Fight Dirty (Black Rose Kisses 1)

Something about the way she says that, and the way she talks to him in general, makes me feel like she’s not interested in Rory herself. It’s playful and teasing, but not flirtatious at all. More like how roommates or very close friends might talk to each other, but there’s nothing more than that there.

I clamp my jaw shut, refusing to either confirm or deny Rory being a hot dad, but there’s something about the way Jen looks at me that makes me positive she already knows how I feel. And that’s… fine, I guess. I mean, objectively, Rory is a delicious fucking specimen of manhood, so denying that would be a waste of time.

“And your name is Mercy, Rory said?” she asks, continuing on with the conversation. She’s doing one hundred percent of the heavy lifting in this interaction since I’m still too shell-shocked to offer up any conversation of my own.

I nod, trying to snap myself out of the surprised stupor I’m in.

“How do you two know each other?” Jen looks between the two of us, and I glance over at Rory to see what he’s going to

say. I’m not exactly going to lay out how he and his friends basically kidnapped me in front of his daughter.

“We met through Black Rose stuff,” he says and leaves it at that.

Jen just nods knowingly and doesn’t ask anything else. So clearly she knows something about what he does and who his friends are, but it doesn’t seem to be a topic they really discuss in much depth. Interesting.

She leans in and gives Piper a kiss on the cheek. “Do you think you can hold down the fort for a bit while I run out?” she asks, glancing up at Rory. “Amanda wanted to get lunch at that new sushi place downtown today.”

“Yeah, of course.” He shifts his daughter on his hip, grinning. “I’ve got it.”

“You’re a gem.” Jen reaches out to pinch his cheek.

He gives her a look and bats her away with his free hand. “You’re a menace.”

“Oh, stop. You’d be lost without me.” Jen turns to look at me, a grin stretching her features. “Don’t take any of his crap, okay? He always likes to pretend he knows everything, but that’s just an act.”

I can’t help but grin back at her. I like her already. “I won’t,” I promise. “I’m getting pretty good at seeing through him.”

She nods approvingly and then dashes out, leaving the two of us—or rather, the three of us—alone.

Piper blinks at me once her mother leaves, and I blink back at her, not really sure how to interact with her. My experience with kids is pretty much nil, and I’m more nervous about having a conversation with her than I was about getting into the ring with Baldy that night at the Black Rose training gym.

Luckily, Rory steps in to fill the silence, giving the little girl a squeeze and then putting her down.

“Piper, this is my friend Mercy,” he says. “She’s going to hang out with us today. Are you okay with that?”

She nods, looking a little shy but peering up at me curiously. I can see Rory in her for sure—in the way her eyes gleam, and how she isn’t afraid of some stranger in her home. She smiles a little and offers a wave before sticking her thumb in her mouth, and I can’t help but smile back.

She’s adorable, and it’s so obvious that she loves Rory and he loves her right back.

“Lunch time, I think. No sushi like your mom, but we’ll see what we can get for you, okay?”

Piper nods enthusiastically, and they head to the kitchen. I follow a few steps behind, still trying to get my brain to catch up with everything that’s happening here.

Rory has a daughter.

One he spends a lot of time with, if he’s coming here every time he leaves the house on his own. I was quick to assume it was something shady, some gang business or whatever, but instead it’s something so completely… wholesome.

Fucking weird.

I watch him rummage through the refrigerator for a second and come out with some milk and a block of cheese. “How do we feel about mac and cheese?” he asks, addressing Piper, though his eyes flick to me.

“Yes!” the little girl says, bouncing excitedly on the chair she’s climbed up onto.

Rory lifts an eyebrow at me, and I nod. Apparently I’m a part of the we now. “Sure. I haven’t eaten lunch yet.”

“Too busy sneaking around to eat, I guess,” he says, but his grin is teasing. He doesn’t seem all that upset about it, and I can’t quite figure out why. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, for him to get on my case for following him here.

But he doesn’t. Maybe he just doesn’t want to fight in front of his daughter.