Page 80 of Never Trust the Living (Battle Crows MC 7)

Shine was, by far, Dory’s least favorite fan.

Or, at least, he had been before. Shine was a great brother, if overprotective.

I knew that he was only watching out for what he thought I would want.

Yet, he’d still had a hand in making Dory feel unwelcome all these years.

And though I hadn’t done much better myself, I was trying to salvage my relationship. To make her realize that I was going to do better. Be better.

Shine being here would put that in jeopardy. Maybe in a few months, when our baby was born, and I was one hundred percent sure that I’d won Dory over, then I’d start allowing them back into our lives.

But until then… no.

They’d all have to wait.

Because Dory would always come first for me.

“What do you think about the name Harker?” she asked softly.

I frowned. “Harker’s kind of odd, isn’t it?”

I’d never heard it before.

She smiled. “I wanted to stay with the Crow/Raven/Dracula theme y’all inadvertently have going. Or you do anyway. Harker was a character off of the oldDraculamovies. Jonathan Flynn Harker. I was thinking Harker Flynn Crow as a name.”

The fact that she wanted to name our child after me in some form or fashion made a place inside my heart start to repair. Something I’d broken when I’d allowed her to think she didn’t matter to me.

“I like it,” I admitted. “I like it a lot.”

“I know it’s odd,” she agreed. “But Bram is odd, too. So I was thinking it would be a perfect fit. But don’t say yes just yet, all right? Wait until you feel the name out. We have time.”

“Time,” I teased, “is becoming less and less with each week that passes. But I agree to your terms. I’ll sit on it for the next few days and get back to you.”

She jerked her head toward the bacon. “Your bacon needs turned.”

So it did.

• • •

Hours later, exhausted beyond belief, and fairly sure that if I didn’t catch a few ZZZs soon, I would be extremely short with everyone, even my boss who’d been super accommodating, I was sitting in the driveway on my bike staring at the front door.

I was waiting for Dory to pull in, but she’d stopped to talk to our elderly neighbor down the road that was out walking her dog.

They were talking about some man that she’d seen today, but each time she’d glance back at me nervously, as if she was scared of me.

So I’d gone around them on my bike and parked in the driveway, only to stare at them like an even bigger creeper.

Rationally, I knew that the old lady wouldn’t be doing anything to Dory. But that didn’t mean that whichever sick fuckhad decided to get his rocks off on our new car wouldn’t come up.

So there I sat, even though I’d rather collapse into the recliner with Dory plastered to my side.

“Yo.”

I glanced beyond where Dory and the old broad were talking to see Wake walking down the street with his dog, Tex, on a leash in front of him. Tex was straining to get to the old lady’s dog, but Wake wasn’t allowing him an inch.

“Hey, Wake.” Dory waved.

If I’d thought that the old lady’s reaction to me was comical, seeing her look at Wake, who was a known felon, was even better.

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