Page 59 of Blue-Eyed Jacks
I stood up and leaned over the desk, examining the leg he’d lost.“And there’s a price if you or anyone in the club does that.One I’m not lettingyoutake, got it?”I included Tits in that declaration.“Find me a connection.Work fast.It’s going down.”
She stood up, pulling Wolf with her.“Are you sure?Because if she goes into my club’s protection, she’s never coming out.And you’llneversee her again.”
This was something I had been deliberating over for sixteen years.With every glimpse of happy families, especially ones with little girls, I ached for a better way.I wanted my family with me.I wanted Kate in my arms and Zoe under my roof.
Which would be their death sentence.Or worse.“I’m sure.”It hurt like hell to say those words.
She read my face.“No, you aren’t.”
Wolf shot her a look.His lips tightened.“She’s calling your bluff.”
“Who says I’m bluffing?”I had a shit hand.One I knew better than to play.In little over four hours, I’d finally see my daughter.And then I’d haveto give her up.Forever.There was no salvaging that.No happily ever after.It would gut me.I’d be a shell of a man waiting to die.
Which was what life was truly like; you lived to die, and it was just the way things worked in a perverse way.I wasn’t the kind of man who deserved the fortune I got.I was a murderer and a liar, and had stolen a sworn brother’s woman.Wife or not, that shit didn’t fly.And for a possessive yet powerful man like Shock, a beating wouldn’t be the end of it.He wouldn’t stop until I was dead.
“You better talk to your woman, Wolf.It’s going down like that.”
I turned my back to them both, motioning for them to get their asses gone.I stared at the window in the wall, not seeing the trees or the piles of junk outside, but rather wondering where and when my life took a wrong turn.It likely wasn’t even my fault.It was a birthright.The son of a hooker and a killer would never live easily.That was a fact.
Sprout made a noise, so I knew he was behind me.
“What the fuck do you want now?”
The door snicked shut, and he cleared his throat.“We?”
Fuck.Sprout was too damned smart.I closed my eyes.“Yeah.”
He sat in the chair, clothes rustling and leather coat creaking.I took my time to push all of my fears and hopes out of my expression before turning to see what kind of insanity Sprout cooked up.
“Well?”
He tapped his fingers on the padded arm.“Shock’s?”
Sprout was a hell of a lot smarter than I knew.“No.”
He visibly relaxed.“Cool.”
“That’s it?Cool?”
He grinned, the gape of his mouth widening and taking over more space on his face than was natural.“I can’t wait to be a Dad.What’s it like?”
“How the fuck would I know?”I hadn’t even met my daughter.And she was almost an adult.
His grin grew impossibly wide.“Oh, youknow.Good thing it’s a boy, right?”
Whatever amusement I had left dropped into my shoes.“I’m fucked.”
Sprout’s smile wilted like wet toilet paper.“You’ve got to be kidding me.A girl?Holy shit.Youarefucked.”His laughter shook the panes in the glass.
“I hope your first born is a girl, too, damn it.”
He grinned again, softer this time.“She’d look like Danielle, or Ma.We’ll know next ultrasound.”
I buzzed to cut him off.“Nope, she’ll have your big ears and gangly limbs.”That made me smile maliciously.
But Sprout was undeterred.“That would be amazing.”His smile quirked up to one side, and the lines around his eyes deepened while the worry marks on his forehead eased.I recognized that expression.I felt it mirrored in my heart.If Zoe looked like me, God…
“What’s her name?”
