They were happy with that, and for a long time, she’d been happy keeping house for her husband. Pushing those thoughts aside, she smiled as he brought Bethany into the room.
“She’s changed and happy.”
“Awesome. Morning, Bethany.”
The little girl made a few gurgling sounds. It wouldn’t be long before she started to actually talk.
Hawk put her in the high chair and started to feed his daughter with the food she’d provided on the kitchen counter.
Finishing up their breakfast, she served them up on two plates. Joining him at the counter, she dug in as he fed the last spoonful to Bethany.
“I’m going to be gone for a couple of days in a week’s time. Work stuff.”
“Okay.”
“If you need anything, all you got to do is stop by the club. Don’t worry, they won’t bite.”
“I know they won’t. They all seemed really nice,” she said.
None of them had pulled a gun on her or tried to hurt her. She considered that a win.
“They were on their best behavior. Don’t be fooled by them though. They were saying some pretty dirty-as-fuck things about what they wanted to do to you.”
“Oh, okay, well, erm, that wouldn’t work at all. I told you I don’t date.”
“No, you don’t.” He kept on staring at her.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’ve never met a woman that followed the rules. They were always intent on breaking them.”
She shrugged. “I love rules. I love order, and when you break that apart it can hurt so many people. Mostly kids.”
“You feel strongly about that?”
“Yeah. Kids need a balance. They need structure and rules. Boundaries. You know, that kind of stuff that helps them. You must think I’m a loser or something.” She cringed. A loser? Really? Was she in high school?
“I don’t think anything of the sort. It’s rather refreshing to have a woman talk to me and not try to get off on my dick.”
She looked into his eyes to see if he was joking.
He wasn’t.
“Is that all you get? A woman trying to have sex with you?”
“Pretty much. Being Prez of an MC, it makes my tag a victory for them. To become an old lady in my world is to become queen.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. Women want power. I screw a woman, it goes to her head, and I’ve had to deal with the fallout.”
“Old lady?”
“It’s a term we use for our women. The ones that have been chosen by men of the club, not anything else.”
“Oh, it’s not exactly a nice name.”
“It’s better than sweet-butt or club whore.”
“Wow,” she said. “Yeah, it really is.” She burst out laughing. Getting to her feet, she did the dishes and left them on the drainer.
“Am I forgiven for last night?”
“You don’t even have to worry about last night.” She grabbed his daughter. “We’re heading to the park today. Would you like to come? We feed the ducks down at the river as well. She loves that.”
She saw him hesitate for a split second.
“I’d love that.”
“Excellent. I’ll get her ready.”
She was moving across the hall when the first gunshot rang out. At first, she didn’t know what it was until she heard Hawk yell for her to get down.
With the baby in her arms, she held onto Bethany, dropping to the floor as more shots rang out. She heard the smashing of windows and stuff being broken as gunshots were fired.
Hawk’s home had just been shot out, and now she had pain in her shoulder. Bethany was crying, and she panicked. Glancing down at the little girl, she checked her all over and discovered she was fine. Jasmine herself, however, wasn’t.
She’d been hit in the shoulder. If she’d not been carrying Bethany on her other hip, she knew without a doubt that she’d have lost her charge today. Saying a quick thank you to whoever was looking down on them, she saw Hawk enter the hallway. Pressing a hand to her shoulder, she gave him a watery smile as the pain had exploded. “Bethany’s fine.”
Chapter Four
Bethany’s fine.
Not, “I’ve been shot.”
No. “Bethany’s fine.”
Hawk was fucking raging as he watched the doctor look over Jasmine’s wound. His boys had arrived ten minutes fucking late after his home was hit in a drive-by. Some piece of shit thought they could attack his home.
They hadn’t hit him. He’d gotten his gun and fired back. He had the license plate and he was going to find that piece of shit and then there was going to be some blood. No one fired on his home. Bethany could have been hit. Jasmine was fucking hit. She winced as the doctor injected some painkiller into her shoulder. The bullet was there.
“I need to go to the hospital,” she said. “Please, can I go to the hospital?”
Tears fell from her eyes, and it was breaking his heart to see her like this.
Bear was on the other side and even his VP was having a hard time watching her. They had all been shot a time or two. Even a few club whores, but they’d take whatever the doctor or the club needed to shut them the fuck up for him to do his job.