“No, Tildy. Ethan’s yours. Yours and your Mommy and Daddy’s. He belongs here.”
She bunched up her face and thought for a second. “I go wif you, okay?”
Duncan walked back and crouched before her. “You belong here, too, angel. This is your home and your family. It’s Ethan’s home and his family, too. And Mommy and Daddy’s. You are all family together.”
“And you! You’re famby togever.”
Not having planned to deliver a lesson on the different tiers of family construction, Duncan was at a loss. How was he supposed to explain to a toddler that yes, he was family, but no, this wasn’t his home?
He had no clue. So he made a right turn and hoped she’d go with him. “Pretty soon, Ethan will be big enough to play with. Then you’ll be glad you both live here.”
That hadn’t been his experience; Kelsey was about six years older than him, and he was about that much older than Hannah. To him, Kelsey had been more of a mini-mom, and Hannah had been more of an annoyance to ignore. Neither had been a playmate. They’d never even been in the same school at the same time. But Tildy and Ethan were just more than two years apart. He’d seen that span among his many cousins, and most of them turned out to be friends. Or at least frenemies.
Her eyes starting to cross with fatigue, Tildy let the matter drop. “Piddy soon,” she muttered as Duncan settled her back on her pillow.
~oOo~
When Kelsey and Dex got home a little after midnight, Duncan was in the living room, watching ESPN and feeding Ethan a bottle of Kelsey’s breast milk. When Tildy was little like this, the idea of holding a bottle of milk that had come out of his sister’s tits had freaked him out well and truly, but he was an old pro now.
He knew they’d arrived before the door opened. He’d been surrounded, as usual, by dogs, though Charlie was stretched out in front of Tildy’s door, keeping watch. Suddenly, all five dogs around him got up and hurried to the hallway. Even Charlie left his post to stand at the junction between the main hall and the one that led to the bedrooms. When the door opened, everybody hurried up to greet their people. Charlie, the Dog in Charge, hung back a little, still on the job. That dog was half human—and all soldier.
After the usual greeting melee at the door, everybody headed back to the living room. Making sure not to disturb Ethan’s feed, Duncan stood; he knew either Dex or Kelsey would want to hold the boy immediately.
It was Dex who came through first. His tie was gone and his dress shirt unbuttoned to the third button.
“Hey,” he said as he reached for his son. “Everything good?”
Duncan handed the baby over. “Perfect, as usual. Tildy went down about eight-thirty. She got up about half an hour ago, when Ethan woke up, but she had a sip and went back down. How was it?”
He’d expected Dex to bitch about hanging with rich civilians for the night, but instead he grinned. “It was great. Kelsey won an award.”
“She did?” His sister walked in just then, her fancy hairdo a little droopy now, and her high heels dangling from her fingers, but her sparkly dress still pretty. “I didn’t know you were up for an award.”
Her grin was happy but about half the wattage of her man’s. “I didn’t, either. I was shocked.” She held it out so Duncan could see it.
He took it from her and held it up. A glass shape on a lacquered wood base. The glass twinkled in the lamplight. Oklahoma Association of Veterinary Medicine. Animal Welfare Award, 2024. Dr. Kelsey Denson.
“Alright, sis!” Duncan handed it back to her. “What brought this on?”
“It’s for her work with rescues,” Dex said, his voice practically ringing with bells of pride. In most situations of his life, the man was taciturn, aloof, short-tempered, and capable of truly scary kinds of violence, but with his family he was a big ball of happy fluff.
“That is awesome, Kelse. Seriously.”
His big sister glowed a little as she smiled again. “Thanks. And thanks for tonight.”
“No prob. You know I love hanging with my minions. We had fun. Though I won’t be sad when Tildy decides she’s had enough of Frosty.”
Dex and Kelsey groaned in harmony.
~oOo~
Once Dex and Kelsey were home and on the job again, Duncan didn’t stay long. Kelsey went to check on Tildy, then took Ethan from Dex when she came back. Duncan said his goodbyes then and was surprised that Dex walked him to the door as if he were a guest.
“Hey,” Dex said as they arrived at the entry and were more or less private. “I’m gonna try to convince Eight and your dad to keep the younger patches home on this next run.”
Duncan, one of the younger patches, was shocked. “What? Why?”
The next run, less than a week off, was not the usual Bulls business. Both charters, Oklahoma and Nevada, were heading to Northern California to take over a club based in Eureka—in whatever way they had to do it. It was a full-club run, nobody left behind. Marcella and Sage would be running the station, with hangarounds and the prospect working the shop and the garage closed.
They’d been planning this run for months—years, actually, but this actual run had been in the works since the fall. The whole club. And they were ready for war.
“If this goes bad, it could take the whole club down. It makes sense to leave patches back, and it makes sense for a fuck-ton of reasons it should be the young guys staying back. You have less experience and more longevity.”
Seriously, Duncan was stunned. This was the first he’d heard of any reservations about the whole club riding out. Plans were set now, with roles for everybody. And it was even more bizarre that Dex, former Marine Raider who’d signed up for the Corps while he was still in high school, would be balking at twenty-something patches riding to possible (probable) war.
“I don’t want to stay back, Dex. And I don’t think any of the other Young Guns do, either. We don’t want to be sidelined.”
Dex stared hard at him. “Sam almost died a few months back. You’re saying he’s jumping at another chance to get it done?”
That was the real reason Dex was talking about sidelining the younger guys, wasn’t it? He was worried they weren’t ready for the fight. He was worried they wouldn’t make the ride back.
Duncan took a beat to think out his reply. “I don’t mean to talk for him, but I can say I haven’t seen him show doubts about it. For myself, I want to ride with my club. I know what it means. We all do. Fuck, Dex, most of us’ve been living this life since we were born. You don’t need to protect us. We wear the same patch you do.”
“Yeah, but yours is a lot cleaner than mine.”
“And yours was as clean as ours once, right? How’d it get stained?”
Again, Dex gave him a hard stare. “You’re sure?”
“I’m positive. I’m a Bull.”
CHAPTER TWO
Phoebe Davis squinted at the lowering sun and checked her watch again. It wasn’t that late—almost half past four—but in January that might as well be twilight. From this far west in the state, she had a good four hours of drive time once she got on the road again. She hated towing the trailer at night. She hated driving at night, period, but it was so much worse with the trailer.