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“Harley’s finishing up at the Smithy and will be here soon.” Gauntlet chuckled, and I raised an eyebrow at him.
“Nice, those boys can grill,” I said, meaning it. Drake had taught all his brood to grill properly, as they had what he called the English curse. The tendency to burn food on a grill was ingrained into the English, Drake swore. It was funny that he ignored the fact Tye and Harley were both American. Drake blamed Phoe and Mr Wilkes for the kids’ lack of cooking skills.
“Yeah. So, how’s the kids?” Gauntlet asked, causing me confusion.
“Huh?”
“Those two girls you seem to have adopted?”
“Fuck no. I felt sorry for them. If they need help, that’s what Phoe is for!” I stated, glaring at him as he chuckled.
“And that’s how it starts for everyone,” Gauntlet teased.
“Nah, brother, a family is not for me,” I denied, and Gauntlet’s face set in stone.
He was the only brother apart from Drake who knew my true history. In a weak moment, I’d told him exactly who I was, and he’d been beyond shocked. Luckily for me, Gauntlet had his own shitty past and hadn’t judged mine.
“You can’t let that stop you,” Gauntlet said, lowering his voice.
“I came from shit, I ain’t exposing anyone to that,” I argued, and Gauntlet shook his head.
“By your reckoning, I don’t deserve happiness either,” Gauntlet snapped.
“Bullshit.” I thumped his shoulder. “You were tricked, brother, but I was born in stinking shit. Fuckload of difference.”
“One day, Savage, you’re gonna release that what happened doesn’t define you. What you do today does, and reaching out to those two small girls makes you the man I’m proud to call brother,” Gauntlet stated.
I swallowed hard and squeezed his shoulder.
???
A couple of hours ticked past, and despite the noise rising from my backyard, nobody, not even Angela, came to check where Harper and Isla were. To my surprise, it was seven when I first heard the commotion.
“What do you mean, they vanished?” a shriek cut through our merriment. The kids were inside the house now, watching a movie in the living room under Nova and Falcon’s supervision.
“Angela, my kids are your responsibility, and they disappeared six hours ago, and you didn’t call? You went home without looking for them?” The woman’s voice rose in a panic, and Phoe and Vivie got to their feet.
“Oh my God, what have you been doing to my babies? Where the fuck are they, Angela? They wouldn’t just run away! Oh, go to fucking hell!”
A woman suddenly emerged as a door slammed open. She ran her hand through her hair as she peered around the garden and shrieked Isla and Harper’s names.
“Hey!” Phoe called out, peering over the fence.
“My God. Sorry to disturb you, but have you seen two little girls? My daughters? They are aged six and seven; no, Harper just turned eight. My childminder said they went missing hours ago, and she hasn’t phoned the police!” The woman’s voice was hysterical as she shrieked their names again.
She held her phone up and began jabbing at the screen.
“Shit, I can’t unlock it, my hands are shaking too much.” She raised a tear-stained gaze to Phoe and begged, “Please help me find my girls.”
“They are here and safe. Angela was mistreating them, and I brought them here until you got home,” I said, finally stepping up.
“What? How? My babies are there? With you?” The woman clearly couldn’t gather her scattered thoughts.
“Here, grab that chair and climb up. One of us will lift you over. Your girls are here and safe. Savage called me because Angela was starving your little angels, and he didn’t know what to do, and then she kept threatening them. He felt they were in danger but didn’t want to call child services. Not without speaking to you first,” Phoe soothed as Gauntlet and Drake stepped up and lifted a chair over the fence.
The woman scrambled up and nearly jumped into their arms.
“Where are they?” she demanded, wiping tears from her face.
