked it here?

That sounded crazy.

“Now,” the big man in the middle said, leaving no room for argument.

I studied him for a long second.

They all were wearing leather vests that I knew to be called cuts thanks toSons of Anarchy, but only he was wearing one that said President over his very well-worked-out left pectoral.

“I, um, I’m…” I stuttered.

I was going to talk, I swear, but then my mind sort of blanked when I saw the woman that was coming out of the hallway behind them.

My mother.

She was wearing AirPods—things that I couldn’t afford to own myself because my mom stole our money so much—and dancing as she pushed a cart out of the dark hallway.

She was also, I noted, wearing my shoes!

I’d just bought them last month because I’d found them at a resale shop for fifteen dollars.

They were brand-new, never worn, and I’d been so excited for that steal.

I hadn’t realized that she’d taken them but now that I saw she had them, the anger and the pain all culminated into a rage so complete that I didn’t think.

I just acted.

I didn’t notice the men look with me, giving me the opening that I needed.

I didn’t notice how my mother saw me and stopped, frozen in shock to see me there.

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