Page 14 of Roses Are Dead
“Thanks, VP.” Giving Sprout a promotion sounded funny in my head. But no one else was stepping up. It might as well be him.
The men around the desk laughed. I pointed at the idiot they all thought so little of. “We all know he’s the power behind the throne, don’t let him fool you.”
“That’d be Danielle,” he fired back.
“She’s the power under your throne,” Skinner said.
“Between your knees,” Hickey joked.
Sprout rubbed his crotch. “Hell, yeah. That’s the best part of being married. Except the whole pregnant part kind of fucks with her being on her knees for very long.”
“When is that woman finally gonna pop?” She had to be due any minute now. She was as big as a house. Not that I’d say that in front of Sprout. For that, it was a sure bet that he’d knife me. Everything else ran right off him. But bad-talk about his woman or his ma? Boom. Suddenly, he turned into his father.
Don’t get me wrong, Sprout’s deceased father, Jolly, was a great man, and left big shoes to fill when it came to enforcer legends. I was trying my best to live up to his example. I couldn’t imagine the weight of it on Sprout. No wonder he was a fuckup — he had less to prove that way. My epiphany was cut short.
“She’s due December 25th.”
Damn, no separation between Christmas and birthday presents. “That poor kid.”
“Hey! He’s going to be spoiled rotten.”
“That’ll be Ma’s doing, not yours.” Hickey laughed. “Poor kid.”
“All you all can fuck off.”
“You sure it’s not a girl?” I asked.
“The Great Dane does not shoot X chromosomes.”
Dumb ass. He willingly gave himself a nickname ripe for ridicule.
“Uh…” Hickey started, finger in the air, but I interrupted him.
“That boy won’t understand,” I warned.
“Right.” Hickey nodded and tapped away on his laptop some more.
“Understand what?” Sprout asked.
Skinner stood up, determined to make a point. “Your ma?”
Sprout matched him, expecting Skinner to lay down fighting words. I moved my chair back in case this came to blows. “What about her?” Sprout challenged in his lowest register.
“She put in half of you. That means there’s at least a fifty percent chance you’ll get someone like her.” He stated the obvious much more kindly than I ever could have.
“Damn straight, and it would be an honor to raise another biker babe like Ma. But it’s a boy. I got the picture of his dick to prove it.”
“Oh Gods, spare us.” The last thing I needed was him passing around that grainy ultrasound picture again. I swear he mistook the umbilical cord for the kid’s penis.
Wolf finally showed up—just in time to debrief and divert us from Sprout’s insanity. I ran through what I had so far, including seeing her get into Carl’s car.
“Bear’s got a crush on her,” Sprout added.
“Do not,” I fired back.
“When you saw her, what was she doing before she got into Carl’s car?” Wolf asked.
I smiled. I’d saved this part, the best part, for my president. “Standing naked in the rain.”
