Zero Tolerance (Lost Kings MC 12)

“Sounds good. We got more than enough land. Whole point of buying this place when we did.”

I slap my hands on the table and stand. “Gonna stop by Wrath’s and see the pups before I head back.”

Rock thumps me on the back a few times. “You’re in a rough spot, brother. But everything’s gonna be okay.”

My throat closes, making it hard to swallow or speak. “Thanks,” I rasp.

“Whatever you need. Call me.”

“I will.”

Outside, Wrath, Trinity, and Hope are waiting on the couch. Baby Grace is snuggled in Hope’s arms and Rock can’t get to the two of them fast enough.

My heart squeezes. Was Chance that tiny when he was Grace’s age?

No anger accompanies the thought. First time since I found out. I’m in Chance’s life now. That’s not changing, no matter what happens.

Ziggy trots over, Zipper not far behind him. They both rub their heads over my legs, sniffing my jeans. I squat down to pet their faces, scratching under their chins and behind their ears. “Sorry, guys. Things will be back to normal soon. Auntie Trinity taking good care of you?”

“Hey!” Wrath shouts. “Auntie Trinity, my ass. I’m the one who gets up to let them out in the middle of the night.”

“You’re also the one who warned me about bears in the woods at night.” Trinity barely gets out the words, she’s laughing too hard.

Wrath tackles her into the arm of the couch, growling and tickling his wife’s stomach. “I’m the only bear in the woods you need to worry about.”

Grace shriek-giggles and reaches out for Wrath.

“You want a piece of the bear, wee one?” Wrath teases.

For a big guy, he’s gentle taking baby Grace into his arms. She kicks and squeals in delight at every one of his playful “bear” growls.

“Careful, she just ate,” Hope warns.

Too late. Grace freezes, her eyes widen, and then she spews all over the front of Wrath’s shirt, narrowly missing his beard.

He blinks and stares at her. “Did you just barf on me?”

Grace sputters and starts wailing.

“Oh my gosh, Wrath, I’m so sorry!” Hope reaches over and tries to hand him a towel.

“It’s only a T-shirt. Got plenty of ‘em.” He passes Grace back to Hope and carefully lifts off the shirt. “Is she okay?”

“She’ll be fine,” Hope assures him, although Rock’s glaring over at Wrath like he has a whole different answer in mind.

“Guess you’ve lost your touch with the ladies.” I throw a smirk at him and wink at Trinity. “They’re puking just to get away from you.”

Should’ve kept my mouth shut. Wrath wads the soiled shirt in his hand into a ball.

“Oh, no you don’t.” Trinity grabs the messy projectile from him and slides off the couch. “Here, Hope. I’ll go throw this stuff in the wash.”

“I’ll come with you. I need to change her now anyway.”

Wrath lifts his chin at me. “How’s it going? When do we get to meet your boy?”

“Soon, I hope.”

“She tell you what the fuck—”

“No, man. I don’t wanna go there right now.”

Surprisingly, he nods and drops it.

“Everything all right at Furious?” I feel like I haven’t caught up with my brothers in a while now and could use some time thinking about someone else’s issues for a change.

He lifts his massive shoulders in a careless shrug. “Business is slow to build back up. Hard to be shut down for a whole year and expect to get all my clients back.”

“Sorry, bro.”

“It’s better without Whisper, for sure.”

“Jake doing all right?”

“Yeah, he’s stepped up a lot. Murphy too. At least I don’t feel like I gotta look over their shoulders all day long. Or worry about one of ‘em stabbing me in the back. Fuck knows I can trust Murphy not to goof off all day. And Jake’s a player, but he still works hard.”

“I feel ya.” I glance at Rock. “Dex’s the only other person I trust to run CB the way I want things done. Maybe Bricks, but he’s not there often enough.”

“I remember,” Rock agrees. “It’s easy to let stuff get out of control there if you’re not on top of it. You’re doing a much better job managing the place than I ever did.”

“Doubt that,” I mutter. “How’s Carter doing working with you?” I ask to draw the conversation away from me. Rock brought Teller’s almost-brother-in-law in to help him with some custom paint in his bike shop earlier this year. Kid’s got a brain-to-mouth dysfunction that makes him a liability in my eyes, but Rock seems to have taken the kid under his wing.

“Talented kid. Thinking of sending him to Hudson Valley for a couple classes to help round out his skills.”

I almost mock him with a “such a dad thing to do” comment, but in light of what he confided in me not twenty minutes ago, it seems like a shitty thing to joke about.

“Sucks that Merlin always treated him so shitty,” Wrath says. “His loss is our gain though.”

“Figured Carter would drive you nuts,” I say to Wrath.

“Nah, I don’t have to work with him.” His face breaks into a wicked grin. “Plus, knowing he’s living at Teller’s place, driving him up the wall, what’s not to love about that?”

“You’re evil.”

Wrath and Rock both laugh. Neither of them disagrees.

Grace’s cries and the girls’ voices reach us and Rock tips his head up, staring at the hallway. “I’ll be right back.”

Wrath shakes his head as he watches him go, but he’s smiling and doesn’t even throw any mocking comments Rock’s way.

Ravage pounds down the stairs and stops to stare at us when he gets to the bottom. “Bro,” he says, lifting his chin at Wrath. “Thought not working so hard to get the ladies’ attention was the point of getting married.”

“What the fuck you talking about, punk?” Wrath snarls.

Ravage points at Wrath’s bare chest. “The shirtless beefcake thing you’re doing.”

I laugh so hard at both Ravage’s comment and Wrath’s reaction to it that I slip off the arm of the couch, landing on the cushions.

When I stop sputtering, Wrath’s still glaring at Rav.

“Grace explained in a dramatic way that he’s not her favorite uncle,” I explain.

“Huh?” Ravage blinks my way. “What’re you still doing here?”

“Catching up with my bros.”

Happier baby noises come from the hallway followed by Trinity’s voice.

“You’re way too itty-bitty to be exposed to such deviance, aren’t you?” Trinity returns to the living room with Grace in her arms, cooing and talking to her the whole way. “Gonna have a little brother or sister soon if they keep that up. Aren’t you, little monster? Yes, you are.”

“Christ. Again?” Wrath moans.

“I thought having a baby made women want less sex,” Ravage says.

Trinity shrugs. “I think that only applies to women whose husbands come home and don’t lift a finger to help out after she’s been with the baby all day.”

“You know, like the kind of husband you’d be,” Wrath adds.

Ravage brushes off the dig. “I don’t ever want to be married so your insult has no effect, brother.” He sticks out his tongue.

“Real mature, bro,” I say.

“Rock’s an MC president. Shouldn’t have to change diapers to get laid,” Ravage mutters.

Wrath snorts. “You really want to die, don’t you?”

“I’m pretty sure being MC president means Rock can do whatever the fuck he wants,” Trinity says without looking away from Grace. “Right, princess?”

Grace gurgles and curls her fingers around Trinity’s pinky.

“Your belly feel better?” Wrath asks, leaning over to tickle Grace.

“Christ, they’re gonna be next,” Ravage mutters at the ceiling.

Trinity picks Grace up

and kisses her cheeks. “I’ve seen what comes out of you on a regular basis,” Trinity sing-songs. “No thank you.”

Completely unaware she’s being made fun of, Grace flaps her arms and squeals more happy noises.

“Alexa and Grace are gonna need you to be the cool aunt they can go to for all the fun stuff,” I add because I kind of hate the way everyone’s always bugging Trinity about when she’s gonna spit out some kids. Especially since she and Wrath seem to have zero interest in breeding.

“Chance too,” Trinity says. Her eyes light up and she smiles wide. “Oh, Uncle Z needs to have another boy! One for Alexa and one for Grace.”

“For fuck’s sake, don’t let Murphy or Rock hear you say that.” I can’t stop laughing at the idea. “They’ll cut off my balls now.”

“Speaking of no balls, how’s it going with Lilly?” Ravage asks.