Page 13 of Whiskey

“I’m good. I need to stretch a little anyway after riding in the car.”

Hennessy rounded the car carrying a sleeping Ezra. He followed Remington as she led the way into the house. Whiskey held out his arm for her to take. She slid her hand through his elbow and held on as she stepped out of the SUV. Once he saw she was steady, he led her toward the house. Vivi glanced at the nice house as they walked in. She was too tired to appreciate how pretty it was.

The smell of fresh bread greeted them as they entered. A smiling woman walked out from what she assumed was the kitchen area.

“I’ve got food for you all. Vivi, the bathroom is to your right. I’m Regina, this one’s mom.” She pointed at a tall man with a light beard who was in a vest which had President on the chest. She nodded and headed for the bathroom. Now that Regina had mentioned it, it was imperative she get to the bathroom. She walked in there to do her business. Her first glance in the mirror had her shaking her head. Her hair was a mess. They wouldn’t be doing any wedding pictures, that was for sure.

She did her business, then found a washcloth to clean the smeared mascara off her face. She’d never imagined her former father-in-law would resort to fire-bombing a place to get to her. She understood that they wanted Ezra to carry on with the family business, but why was it so important they have her?

There must be something going on here and maybe after some food and sleep, she could start to try to figure out what it could be.

Walking out to the main room, Ezra was awake and already sitting at a table eating a sandwich along with a couple cookies on his plate. A large dog sat quietly beside him.

“Mom, Regina said I could have cookies since we didn’t get wedding cake and Moss is going to stay with us to help keep us safe. He’s a guard dog.”

Vivi sat in the chair Whiskey pulled out for her. He nudged her plate toward her. It contained a sandwich which had a pile of pickles beside it. A couple cookies along with a glass of iced tea was beside her plate. Whiskey had made sure her sandwich didn’t have anything she didn’t like on it. She’d wondered how married life would be with Whiskey even though he’d promised it was a marriage of convenience and she didn’t owe him anything. If tonight showed her anything, he was just about perfect.

Chapter Nine

Whiskey smiled at Phoebe as she explained how Ezra shouldn’t touch the kittens yet, or the mother would get mad. Bear was standing close with Joey in a carrier on his chest. It was amazing to see his grumpy friend smiling now.

War walked into the barn, carrying a couple of beers with him. “Thought you could use a drink.”

Whiskey took the cold one from War. He hadn’t realized how tense he’d been until they’d gotten behind the locked gates of the Bluff Creek Brotherhood MC’s compound. He took a sip of the Brotherhood’s beer.

“Yeah, thank you for providing us a safe place.”

“Hey, we’re friends, but even if we weren’t, I still owed you for your help with our issue. You know, we’d love to have you all form an official chapter.”

War had perfected his stare when he was a detective, but it didn’t work on Whiskey.

“We appreciate the offer, but right now, we think it’s smarter to just be support for you all when you need it. The information that we find out in the bar might change if we were an official chapter. As it is, people from out of town just see us as a bar open to everyone.”

War’s hand on his collarbone let Whiskey know War understood and agreed.

“I get it. Anything else you need? Scoop and Sarah are searching for something we can use to help you.”

Whiskey walked a little away from where Bear was watching over the kids by the kittens. Whiskey didn’t want Ezra to hear him discussing Vivi.

“Yeah, tell me how I make this feeling go away. I couldn’t sleep last night worried I wouldn’t be able to keep Vivi, Ezra, and Little Tot safe.”

War smirked and shook his head. “I wish I could. I mean, my woman is a badass, but I still worry at different times. It sounds like Vivi means more than just a fake marriage.”

Whiskey swallowed and hoped his friend didn’t laugh him out of the barn, but discussing feelings was something new. Oh, he knew his dad, uncles, brothers, and cousins loved him, but they didn’t say it all the time. They definitely didn’t discuss it.

“I don’t know. I know when I think about her not being in my life, I feel like I can’t breathe. When I imagined Ezra having to be with his uncle or granddad, it made me physically ill. I wanted to either hide Vivi and Ezra away or go and blow those jackasses’ houses up.”

War chuckled. Bear walked closer but told Phoebe and Ezra to not move. “What’s so funny over here?”

Bear kept his voice low to not wake his son asleep on his chest.

“Whiskey has joined our club.”

“Which one? The too many animals and kids to count? Or my wife is an FBW? Or, my personal favorite, I can’t live without my woman, but what the heck do I do next?”

“What’s an FBW?” Whiskey questioned.

“My wife is a fierce, badass woman. I don’t want to get a lecture about swearing again,” Bear whispered.

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