Battles of the Broken (Sons of Templar MC 6)

Her eyes emptied of their usual lightness. “Because we’ve got something special here with these men. And they’ve obviously got something special with us. And this is a kind of a special that comes with a price. You and Gage are the most special of them all, because you’re two people the world almost stopped from getting such things.”

I’d told her about David on one of our many walks, and about the six months after. She’d squeezed my arm, softened her green eyes and gazed at me without an ounce of judgment. Like right now.

“That’s why everyone’s waiting for that price. Terrified for it,” she whispered.

I blinked at her. At the naked fear in her tone.

Before I could reassure her, an accented voice floated our way.

“Over here!”

Gwen was waving from a spot a few feet away and the moment was broken, Amy winking at me and continuing to drag me along.

“Gage yelled, ‘I love you,’ in the middle of the park and it was amazing and they should’ve sold snacks,” she told the group at large.

The group being Mia, Gwen, Lily and Kingston’s ‘grandma’, Evie. Though it had to be said the woman was the furthest from a grandmother one could get. And that was saying something, consider my own. Sure, she looked to be of the right age, kind of. The lines on her face were deep and betrayed a hard life, everything about her was hard.

But somehow, soft enough to make her ageless. But scary. She was wearing head-to-toe black, a sheer lace shirt with a black cami underneath, tight black jeans, and spike heeled ankle boots that were too edgy even for me.

I’d seen her at the club party, hovering around the older man I knew to be Steg, the former president. Former, not just because his salt and pepper hair was mostly salt now, because he’d been shot in the chest the same day Gwen had delivered her baby in their clubhouse.

Still, he was like his wife, somehow ageless, brutal, unwilling to bow down to the frailness of old age.

The corner of her mouth turned up with Amy’s words, and I guessed from her, that worked as approval.

I felt warmth at that small smile, at that small gesture of acceptance from the notorious matriarch of the biker family.

“Holy fuck,” Gwen breathed. “No way. Gage did that? Are you sure he wasn’t admitting it was him on the grassy knoll?” She winked at me as she spoke.

But Amy didn’t give me time to answer. “Oh my God, coffee!” she exclaimed, snatching a cup out of Gwen’s hand.

Gwen scowled at Amy’s other hand. “You already have coffee. Why are you stealing mine?” she hissed, her pretty face contorting into rage with a speed that was equal parts scary and impressive. “They cut your hands off for that in some countries, you know.”

“This isn’t coffee,” Amy replied, shaking the other cup. “This is a mimosa. Parents get judgy when I bring a champagne flute.” She rolled her eyes, sipping from Gwen’s cup. “Apparently it’s not seemly to drink at your son’s baby dance class.”

“It isn’t seemly at all, Amy, just downright bad parenting. I’m shocked and appalled and frankly disappointed,” Gwen said, folding her arms. “That you didn’t bring me one too,” she added with a wink, swiping Amy’s cup.

I smiled as they bickered.

“Oh shit!” Mia exclaimed. “I forgot to check the boys for knives.”

I started to laugh, because checking two boys under ten for knives at a soccer game was obviously a joke and Mia had a killer, albeit a little insane, sense of humor.

But she went running off in the direction of the team huddle.

Gwen didn’t go running. She shrugged when Amy looked at her expectantly. “This is not my first rodeo, I already confiscated Kingston’s weapons,” she deadpanned, sipping from her cup.

I shook my head and chuckled, letting the warmth of the sun heat me.

Little did I know the sun was about to fall from the fricking sky.

Fifteen

“I swear, when our kid grows up, it’s not playing soccer,” I said, sinking down on the sofa. “Seriously, it’s a brutal sport.” I scrunched up my nose. “Or maybe it was Mia’s boys who made it that much more brutal. I don’t even know how they managed to tie up that one kid in the goal netting. I guess it was pretty impressive.” I paused. “Though I’m sure Kingston helped, he’s better at getting away with it than the others.”

It took me a second to understand the silence that came after my words, realize it wasn’t Gage’s normal silence. No, this one was filled with something that raised the hair on my arms.

My eyes snapped up to meet Gage’s.

He’d been staring at me since I’d gotten in, obviously, because that was Gage. But sometime between his harsh and beautiful kiss hello and me sinking onto the sofa and talking, his stare had changed. Emptied.