Page 70 of Angel

When the judge asked Aaron if he truly wanted to live with his father, who was, by the very definition of the word, a stranger to Aaron, the teenager replied, “Yes,” with no hesitation.

Their petition had been granted. Additionally, Cage was filing charges against Veronica, her parents, and her pastor on behalf of Aaron for child endangerment and abuse.

In a little more than a year, Angel had gone from being a single woman to being a single mother to being in a committed relationship with a man she’d once called a ‘man-whore’ to being in a family of four. It was all happening so fast that Angel actually had to pinch herself that this was now her life.

The third bedroom in her house had been used as storage. With the help of the prospects, Angel and Cage were able to get it cleared out and painted in a matter of two days. Since the bed frame from Bulldog’s old room at his mom’s house was not currently in use, they were able to take that and only needed to purchase a king size mattress for Aaron.

The court petition for his emergency custody was not permanent. They still had a battle ahead of them, but it was something. Abuse had been proven. The fact that the judge had a gay son was also on their side. At one point, the man had looked like he wanted to punch Veronica’s pastor himself.

The day that Cage had been granted his petition, the club threw a massive party. Aaron was given his club cut, which was made of denim and proclaimed him to be Property of Cage and Angel. Bree was also given a new rocker. Her one single parent patch was now replaced with one proclaiming she had two.

However, the best part of that day, in Angel’s opinion, was the meeting between Aaron and Ollie.

Angel had difficulty explaining it. Ollie, who was tall and willowy, was a shy kid of fifteen. He was still working up the courage to attend club gatherings. His history with club events was not good. King had used them as excuses to further mistreat him. The last cut he’d worn had pronounced him to be a ‘faggot’ as well as a prospect. Ollie had expressed how much he hated that word.

So when Steel had given Ollie a denim cut that pronounced him Property of Steel, no one was sure how Ollie would take it. Jenna had been standing right next to him, ready to step in if needed.

Ollie, though, looked up at Steel. “Really?”

Steel nodded. “Jenna and I would be honored if you wanted to stay with us.”

Ollie burst into tears and threw his arms around Steel’s neck. Then he hugged Jenna just as hard. So hard, in fact, that he nearly knocked Jenna over. He couldn’t put his new cut on fast enough.

Aaron, who had been getting a non-alcoholic drink at the bar for himself and Bree, had not seen the wholesome display. As he walked back over with a soda cup in each hand, Ollie started doing a happy dance that involved a lot of butt wiggling. Scotty had joined in. Ollie was shouting “shake those hips” at Scotty when he stepped back—and tripped into Aaron.

Soda went flying as limbs flailed. Aaron fell onto his back and Ollie landed on Aaron’s chest. Ollie pushed himself up, covered in soda pop, and stopped mid-apology when his eyes landed on Aaron.

Aaron looked just as starstruck as he stared up at the smaller teen.

Angel stopped Cage, who had been moving forward to help them. He looked at her in confusion, but she signaled for him to wait.

Sparks seemed to fly as Ollie and Aaron continued to stare at each other. The moment, though, was broken up by Scotty, who knelt next to them. “Is this part of the dance too?” Then Scotty threw himself onto Ollie’s back, pushing him back down onto Aaron’s front with a grunted “Oomph!”

Lila shouted, “Cannonball!” and then cross dived like a professional wrestler onto Scotty’s back.

Cage turned to Angel. “Now can I help him?”

Angel, who had a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing, just nodded.

CHAPTER 12

Angel looked down at the amount of paperwork before her and let out a loud groan. This was the part of her job that she hated. She was an artist, not an accountant. There were days when she seriously regretted not folding her business under the club’s umbrella. Then it would be Demo who was sitting here with his nose in receipts, order forms, balance sheets, and whatever else was currently sitting on her desk.

It wasn’t like it was too late. Steel’s offer to buy her out still stood. If the club took over her business, they’d receive a cut of her profits. Was that really that big of a deal? If she didn’t have paperwork and office work to do, she could take on more clients. It would still be her shop. Like Cage’s construction business, she’d still be in charge.

The thought was very tempting.

Angel was proud of her business. She’d built it from the ground up with no backing from her father or the club—financially, anyway. But…maybe Cage was right in more ways than one. She didn’t have to prove herself as a businesswoman either. She didn’t have to battle the business world alone.

Demo was dealing with a lot right now. He was still in active recovery from when he’d taken two bullets protecting Jasmine. Angel didn’t want to put more on him, but it wouldn’t hurt to talk to him and Steel.

Angel and Cage needed to have a serious talk about finances too. Between the house mortgage, utilities, and now housing two very hungry teenagers, things were starting to add up. Cage had tried to talk to her about finances when he’d first moved in, but she’d waved it off and they hadn’t had time since.

Cage was also talking to his lawyer to see if he could sue for the return of the money he’d sent Veronica over the years for Aaron, even though he’d been denied any knowledge of his son. It was a long shot and, frankly, petty, but Cage wanted to make Veronica hurt for how she’d treated Aaron since he’d come out of the closet. Since Cage did not believe in physically hurting women, he wanted to make her hurt in other ways.

Angel was all for it—though she’d already volunteered her services to make Veronica hurt physically too.

Cage couldn’t do anything about Aaron’s grandfather, who had strong-armed him, or Veronica’s pastor until after he had full custody. His entire life was under a microscope right now and he was not going to risk doing anything that might make him lose.

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