Page 2 of Slice

If he wasn’t so worried about the baby, Slice would have found Bear’s mouth dropping open funny, but this baby needed help. They found a couple towels, and Slice wrapped the baby up inthem before tucking him back inside his cut again, making sure his face was protected from the chilly night air, and they headed back to the other apartment.

He walked in with Bear following behind him. Bear was on the phone calling Stella, the town’s nurse practitioner and the mother of one of his MC brothers.

“Did you find the kitten?” the woman asked as Slice stopped in the front room.

“No, I found an abandoned newborn baby,” Slice said.

“What? Oh my goodness. I have all sizes for diapers and clothes, so we can take care of the baby’s immediate needs. Is it only in a blanket?” she asked as Slice pulled the towel away.

“Yes, he is,” he said, pulling the towel away.

“EMTs and the sheriff are coming,” Bear said.

The woman led Slice back to a bedroom.

“Let’s get him in something warm until they get here. I’m the only emergency foster care around, so most likely he’ll end up here unless he needs to go to the hospital. As soon as the EMTs check him, I can give him a bottle,” she said.

Slice wasn’t sure how he felt about leaving the baby with her and just throwing everything at her. He felt responsible for the little one since he’d found him. His heart hurt thinking about what could have happened if the family hadn’t been on the list for Santa’s Slay MC to visit tonight. How long would the child have been in the cold and suffered?

After the baby was in a diaper with clean, warm clothing and the woman had swaddled him in a clean blanket, she turned to Slice. Slice had hovered close by, not wanting to take over because the woman knew where all her supplies were.

“So I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Faith. Would you like to hold him?” she asked.

Slice nodded. “My name is Slice. I’d love to.”

He stood in the room and tucked the little boy close to him for warmth. He’d pulled off his lighter sweatshirt and then put his cut back on over his Henley. The baby’s blue eyes were staring up at Slice. Slice wasn’t sure what was in store for this boy, but he knew he would do whatever it took for this little one to have a safe life. There was a reason Slice had survived the attack on his team and made his way to Bluff Creek. This little boy needed him, and Slice was going to make sure he stepped up.

Chapter One

Slice heard the faint cry of the infant in the crib across the room. He shook his head to clear the sleepiness, got up, and walked across the room. He’d battled insomnia since he’d returned and most nights had nightmares. He’d decided he’d just sit in the rocking chair all night, but he’d amazingly drifted off to sleep.

“Hey, Little Buddy, it’s okay. Let’s get you dry, and then I’ll get your bottle,” Slice whispered. He slipped his big hands under the tiny body and cuddled Buddy close to his chest as he walked to the changing table. He laid Little Buddy down and unsnapped his sleeper. He’d gotten quite good at this by helping out his friends at Bluff Creek Brotherhood MC, who had little ones in the eight plus months he’d been a part of them. He switched out the wet diaper for a dry one quickly so Little Buddy didn’t decide to spray them both.

He'd learned his lesson the hard way with Joey, Bear and Winnie’s son. He’d had to explain to Bear and Winnie how Joeyhad peed in his own ear and then call and ask them what he needed to do to clean it out while they were out on their date. Nope, Little Buddy wasn’t going to have that happen to him.

He grabbed a blanket because it was three in the morning, and he wasn’t sure how cold the house would be. He walked out to the front room, taking care to try not to wake up the rest of the house. He mixed the bottle and then put it in the warmer like Faith had shown him. Her setup was a little different from his friends’ houses.

Faith, the lush, beautiful woman who had opened her house and asked him to stay overnight when she could tell he didn’t feel comfortable leaving the baby he’d found. Even thinking that had him realizing how crazy the last five hours had been.

After the sheriff had spoken to the DCFS social worker in charge of their area, Little Buddy was placed in emergency foster care with Faith. Faith was licensed for long-term foster care as well as the seventy-two-hour emergency care.

Once everything had calmed down, Faith had her boys go to bed, and then she’d followed after Slice had said he’d stay in the baby’s room and take the night shift. He still couldn’t believe she’d let him, a big, tattooed biker, stay in her spare room after only knowing him for a couple of hours.

Snuffling against his chest had him testing the bottle. After confirming the temperature was right, he settled in Faith’s recliner and gave Little Buddy his bottle to keep him from waking anyone else up with his cries. Despite being less than twelve hours old, per the EMTs’ estimation, the kid had a set of lungs on him that could wake the neighbors.

Slice wasn’t sure what had made him need to be there to take care of the baby, but he was appreciative that Faith asked him to stay. He was sure some shrink dissecting Slice’s childhood would find it had to do with Slice losing his mom when he was eight and his dad surrendering him to DCFS. His dad hadn’t even saidgoodbye, just dropped him at school and then never returned. He could remember not understanding what was happening when he didn’t go home after school but to a foster home.

A sound from the hallway had him glancing into the darkness. There was a nightlight in the kitchen, which cast a glow over the area.

Faith had put the boys’ filled stockings out, but she’d covered them with a sheet, just in case, she said. As he saw two faces peek around the corner, he thought that had been a brilliant move for her.

The boys stared at him, then the older one, Micah who was nine, grabbed his brother’s hand and walked into the room.

“Is LB okay?” he asked softly.

“LB?” Slice asked.

“We think Little Buddy is too big of a mouthful. We thought maybe just Buddy, but then Isaiah said it sounded like the guy inElf,and that guy’s a little cray-cray. So LB was better,” he said, leaning over to see Little Buddy, or LB, it seemed like.

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