Craving Rose (The Aces' Sons 5)

“People look at Rose,” she called out, making me pause, “and they see what a badass she is. They remember that she never lets anything go, she gives as good as she gets, and she’s got no problem going toe-to-toe with a man twice her size. But that girl has a soft heart, soft as hell. They remember how she protected Lil when she couldn’t see—but they didn’t see her sleeping in Lil’s bed for months so she wouldn’t wake up afraid. They didn’t see how she cut up Lil’s food, or made sure every fucking day that Lil’s clothes matched for school and she didn’t have food in her teeth or anything else that would embarrass her.”

“I hear you,” I replied.

“Rose is a born caregiver. She thrives on taking care of the people she loves.” She paused. “Don’t you dare shit on that.”

I nodded and climbed on my bike. I heard what she was saying, but that didn’t change anything. Farrah hadn’t counted on someone to parent her kids, only to have them disappear. And yeah, Mia had been sick, and I knew it wasn’t her fault—but it still happened. Shit like that happened all the time. Rose was an even worse bet when it came right down to it, because she could just bail, and then where would that leave Kara? Grieving for another lost mom? Fuck that shit. I wasn’t going to put my kid through that ever again. Rose would find her place in our family. I was beginning to think that she’d be my partner in every other way, eventually. But she’d never be Kara’s mother.

* * *

“What the fuck happened?” Dragon yelled, throwing a wrench across the garage. He looked over Grease’s shoulder and met my eyes. “Mack!”

I strode toward him, dread pooling in my belly.

“—Ham was knocked out and Rocky’s laid up with a broken femur. His bike’s toast.”

“Where were Bro and Charles?” I asked, dreading the answer. The prospects were a couple of our best, but they were green as hell.

“They were there,” Grease said. “They’re fine. Shook up, but fine.”

“They took the entire motherfuckin’ truck,” Dragon spat, his hands fisted at his sides.

“Jesus.” I closed my eyes and forced myself not to lose my temper. Didn’t look good for the officers to lose their shit, and Dragon had already met our quota for the day throwing that wrench.

“Gotta ask Casper how much that’ll set us back, but it’s not good,” Grease said.

“I’m goin’ on the next one,” I replied. “Four men shoulda been plenty. Somethin’ ain’t right.”

“Rock says they ran him and Ham off the road—he didn’t see how they stopped the truck,” Grease said.

“And the prospects?”

“They said they kept goin’, but the fuckers got ahead of them and created some type of roadblock,” he answered.

“You trust them?” Dragon asked me.

“I did,” I shot back. “Don’t now.”

“We can’t be makin’ that type of mistake.”

“Won’t happen again,” I replied. “Shouldn’t have sent prospects in the first place, but I figured Ham and Rock would have a handle on it.”

“No more prospects drivin’ trucks,” Grease said firmly. “I get what you were doing, and I woulda done the same, but no more unpatched members on any run while we deal with this shit.”

“Understood.”

I went back to work, but had a hard time focusing, I was so fucking pissed. It looked like shit was about to get squirrely again, and I didn’t have the goddamn time for it. I wished we knew who this new player was, stealing shit instead of making their own contacts and doing their own business, but Casper and Poet hadn’t heard a word. Things were so quiet on the street it was eerie. After a while, I gave up trying to figure out what was wrong with the Nissan I was working on and walked outside to take a break and call my parents.

“Hello,” my mom sang happily when she answered. “How’s my favorite son?”

“Your only son is fine,” I replied. Even with all the shit going down, I couldn’t hold back a smile. “How’re you two?”

“We’re good. On the road.”

“You headed this way?” I asked, mentally crossing my fingers.

“At the moment, we’re headed to Montana,” she replied. “Should we be headed toward you?”

“Kara started her period yesterday,” I blurted, dropping my ass onto one of the picnic tables out front. “And she’s bein’ super fuckin’ weird about it.”

“Of course she is,” my mom said knowingly. “She doesn’t want her dad to know about it.”

“I’ve known about everythin’ else her entire life.”

“Sorry, son,” she said with a chuckle. “You don’t have the right parts to be in on that particular conversation.”

“Yeah.” I sighed. “I’m beginning to realize that.”

“She’ll come around. I’ll call her tomorrow and see how she’s doing.”

“On top of that, I’m gonna have to start travelin’ a bit,” I said, staring at my boots. “And I hate to ask—”