Page 21 of Papa's Bébé
He’d witnessed Ink telling Betsy she couldn’t do something that he thought might put her in harm’s way. While he understood being protective to some extent, he thought his mother likely would have slapped his father if he’d been as bossy with her as Ink was with Betsy.
He couldn’t ever imagine acting like some of these men did. When he was at a club, he looked after the subs in his care. And he felt protective toward Betsy. Maybe even a little bit toward her children. Even if two of them seemed to be the sons of Satan.
But he would never fall in love with someone. Would never wish to possess someone.
“You are welcome, Sunny,” he told her.
She smiled and skipped off inside with the flowers. He winced as they bounced around. Hopefully none of the flowers were destroyed by the time she got them in a vase.
“So, I was surprised by this invitation,” he said.
Duke raised his eyebrows and glanced over at Ink. “You were?”
The other men stepped up closer.
“I’m not a member of the Iron Shadows. I’m not really friends with anyone except Ink. And that’s debatable.”
“Hey! I thought we were good friends.” Ink grinned.
Matthieu huffed. “I don’t know. Would a good friend send his friend to extricate his stepsons from a boarding school without warning him that they were diabolical geniuses with a penchant for wrecking cars?”
He still missed that car. It had been his baby.
Hmm. Maybe he could be more protective and possessive than he’d realized.
Because he’d certainly been possessive of that beautiful car.
“You’ve got to get over that, man,” Ink advised. “It was years ago.”
“It was a 1968 Dodge Charger,” Matthieu said mournfully.
Razor whistled. “Shit. Bet that was a beautiful car. And highly sought after.”
“Yeah. I know,” he replied dryly. Way to rub salt into the wound. “So what am I doing here?”
Ink glanced over at Reyes. “You know that I want you to come work for me fulltime.”
He did.
But Matthieu was reluctant to tie himself down. He’d been moving around for the last eight years, going where he felt like going. Doing whatever he wanted and that was the way he preferred it.
Forming roots and relationships wasn’t something that came easy to him. And he wasn’t sure that he wanted to do that here. He wasn’t entirely sure that he fit in here.
Although he did keep coming back here. There seemed to be some sort of gravitational pull that drew him back. And each time he did, Ink seemed to convince him to work for him.
Honestly, it seemed like the man desperately needed him.
“We want to talk to you about joining the Iron Shadows,” Reyes said.
“And coming to work for me full time,” Ink added. “You know I need more guys like you. With experience. And knowledge. I’ve got more work than I know what to do with.”
“You need me,” Matthieu stated.
“Yeah, I need you,” Ink agreed.
“And we want you in the club,” Reyes added.
“Why? You’ve got plenty of members.”
