Inked Babies (Inked Brotherhood 6)

“Zane said that?” Things are seriously fucked up when Zane won’t find time to talk to his friends. “Dammit.”

“Yeah.” Dylan rubs his chin. “What shall we do?”

We look at each other, matching frowns on our faces.

“We could have the girls approach him,” Rafe says hesitantly.

“Erin.” Ash nods. “They’re good friends. He won’t say no to her, right?”

“So we’re gonna pussyfoot around this, huh?” I shove my hair out of my eyes. Damn, I need a haircut. “No. I bet he won’t tell Erin what’s really going on, not to worry her. We need to confront him ourselves.”

“What, ambush him? Grab him in the dark and hold him down until he confesses what’s going on inside his head?”

Dylan throws his hands up in the air. “What other choice do we have? This is Zane we’re talking about. He’s a tough nut to crack.” He leans forward, jabs a finger at the table. “I’m not letting him drown into whatever the hell it is that’s eating at him because we didn’t want to ruffle his feathers. We’ll find him, and fucking sit on him until he spills the truth. And then we can help him.”

Silence greets his words. The only sound is Dylan’s harsh breathing.

Well, fuck. “What do you guys think?”

Ash puts a hand on Dylan’s shoulder, squeezes. “I think Dylan’s right. We can’t wait. Not if things are as bad as he says. Zane needs our help, and I’ll be damned if I sit here, doing nothing, waiting for someone else to find out what’s going on.”

“Then it’s a plan,” I say, grabbing a can of beer and popping the top. I lift it, a different salute. “Let’s do this right now.”

Chapter Four

Erin

I wake up late, judging by the light coming in through the windows, to the sound of Isabella wailing, and find Jax gone from beside me.

Sitting up so fast all the blood rushes from my head, I look around for him—then I hear his voice from the next room and slump back, relieved.

I get this fear sometimes that if I turn my back for a second, something will happen to my babies. Once I bent to pick something up from the floor, back when Jax was one year old, and he fell off the sofa, bumped his head. I almost died of fright, though he’d turned out to be perfectly okay, if a little frightened himself.

Well, now I know, right? I know I can do this. I’m not sixteen, alone and scared out of my mind at being a mom anymore. Jax is next door with his dad, and Isabella is only hungry.

I’ve got this.

And why the sudden insecurity?

Carajo, I’m just tired. Tired, horny for my man, and a niggle of worry in my mind reminds me not everything’s as perfect as I’d hoped.

Something about Dakota being unwell. No, not unwell. Sad. That was what Audrey said. And Zane. Zane isn’t well.

Crap.

Fully awake now, I pick Isa up and sit down on the edge of the bed to breastfeed her. She wails until she latches on my breast, and then it’s quiet. I dip my head forward, watching her, stroking the soft dark fuzz on her head, marveling at how tiny she is and how much bigger already than when she was born.

She looks more like me than Jax ever did. He’s the spitting image of Tyler. Speaking of whom…

“How are my girls?” Tyler grins at me from the open door, and it’s that sexy, crooked grin that makes his dark eyes crinkle at the corners and sends warmth pooling between my legs.

I lick my lips. God, I want him. Missed him. I wish I could kidnap him for the night, and I wonder if this time we will make it past kissing before I’m out like a light.

Improbable.

“Ready?” he asks.

“Ready for what?”