Page 105 of Bleed Me

Within minutes, another cry bled into the growing night.

We picked up our pace, hoping our enemies weren’t toying with us because there was no convincing either of us to stop following the cries of a child we both were willing to die for. No questions asked.

A tiny whisper from a long-ago voice had chills breaking out all over my body. “Kenny.”

Oh my God.

“Justice,” I quietly called for her to follow me to the right, as I followed the most angelic sound I had ever heard.

Justice’s breathing was labored as she followed me, not doubting my gut, not asking questions even though the cries had ceased. My Old Lady trusted me as much as I trusted her.

The next whisper had my stomach tightening and stole my breath. “Daddy?”

Justice and I spun to the right. Sticking out of a little bush was a pair of tiny pink biker boots. Inside the bush was a now almost-four-year-old Gracie, holding her fourteenth-month old brother, her hand over his mouth.

Again, the mother in Justice overrode her Captain training. Holstering her weapons, she rushed in and pulled our babies into her arms, tears spilling from her tormented face.

Again, I held steady, guns over the tops of my family’s heads, daring any fucking idiot to approach my reasons for breathing.

As soon as I heard more crunching leaves, I ran to cut them off, stopping them from seeing Justice and the kids. I roared, my fingers tightening on the triggers—

“Giver!” Men dropped to the ground. “It’s us!”

I almost killed my brothers.

No time to apologize, I ran back to my family, my guns no longer alone. A small army had joined me. Justice was on the ground, babies in her lap, guns pointed at us. I had never seen anything so fucking hot as that woman willing to kill for the ones clinging to her. Ah, shit. “Babe.”

Her wild eyes saw our cavalry had arrived and dropped her guns to the ground. Clutching Gracie and Ice, she kissed them over and over, all the while checking them for injuries.

Gracie was crying. Ice was wailing. They had clearly been terrified.

My brothers rushed further into the woods to find whoever had killed Saph and scared the shit out of my kids while Justice kept rocking them, crying with them. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, my babies. Shh, I have you now. I have you.”

My throat tightened for many reasons: the love pouring from her soul to theirs, the guilt she was carrying, and the evident fear I hadn’t recognized until that very moment. Justice was horrified of what Seth would have done to them, like he did to her.

Gracie’s arms lifted for me. Fighting tears, I picked her up and held her so tight. “My baby. You’re okay.”

Her little sniffles were painful to hear. “Bad mans weft us hewr. I hid Ice.”

I kissed her wet chubby cheek. “You are so smart, baby. You protected your brother like such a good big sister.”

“Mhmm,” she agreed. “I wuv him.” She pointed back from the direction we had ran. “Mama cwied fo us.”

Picturing that mama with a bullet in her head, I choked out, “She loves you so much, baby.”

Gracie nodded, her tiny lips trembling. “She run fo us.” In my embrace, she tried to show me her mama’s actions by making her little arms move like a runner’s. “But, dose bad mans push her.” She held a hand out and pointed, “Goves. Where’d goves.” Her chest began to heave. “Peeump! Daddy. Peeump!” My daughter was describing a silencer. She cried. “Mama fewll to da gwound.”

My daughter witnessed her mother’s murder.

She touched my face with the softest hand. “She needs kisses.” Tears dripped past the teeny lips that would never kiss her mama again.

I had once thought, had anyone tried to hurt my children, I would be insanely angry and salivating for revenge. I was very unaware the depth to simply holding them again, feeling them safe in my arms, would bring me all the comfort I needed in this moment. How that would be enough to temporarily quell any rage of fire I had churning in my soul. Maybe my love for them was that complete.

When my brothers returned, saying they found tire tracks and the perpetrator was gone, we chose not to go on a wild manhunt that night. We all agreed that getting families into lockdown and taking care of Sapphire was our top priority. As we took the long way back to the quiet road on which my children lived, Justice cried. Through her sobs, she told me, “You tell her goodbye for me. Okay?”

That told me several things. One: the club was handling this murder their way. There would be no official death certificate, nor traditional funeral. Two: Justice was never going back to that house. She would never see Sapphire again. Three: I was burying that sweet girl, tonight.

My chest seized with what I had to do ahead of me. Leaning close to her, I whispered, “I will. I promise.”