Page 60 of Never Trust the Living (Battle Crows MC 7)

I didn’t altogether succeed, but she didn’t get mad.

“Mimi,” she said softly.

“Tell her to call my brothers or something if she needs anything. I don’t live there anymore,” I murmured.

Jesus Christ.

I’d known she was in town for months now, and she’d known I was there, too.

And it was as if she thought we would get started where we left off.

But the thing was, I didn’t want to get started with Mimi ever again.

Sure, seeing her had been a shock.

But not even the good kind of shock. The bad kind. The kind that reminded me how fuckin’ needy she’d been.

“Umm.” She hesitated, unsure if that was what I wanted to say.

I dropped the bags in the entranceway, scooped the phone up, and pressed it to my ear.

When Dory went to leave, I caught her wrist, pulled the phone away from my ear, and put it on speaker.

“Yeah?” I answered, looking into Dory’s eyes.

“Bird?” Mimi said, sounding annoyed.

“Yes, it’s Bram,” I said. “What do you need?”

Dory sucked in a breath at the use of ‘Bird.’

But that annoyance was definitely more for my benefit than hers.

She knew that I hated to be called Bird. By anyone.

That was what Amon had called me while he’d held me hostage in his storm shelter for days.

When Dory had found me, she’d heard Amon call me that, and my reaction.

And now, she didn’t let anyone call me that. Not anyone from high school. Not my brothers. And definitely not Mimi.

God, I should’ve known way back then that she was protective of me. That she felt something real for me.

I was such a fuckin’ idiot.

“Hey,” Mimi said. “So I was hoping that you could come…”

“Don’t live there anymore, Mimi,” I said. “We moved to Florida to raise our baby in the Sunshine State. If you need anything, you could always try my brothers. But with them all married, getting married, and with babies on the way, I highly doubt they can find time to spare.”

More, I didn’t want them spending time with Mimi, forging a relationship that I definitely didn’t want forged.

Dory’s eyes widened.

“Baby?” Mimi squeaked.

“Baby.” I trailed my eyes down the length of Dory’s body. “A boy.”

Mimi sucked in a breath, but it was Dory’s sniffle that had me looking up at her to find tears in her eyes.

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