Page 3 of Outlaws' Single Mom
“She said—she said you onlylookscary.” A tear rolls down his cheek, and he rubs at it with his fist. “But I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”
We can be plenty scary, but I don’t correct him. There’s a lot of people that have good reason to fear us, but this kid isn’t one of them. “That’s a good rule. I’m Lash. What’s your name?”
“L—Logan.”
“There you go. Now we’re not strangers.” I can tell from his squint that even at his age he doesn’t quite buy my logic, but he’s cold, scared, and for some reason, someone he knows told him to trust us. “I’m going to pick you up, okay? And take you somewhere warm so we can keep you safe until we can get you back to your family.”
He nods.
I stand up, and when I reach down, he holds up his arms and lets me swing him up against my chest. Awkwardly, I hold him up with one arm under his butt and the other wrapped around his back. Hisscrawny arms go around my neck. I know kids are pretty resilient or they’d never make it through half the shit they get up to, but he feels so small in my arms that I’m afraid I’ll break him without meaning to. Jackal and Stiff look about as confused as I feel as I carry Logan out of the alley.
“Guys, this is Logan. Logan, these are my friends, Stiff and Jackal.”
Logan buries his face in my shirt, hiding.
“Is there a lost and found for kids?” Stiff asks.
Jackal grunts. “Yeah, the cops. You want to make that call?”
It feels like he’s my responsibility, but I’m a little out of my depth here. “Maybe we could drop him off at a daycare? They’d know what to do, right?”
That gets Logan’s attention. He twists in my arms, panicking. “No! She said stay with you! You said you’d help!”
“Hey, relax little man. We won’t let anything happen to you,” Jackal reassures him.
We can’t just stand around on the sidewalk with a kid. “We’ll take him to the club. He said his aunt toldhim to find us but it looks like he got scared and hid. Maybe one of the guys has a girlfriend and there’s been a mix-up or something. We're grown fucking men. We can handle a kid for an hour or whatever.” I adjust Logan so I can point towards the club. “You see down there? That’s where we live. Want to go see a motorcycle?”
For the first time, curiosity overwhelms his fear and he almost smiles. Logan nods. He leans in and whispers in my ear, “Why are your names weird?”
I stifle a laugh. “It's a motorcycle man thing.”
After thinking about it for a second, he nods, like that made total sense.
“Hey Logan, do you like hot chocolate? Uncle Stiff is really good at making it,” I say with a shit eating grin.
Stiff almost trips before he snaps his head my way.Fuck you,he mouths.
2
DAKOTA
“Doyou have time to watch with me today?” Sadie Collins asks from her recliner while I finish changing her sheets. “I think they might finally vote out that horrible man with the ridiculous mustache. He reminds me of my best friend’s first husband. Did I ever tell you about him?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
Being a home health aide is a mixed bag. The pay isn’t amazing, but it’s decent for the amount of training needed, and there’s always work. It’s why I picked it when I needed to get my life together fast, but it’s not easy. A lot of the patients are stressed, confused and embarrassed at needing help. Some are downright mean, but Mrs. Collins is one of myfavorites. She lives with her daughter and they just need a hand a few times a week to get a break from each other. I tidy up a little and make sure she gets clean and her dressings changed properly.
“He was a horrible man. Like one of those pretty red apples in the store that taste like sawdust. He could charm the pants off a nun, but he was as nasty as they come. He started knocking her around when she was pregnant with their second.”
“What happened? Did she leave him?” I ask as I check the stock on her medical supplies.
“She didn’t have to,” Sadie says with a dainty snort. “He had a horrible accident at work. Tragic, of course, but the insurance was such a big help. And one of his co-workers was so kind afterwards. Taking care of her and the kids. They got married a year later.”
I blink at the back of her snow white head. “That’s… fortunate.”
“Wasn’t it? I introduced them.” She sounds smug as she points the remote at her TV and finds Surviving Traitor Island. “There we go. Come, sit and watch.”
Sadie likes to talk, and she watches a lot of TV, so it can be hard to tell which of her stories are true and which are pieced together from something she’s watched. Even if she had some murderous tendencies in her youth, though, I’m pretty sure I’m safe. I check my watch. She’s my final house of the day, and I don’t have to pick Logan up for a couple hours.
