Page 33 of Slice

“Okay, Slice, I realize you just bought a nice SUV, but Jesse hasn’t had time to do any upgrades. How about Faith drives a bail bonds SUV for now? Unless you’d rather we had a detail on her taking her to and from school,” Remi suggested.

Slice looked at Faith to see what she was thinking. She’d been thrown into this, and he wasn’t sure how she’d deal with everything.

“I’m fine driving one of the bail bonds SUVs if you think it’s needed, but I’m also fine having escorts if it’s warranted. I don’t want anyone to try to use Micah and Isaiah to get us to giveup LB,” Faith said. “I may not work for the bail bonds and am normally not a tough girl, but they’ve incited my mama bear tendencies. I want a taser and maybe a gun because no one is going to take my babies,” Faith growled as she stood up and looked around the room.

Remi grinned. “Oh, she’ll fit right in.”

Chuckles and smiles had Slice relaxing a little. His family wasn’t out of the woods, but Faith was on board with the plan, which made everything easier.

Chapter Twenty

It had been six days of Slice and her living at the compound, and as far as Faith was concerned, she was ready for them to live there permanently and give up her apartment. Micah and Isaiah were over the moon with having kids to play with all the time. They were still staying at Baron and Regina’s while they decided where they could live. She and Slice had a movie night with Willa and Cruise at their place and then went to a family game night at Sprite and Roam’s. She loved getting to know people better.

Hope and Benji were over in one of the suites in Locks’ house, but they were over at Regina and Baron’s a lot. Hope and Locks seemed to have something going on. Faith wondered if they’d done anything yet because woo-wee, the heat in Locks’ eyes when he stared at Hope when she wasn’t looking was enough to singe everything in its path. When Faith had tried to question Hope, Hope had slapped her hand over Faith’s mouth and toldher to shut it. When Faith had pushed, Hope had threatened to tell every embarrassing story she knew to Slice.

She was still driving the bail bonds SUV with all its reinforcements and bells and whistles. For the first few days, one of the guys on their motorcycle had escorted her to and from school. The more Sarah and Scoop dug in, the less they felt they needed to worry quite as much. The brother had ended up having outstanding warrants, so the bail bonds company had taken him in. He’d been moved directly to jail for failure to appear notices. At least she didn’t have to worry about him, but Slice said it was good to still be aware.

Although Dex had improved Candace and Prim’s behavior for a couple of days, they’d resorted to calling her names and putting her down again. Faith had decided she’d just deal with it because it was so small compared to everything else going on. But Micah had heard them calling her names. Unbeknownst to her, Micah had mentioned it when he was over at Sprite and Roam’s house playing.

Faith wasn’t quite sure what had ensued next, but Candace and Prim had both come to her today and apologized. They’d also said they would be on their best behavior. They’d used those exact words and then requested that Faith let Winnie, Willa, and Beth know they were following directions. Faith couldn’t wait to get home and find out what Winnie, Willa, and Beth had done. Whatever it had been, Faith was thrilled because it meant she didn’t need to stay on guard all the time about what would be said to her or done. Faith hadn’t even shared with Slice that earlier this week, Candace had started pinching Faith’s side where it was the fattiest. Faith had cried for ten minutes in the bathroom, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell Slice when they were working on so many other things.

Faith pulled the SUV into the compound, and Slice walked out of the club’s garage to meet her. She rolled down her window,and he leaned in to kiss her. She shivered at the cold, brisk air that rolled in.

“How was your day?” Slice asked.

Faith cocked her head at his words. His tone implied another meaning. Did Slice have a hand in what had happened?

“What do you know about my day?” she asked.

“I know that my woman better share anything that affects her from now on.” He leaned closer with those words, then whispered, “If you think I’ll ever let anyone hurt you, you are delusional. Winnie, Willa, and Beth sent me a text of what they were planning, and I mentioned you had two finger-shaped bruises on your side that you didn’t mention to me. Babe, I get I shouldn’t try to solve all your problems, but do you think you could at least let me comfort you after you have a shitty day?”

Faith laid her hand on Slice’s cheek. This man didn’t have a problem talking through anything. She needed to learn from him.

“I love you, and I’ll do better sharing next time if there is one. They seemed pretty scared today,” Faith said, grinning.

Slice chuckled with a huge smile on his face. “Oh, I bet they were. I believe you have a welcoming party at the house wanting to know if your day went a little differently. Good luck. They aren’t thrilled that you didn’t ask for help either.”

Faith huffed. “Okay, I’ll drop the boys…”

“Nope, boys hop out. We’re playing games with some of the other kids in the clubhouse. Who is ready to have the championship of racing tournament this afternoon?”

Both boys yelled. Although Faith wasn’t looking forward to facing the women at her house, she was glad the rambunctious boys would be with Slice.

Faith giggled at listening to Winnie, Willa, and Beth tell how they’d scared the girls. She’d apologized for not sharing. Remi had said something that almost had her in tears.

Family takes care of each other. You’re family now, so your problems are our problems. You’re not all on your own.

She, the boys, along with Hope and Benji, now had a huge family they could depend on.

“So I just wanted to drop by, knock on their doors, and threaten them. Umm, Beth may have had a little more of a dramatic idea,” Winnie said.

“Yeah, I was thinking we’d show up. Tell them if they didn’t start being nice, we’d do to them whatever they were doing to you. Then I heard Beth’s idea. From now on, when we need to do something, I will bow to the mistress of mayhem that is Beth,” Willa said, chuckling.

Faith snickered. She adored being around women who built each other up and had each other’s backs.

“Oh, come on, Winnie. As if you didn’t think my idea was better like Willa did. Willa doesn’t have those preconceived sibling notions that I’m still a youngster. They were in Candace’s house, in her living room, drinking wine and talking about their day. Her security is crap, so I picked the lock on her back door, and we came into the kitchen. When they just kept jabbering on, I turned on the faucet in the kitchen and let it run,” Beth said.

Winnie giggled and slapped her leg. “Suddenly it’s dead silence in the family room, and then Prim whispers, ‘Is that water I hear?’ And Beth turns the faucet off. Then she pulls a packet of microwave popcorn out and starts it in the microwave.”

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