Page 7 of Serendipity

Cain whistled. “Trigger, take it back to one of the hot boxes,” he shouted to the guy with the woman riding him like a pony. The guy stood up, zipped up his pants, and pushed a cowboy hat onto his head as he strolled past me like he hadn’t just had his dick in some chick.

“Ma’am,” he said, winking.

Cain huffed. “Trigger, this is Serendipity. You’ll keep all your appendages away from her unless you want to lose them.” He looked at me. “Trigger is our Secretary-Treasurer. He’s good at it too, under all the fucking weird down-home getup.” He pointed to the hat.

Trigger just grinned. “Sure thing, VP.” He swaggered away, the girl in the short skirt chasing after him, her cheeks flushed and she was all but panting. I shook my head.

“Prospect!” he shouted, and two guys literally appeared from nowhere. “Go clean room seven. I want it so clean you could lick the walls. If I don’t think it’s clean enough when you’re done, that’s exactly what you’ll fucking do. Got it?”

They nodded, and took off up the stairs. Cain gripped my elbow and led me toward the bar. A man with a huge red beard and yellowing eyeballs lifted his chin at me. “Serendipity, this is Shots. Shots is the bartender and his Old Lady is the best cook around.” A pole thin woman with rosey cheeks and twinkling eyes stuck her head around the door that was behind the bar. “Sweetie, this is Serendipity,”

Cain introduced again.

I smiled at the woman, the first friendly, not flirtatious face I’d seen. “Call me Sera, please.

Serendipity is a mouth full.”

“Nice to meet you, Sera. Hang on, my burgers are burning!” She ducked back inside the kitchen.

Solomon plopped down on the stool beside me. “You certainly are a mouthful,” he said, grinning at me. Cain reached around my back and slapped him in the head. I smothered my grin as he rubbed all that spun gold hair. “Same goes for you as for Trigger. Keep it in your damn pants.”

Solomon just smirked, and bit his full bottom lip. Damn. He was really super pretty. It was a shame that my weakness for pretty guys got me into my current situation. I was swearing off men for life, especially humans with guns and bad attitudes.

Cain rolled his eyes. “Shots, do you think Sweetie could make Sera some pancakes?”

Shots grinned at me, though all I could see was a flash of white beneath the big ginger beard. Shit, how did he eat though that thing?

“Sure thing, VP.” He turned, pushing through the swinging doors to the kitchen.

Someone turned up the music, and one of the girl’s stood on a table, and danced around in her tiny skirt. I was pretty sure she wasn’t wearing underwear, because the guys sitting around the table were looking up her skirt like it held a feast.

Solomon leaned closer. “Dancers from the stripclub up front.” He wasn’t apologizing, or rationalising. It was what it was, and he was just giving me more information. If he thought I was perturbed by a few strippers, he was sorely mistaken.

Shots returned to the bar, pouring me a coke. “Sorry we don’t have any juice. I’ll get some in. And some milk. That’s what Sweetie wanted when she had our kids.”

I gave him a smile and murmured my thanks. Cain took a huge gulp of beer. We sat in silence for a moment, like none of us knew what to say. Well, I certainly didn’t. If I asked too many questions, they’d start asking questions. Questions I couldn’t answer. I watched the room with ancient eyes, cataloguing the people, the feel of the humans in close proximity.

Sweetie bustled out of the kitchen, a huge stack of pancakes in her hands. She placed it in front of me and death-glared the guys on either side of me. “There you go. Keep your hands off,” she said to Cain and Solomon. “When are you due, love?”

I swallowed hard. In all honesty, I had no idea. Time moved differently in Purgatory for everyone, though I’d been there at least five years earth time, but only three months Purgatory time. But after I came out, it felt like my body and my baby were trying to play catch up. Was it because it was a Nephilim baby? How quickly did they grow? From what I’d searched on the internet, the baby was moving enough to be in my third trimester. I could feel its kicks, it’s movements. I had no reference here and I wanted to cry. Instead, I sucked in a deep breath. “In a couple of months.” Non-specific enough.

She nodded sagely. “Taking your vitamins?”

I shook my head. I couldn’t tell her that I’d been imprisoned in Purgatory for the previous five years, but needless to say that there weren’t any prenatal vitamins there. When I’d been rescued, it had all been so crazy; realizing I was pregnant then calling Hope and getting shipped off with Cain.

There’d been no time to think about things like prenatal vitamins. And now I wanted to cry.

Sweetie must have seen it coming, because she reached across the bar and squeezed my hand.

“Don’t worry about it, love. I’ll pick you up some on my way here tomorrow. Some of the other Old Ladies have had their share of kids and probably have a bunch of baby stuff cluttering up their garages if you want some of it.”

Solomon took a swig of his beer. “I’ll buy her new stuff, if she wants it.”

I was shaking my head before he’d even finished. “No, thank you,” I said softly to Solomon. I didn’t need to be indebted to these men more than I already was. I smiled at Sweetie. “If anyone has anything they are going to donate anyway, I’ll happily take it. Nothing too… big.”

No furniture that I couldn’t take with me when I had to leave. If I had to run.

Sweetie nodded knowingly, her eyes sad. She nailed Cain with a stern look. “Fix this.” Then she strutted back into the kitchen.

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