Page 84 of Riding Free

The room erupts in cheers, and the conversation is dropped because everyone starts talking excitedly about the baby and congratulating Chassis’s father and brothers. I can’t help but take everything in.

They’re all so happy.

It’s seriously heartwarming, and not for the first time, I realize that this is exactly where I was always meant to be. Thea makes a noise in my arms, wriggling around. Shifting my focus down to her, I smile.

Yes, this is exactly where we were always meant to be. Surrounded by love, happiness, and celebrations for everything that life has to offer.

CHAPTER

SIXTY-FOUR

HOUND

I could slap the shit out of Cake. Gripping the steering wheel until my knuckles turn white, I drive back to the house. We’ve had a long, tiring day. Thea needs a bath and to go to bed, and I need about five beers to cool the fuck off, maybe another orgasm, too.

Fucking Cake.

Once we’re home, I help Keely get Thea ready for bed and tucked in. Then I silently walk into the kitchen and grab a beer, twisting the top off. I toss it into the trash can before I walk over to the sofa.

Sinking down on the cushion, I lean back and lift the bottle to my lips and take a long pull. Then another, and another, in hopes that my heart rate will calm the fuck down. If I’m not careful, I’m going to have a goddamn heart attack over this shit.

Closing my eyes, I finish the beer, then straighten my head and start to get up to get another. “Do you want another beer?” Keely calls out as she walks into the room.

Shifting my focus over to her, I smile. I’ve never been someone who would have demanded a woman stay home and raise the kids or anything, but I have to admit, I like that Keely is here with Thea, that she’s able to do what she wants and that she’s able to care for our girl, no matter where I am. I’ll be good with her going back to work, too, but I really do love this dynamic.

“Yeah, baby, that would be great.”

She gives me a tight nod, then moves toward the kitchen, and I hear her open and close the fridge before her feet pad against the vinyl plank flooring as she makes her way toward me. She slides the beer down my shoulder from behind me.

I curl my fingers around it before I twist the top off and set it on the side table next to me.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asks.

I do, but I can’t with her. I’m pretty sure she won’t stop until I tell her something, though. I know if the tables were turned, I wouldn’t. Because some bullshit happened at the hospital, and there is no way around that.

“No, but it was right there for everyone to witness, so if I don’t say anything, it’s just going to be an elephant in the room that you’ll continue to wonder about.”

Keely’s eyes widen as she walks around the sofa. I don’t let her get far. Hooking my arm around her waist, I pull her into my lap and settle her there, keeping one arm around her while I take a pull of my beer with the other.

“Cake and I had a disagreement about the operation of the club as a whole. It was a bit of an argument, but we’ll have to finish it in a few days before he goes back to Arizona.”

Keely watches me for a long moment in silence, her gaze searching mine, and I wonder if she believes me. It’s the truth, but it wasn’t just a slight argument.

It was a big one.

Cake doesn’t give a shit about what the other clubs are doing, as long as everything is at peace. He doesn’t give a fuck that I’ve been finding that club after club has ties with the Russians.

He doesn’t care, because he doesn’t want to rock the boat. We’re in bed with them, and he says it doesn’t fucking matter. But it does. To me, it does. This is an infiltration, and it’s not going to stop. They’ve gotten away with it for this long, and they keep dancing along that fucking line. They’ll continue.

“Maybe you can just have a meeting and work everything out. You’re a family,” Keely says. Her voice is so soft and sweet, her body perfectly nestled into mine, and I wonder if it could be that easy. Cake wasn’t open to a conversation, which makes me think that there’s something else going on there.

Then it hits me.

“Holy shit,” I whisper.

“What?” Keely asks.

I shake my head once. “I’m gonna call Hippie. I need to talk to him away from the clubhouse.”