Page 4 of Providence

I looked up at Sol. “Head over to the baby store on the corner of Fifth and Main. Ask for a girl called Stephanie. She’ll get what you need and won’t be scared by the patch.”

Everyone turned to look at me, but I ignored them all, palming my gun like a security blanket. I could go, but I didn’t want to leave. Didn’t want them to be unprotected.

Judas nodded. “Take Trigger. Then kick everyone else out. Keep the minimum we’d need to defend this place.”

I scoffed. “Defend it against what? What if there’s more fucking angels?”

Judas shrugged. “Then we stop pretending to be human.” He looked at Sol. “Trigger stays, get him to call in an emergency Church. I need people without families or Old Ladies to stay. No drop ins. People who won’t ask too many questions. Trigger will know who. Kid has his finger on the pulse of this shit. Let’s go.”

He looked over his shoulder at Cain and me.

“Protect her,” his eyes bore into mine. I just nodded. I’d sworn right? I might be a fucking psycho, but I was a psycho of my word.

Then it was just me, Cain, Sleeping Beauty and the baby left.

“We should find him clothes,” Cain whispered, not moving from his position as a living cradle. The dude was a fucking pussy but I understood. There was something about that baby. You just wanted to make empty promises about how the world was going to be a wonderful fucking place for him, and then fuck up anyone who would dare make it otherwise.

I slid back down against the wall, palming my gun. I didn’t think I’d need it. I should put it away. But it was a crutch to hang my misery on so I kept it out. “I don’t think Sol is going to be able to pick up anything that’ll fit his wings at the baby store,” I grumbled.

He was still wrapped in my shirt, and part of me wanted him to stay wrapped in it, like it was bulletproof or something. Completely damn irrational. This whole thing was making me fucking crazy.

“You okay, G?” Cain asked softly, and I gave him a sneer. I wasn’t going to lay my heart on the line right now. He was delusional if some baby was going to make me soft.

“I’m fucking fine. I told you she was going to be fucking trouble,” I muttered, and Cain’s eyebrows drew down, his lips pulling tight.

The asshole always had pretty lips, like a fucking girl. “If they hadn’t been here, they would have died. Both of them. Is that what you want?”

No.“You don’t know that. She seems pretty fucking resourceful. They are not my problem.”

Cain’s mirthless laugh echoed around the room. “Keep telling yourself that, G. I saw how you looked at him, though. How you looked at her. It’s okay to admit you feel.”

I flipped him the bird and stared intently at the door. Cain made a disgusted noise, and continued to rock gently. She needs to wake up now, so I could go back to ignoring them all. Ignoring the loved up looks that Cain and Solomon gave her, the softness that shaped Judas’ features when she smiled. A softness that used to be reserved purely for Laura. Purely for me.

Cain stood, his body agile for his size. We were pretty even in height, I was a little broader across the shoulders, but there was a reason that when people saw us coming, they crossed the street. Unless they fucked with Damnation. If they fucked with the Club, they started running.

I enjoyed the chase.

Cain walked over to me. “Stand up and take the baby. I’m going to try and rig some of his clothes to fit his wings.”

It was crazy how casually we were talking about the fact the kid had fucking wings. “I can make him clothes.”

“Just hold the fucking baby, G and stop being a pussy. He doesn’t bite.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Cain stared at me, but his lips twitched. “His mama does, so I’m not too sure about that one. Here,” he leaned down, basically placing the baby in my lap, and I put down my gun to hold his head. I scowled at Cain, but he just grinned. I was going to punch him in his smug face. My hands looked huge next to the baby, who wasn’t even the size of my forearm. He was wrapped tight in my shirt, and he didn’t even stir when Cain passed his tiny, warm body to me.

I placed a finger on his chest, just to make sure he was still breathing. Cain opened up some of the boxes stacked along Serendipity’s wall. Finally finding one that he needed, he pulled out a plain, white one-piece thing with more snaps than any item that tiny really needs.

He examined it, turning it inside and out. “Do you have your knife?”

I nod toward my boot. I take it everywhere with me. It had been a gift from Judas when we were sixteen. The week after that, we fucked for the first time. It had sentimental value, though I’d never admit it. It was just fucking sharp and had been whet with the blood of hundreds of the Club’s enemies.

Cain reached down and pulled it out of it’s pocket in my boot. He ran the sharp edge down the center of the back, creating a little slit I assumed we were going to put his wings through. How delicate were they? Were they like baby bird wings? Could we accidentally damage them by putting them through the holes?

This whole thing gave me the cold sweats. As if the baby could sense my discomfort, his little eyes blinked open. It was eerie really. He went from sound asleep to completely alert. His blank baby gaze already saw too much, and I was probably imagining the confusion in them. When they locked on my face, my heart did that weird flip-flop thing again. Fuck. I was attached. I needed to give him back to Cain before he broke everything that was holding me together. His mother had started at the foundations, but that gaze that already seemed too old for his newborn face was like a wrecking ball to my defenses.

Cain squatted down in front of us. “He’s awake. That’s good. Didn’t want to have to wake him up to dress him. Ah shit, he’ll need a diaper.” He stood and bustled away, and the whole time Cain had been talking, the baby hadn’t moved his eyes from my face. But that was just a baby thing right? They couldn’t see very well and everyone was just big blurry blobs.

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