One Chance, Fancy (Bear Bottom Guardians MC 5)

She hadn’t been held—which I knew Shiloh would’ve made sure to do. This place was big, and a little girl didn’t sit eight chairs away from the only person that she knew—Shiloh—unless she didn’t want to be sitting in said woman’s lap. Because Shiloh loved every little kid that ever came through her door. No matter if it was for five minutes, or ten years.

They were her kids.

And Shiloh wasn’t the type of person to allow a young girl like the one that was sitting next to me be as far away as she was without a damn good reason.

“Okay,” Shiloh said as she began. “I’m just going to go ahead and start, but please, don’t lose it. I’ve been made aware of a few of your problems with Ilsa. I’ve also been doing my homework. I realize that what y’all had ended very poorly, and was very short lived.”

“It was,” Bayou agreed. “But I’m not bitter about it.”

It was my dad’s grimace and the slant of his eyes toward the little girl by my side that caused my fears to be confirmed.

He knew.

Our eyes met, and I saw the understanding dawn in his eyes that he knew I knew.

He winked at me, and I blew out a breath.

“How about you start with your version of what happened?” Shiloh suddenly suggested.

Bayou tilted his head and leaned back in the chair, his arms going across the uniform that was still starched to perfection even after him wearing it all day.

His right wrist touched the badge that was on his left breast pocket, and I wondered if he polished it.

A little hand touched my wrist, and I looked down to see the girl holding out a puzzle piece toward me. One she hadn’t been able to figure out.

I took the puzzle piece from her and twisted it in the correct direction, then handed it back.

She immediately fitted it into place before starting on the next piece.

“I’m curious why it matters,” Bayou said. “I’m sorry, but did Ilsa die or something? Did she do something stupid and is now going to prison? Is she trying to get her kids back from welfare?”

“Something like that,” Shiloh said. “It does involve her children.”

Children. Plural.

Bayou sighed and leaned forward again, placing his elbows on the expensive butcher block conference table that my father had purchased because I’d said I liked it.

“I didn’t know she had any kids at first,” he admitted. “I met Ilsa four years ago. We had a fling while I was on leave. And that fling almost cost me my military career. Did cost me it, really.” He paused. “Ilsa was a user. A very smart, very ingenious user. She hid her affliction well, and I didn’t even realize that she used drugs until I was being pulled over after spending the night with her…in a hotel room that she usually sold drugs out of.”

“Did you get arrested?” Shiloh asked.

Bayou shook his head. “No. I had four more days left on leave, and I spent those with a tail. I didn’t realize that Ilsa was the reason for that tail until I met with her one other time the day before I left. That was when I found out that not only did she use drugs—after we had relations—but she had a warrant out for her arrest. I was zipping my pants up and about to leave to report back to my new command post when the door was broken down and a search warrant team was storming the room.

“She made the next twelve hours hell as I tried to explain that she was only a fling. And since they had no reason to detain me, I went back to my new station. But her stink followed me. An officer called me, called my CO, hounded pretty much everyone that was involved with me to the point that my CO didn’t trust my judgment anymore and handed me every shit job he could find when I was a seasoned military police officer. Therefore, I retired from the Army six months after that night with Ilsa and tried to never look back. Only Ilsa, finding out where I was, continued to show her face. Each time I saw her, she got a little more angry that I refused to have anything to do with her. The last time I saw her, she promised me I’d regret it, and I did. Because a couple of days later I found out that she had about four kids, and she’d accused me of trying to kidnap them.”

My mouth fell open.

“She what?”

He nodded, his eyes flicking briefly to me.

“Luckily, I was at Dixie’s place, and I had about six police officers that were friends of mine swear that I was four hundred miles away from her and the attempted kidnapping at the time,” he said. “Had some digging done on her and found out that she was a slimy little creature as well as a druggie. She was good at using people, and those four kids of hers were the unluckiest kids on the planet. Luckily, Ilsa had a good mother that cared for them, otherwise, I would’ve gone out of my way to make sure that she didn’t have them anymore.”