“Peanut. Aw, that’s so cute. You don’t look like a guy who would name their dog Peanut.”
“No?”
Cole steps forward, and I hand him my keys. “I don’t know when they’ll release Mila, but I’m staying here until they do.”
“Absolutely,” he says, draping his arm over Serenity’s shoulders. “Don’t you worry about anything, Prez. The club has everything under control.”
I sure fucking hope so, because now that Mila’s in my care, I’ve got a lot at stake.
Chapter Nine
Serenity
“I’m going to drop you at your car. It’s at the Trough. You can follow me over to Rage’s.”
“How do you know I won’t head straight for the interstate?”
They’ve been moving my car all over the fucking place, but it looks like they’re finally going to let me drive it.
He just laughs. “If you were going to run, you would have already tried. I think you’re starting to like us.”
“I am not.”
The smile he flashes has me turning away from him.
“I overheard someone say Rage’s ex had overdosed. Is she okay?” I ask. I don’t really care about the woman, but I’d rather talk about anything other than my feelings for these men.
“His ex?”
“Yeah, the little girl’s mother.”
“Oh, that’s not his ex. Janet is his mom. She’s dead.”
My eyebrows shoot straight to my hairline.
“Rage moved out here and started this chapter to be closer to her. Well not her, but his sister.”
My heart begins to feel like it’s pumping sludge. “He told me he couldn’t go inside and check on her.”
“That’s because his mom got a restraining order on him. She didn’t like it that he sent his stepdad packing, and shereallydidn’t like him flushing her shit. She told the cops he hit her, but the black eye she was sporting came from her husband.”
“How awful to have the system that’s supposed to be protecting his sister used against him.”
“It’s a fucking shame. That little girl didn’t have to suffer like that. Rage has been on their asses for a long, long time.”
“How old is she?”
“Three.”
My heart stops. “Three? But she’s so tiny.”
“Yeah, because the bitch never fed her.” Cole slams his fist into the steering wheel. “Who knows what that poor baby has been through.”
“Maybe they’ll listen to him now.” But as the words leave my mouth, even I don’t believe them.
“The worker is kissing his ass at the moment because she knows she fucked up big time. She got him emergency custody, but being a single dude in a motorcycle club …” He pauses to shake his head. “I don’t know. He’s got a long road ahead of him.”
I settle back in my seat, my mind playing over my own childhood. The drama, the back and forth between my mom and dad. He tried to get custody of my brother and me, but like Rage all he was met with were restraining orders and a depleted bank account from all of the court battles. He never was successfulat pulling us out of the black hole that orbits my mother. Eventually he gave up and moved on, starting a new family.