Page 72 of Best Laid Plans

“I do,” I say as I read the letter, swallowing at the dried tear stains. “The little girl, Rebecca, is James’s niece.” I choke on his name. I avoid saying it when I can. “Actually, I’m not sure if she’s his niece or adopted daughter—her words are a little jumbled here…” I keep reading and feel the lump in my throat grow.

“She was an addict. He took her to court and had her stripped of her parental rights, and he adopted Rebecca. What the court didn’t know is that he was the one who got the mother hooked on drugs and that James is Rebecca’s uncle as well as her biological father.”

“Oh, Jesus,” Powers curses.

Greer covers her mouth with her hands. “That poor baby.”

“Lauren—that’s the mother—had been clean for a year. When the news about James came out, he told her to stay with Rebecca until he came for her. This was her one chance to get her daughter away from him.”

“She’s right. James wouldn’t look for her here, and he can’t exactly fight for her, given the charges against him,” I say, as I keep reading.

Powers leans closer. “Did you know her?”

“I met Lauren once. She didn’t live nearby. She was painfully shy, meek, and—dare I say it—forgettable. I hadn’t thought about her once in all this time. I never knew she had a kid, and I sure as hell didn’t know James had custody of her.”

“Citi met her,” Havoc says, drawing my eyes to him. His expression is tight, his hands fisted at his side. “She’s the one who said her brother, whom she called Michael, was a therapist, and encouraged Citi to see him. She’s the reason Citi was taken in the first place.”

I reach up and grab his arm without thinking. He doesn’t flinch away. He just looks at me and waits for me to say my piece.

“She’s not the reason Citi was taken—James is.” When he opens his mouth to protest, I squeeze his arm again. “I get it. I do. You love Citi like a sister and Star as if she were your own, not forgetting you lost a friend in all this.” I swallow hard, thoughts of Capone’s absence making my heart ache.

“No, I want you to think about Citi and Star. Imagine Citi was his sister and James had been raping her for god knows how long. He not only does that to her, but he takes the kid away from her, too. People worship him like a god and look at her like she’s scum. Nobody is coming to save her. Nobody is coming to save that little girl. But Havoc, she knows what her brother does to little girls. She knows what that girl’s fate would be. She’s all that’s standing between a little girl and a monster. In her eyes, Citi had a whole MC behind her. Her daughter only had her. She didn’t drag Citi to see James. She left her his card. My guess is she probably thought Citi would take one look at her and figure if James couldn’t help his own sister, then he wouldn’t be much help to Citi either. Citi, of course, wouldn’t know the signs to look out for. She was seeing the world through her own trauma-shaped lens, but so was Lauren.”

Havoc stares at me without a word, and I’ll admit it’s becoming a little unnerving.

“Shoot,” Greer says, breaking the tension as she hurries around to the rear passenger side of the car. She tugs the door open. “It’s alright, sweetheart. I’m here.”

“Oh my god, she’s here?” Delphi gasps as Greer unbuckles the child and helps her out of the car. We watch as she slips her hand into Greer’s and ducks her head a little before Greer closes the door. I take in her hunched frame, her blonde hair falling over her shoulders and covering her face.

“Becca, these are…” Greer hesitates for a moment before looking at Mack. “My friends.”

Rebecca looks up and takes us all in, her eyes moving down the line of us before they land on Kruger. She lets go of Greer’s hand and shocks the shit out of all of us by walking right up to him. He gets down into a crouch so they are eye level. I can see how tense he is. His scars often scare children and adults alike.

She pulls up her sleeve and shows him a small scar on her arm. “I fell off the slide. It hurt a lot. Lauren said I was so brave because I only cried a little bit.” She reaches up and touches the scar under his eye, making Delphi gasp. But Kruger holds perfectly still. “These hurt bad, huh?”

“They did, but they don’t hurt anymore.”

“Were you brave?” she whispers.

“I tried to be, but I’m pretty sure I cried like a baby.”

“That’s okay. Being brave is hard. Miss Greer says I have to be brave now, but I’m really scared,” she admits, breaking my heart.

I lean into Powers, who wraps his arms around me

“It’s okay. I can be brave for you if you like.”

Her eyes water like she’s valiantly trying to hold back her tears, but one slips free anyway. “Okay,” she whispers, reaching for his hand.

Delphi gets down next to them and offers a wobbling smile. I grab hold of Powers’s cut as I watch my friends fall in love with her.

“Hi, my name’s Delphi. The big guy’s name is Kruger. You think you’d maybe like to come stay with us?”

Rebecca looks from Delphi to Kruger, then back to Greer, who nods, her own eyes glassy. Rebecca looks back at Delphi before she reaches for a strand of her hair that’s a similar color to hers, frowning at it. “Will you be my new mommy?”

“Jesus, this kid is gonna kill me,” Havoc grumbles.

Kruger looks over at Greer, a fierce expression on his face, as Delphi tugs the little girl into her arms. “Make it happen.”