Rake's Redemption (Wind Dragons MC #4)(24)

Sin chuckles darkly. “We’ll see how it goes. Them coming into our space is asking for trouble and lacks some damn f*ckin’ respect, although the men already taught them a lesson, even being outnumbered. I heard their president is in the hospital.”

He sounds proud.

Yeah, they’re all batshit crazy.

“Did you see the guy with tattoos all over this face?” Anna asks, making a face. “He looked scary as shit.”

“I saw Tracker punch him in the nose,” Lana says, smirking. “That was probably the only reason why. Otherwise I was too busy checking out my man to even notice the opposition.”

Sin snorts with amusement from the front.

Anna puts up her hand. “Hey, I checked out my man too. I also sussed out everyone else. I even picked out a few weaknesses in their fighting technique.”

We look at Anna with different expressions on our faces. Lana looks impressed, and me? I think my expression must hold a mixture of both shock and wonder.

“All the men should marry nerds,” Sin says, chuckling. “The women are becoming a force to be reckoned with.”

“Damn straight,” Anna calls out, resting her head back against the seat.

Lana glances at me out of the corner of her eye. “Strength comes in different forms. All of them are valuable.”

I don’t know why, but I suddenly avoid her gaze.

I get dropped off first. “Thanks for the ride, Sin.”

“No problem, Bailey,” he says, turning his head to me and giving me a look I can’t interpret.

“I’ll walk you to your door,” Anna says, getting out of the car. Silently we make it to my front step. I pull my keys out of my handbag and unlock my door.

“Well, this has been . . . fun.” I cringe, then flash Anna a sheepish look. “I hope the men don’t get into any trouble.”

Anna sighs and rubs the back of her neck. “They’ll be fine. Listen, I’m sorry you had to be there tonight. Just know that no matter what, you would have been safe, all right? The men would have had your back just as they would have had ours. You’re family.”

I smile and wrap my arms around her. “Thank you, Anna. It was definitely a night I won’t be forgetting soon.”

“I couldn’t help noticing who Adam’s first instinct was to protect tonight,” she murmurs, looking contemplative. “Interesting, don’t you think? It sure as hell wasn’t his own sister.”

I roll my eyes at that. “Probably because he knew Arrow would have it covered. And Tracker would protect Lana. That leaves only me.”

“Keep telling yourself that, Bailey,” Anna calls out as she walks back to Sin’s car. My smile drops as I step inside and close the door.

If he really cared about me, he wouldn’t have f*cked those two women tonight, not that I care. Nope. Not at all.

*

After a few hours’ sleep, I get up and take Cara for her dance class, followed by some grocery shopping and a few other errands. When we get home I’m tired and in no mood to cook, and Tia and Rhett have gone to visit her family, so I decide to take Cara out for dinner.

“Can we eat at the same place we did last time?” my daughter asks, pushing her dark hair out of her face.

“Why?” I ask, not so sure about going to the place we ran into Adam last time.

“Because the food I had was so yummy!” she says, beaming. “And the milk shake. And the nice man was there.”

Great.

Cara getting attached to Adam is the last thing I need right now.

“Why don’t we try a new restaurant?” I suggest, adding, “There’s a pizza place down the road we haven’t tried. I’m sure you can try all their different pizzas.”

“Okay!” she cheers, and I exhale in relief. I don’t want to have to face Adam after everything that happened last night. I wonder if he felt bad about sleeping with another man’s woman. Probably not. Though if you look at it from his point of view, he doesn’t owe the man loyalty, the woman does, and he said he didn’t know she was his.

Great, now I’m defending him.

Cara and I decide to walk to the pizza place, since it’s so close by. When we get there, I find it has a welcoming, family feeling to it, and am so glad we didn’t go back to the diner Adam frequents. I wonder how long they spent in jail last night, or if Faye was able to get them out quickly. It’s clear that hanging around the MC isn’t the best idea. I love the girls, and even the men are growing on me, but I need to think of Cara.

What if something had happened to me last night? Cara would have become an orphan. I know it’s pretty morbid to think of things like that, but I do. I don’t want Cara to have no one. With her father not in the picture, that leaves only my side of the family. My own father is dead, and my mother moved away with her new husband. Cara, Tia, and Rhett are all I have.

I push the thought aside as we enter, and concentrate on the more cheerful subject of pizza. The place is as inviting as it seemed from the outside, and soon Cara and I are gorging on delicious slices of cheesy goodness.

“Have you had enough to eat, Cara?” I ask her as she sits back in her chair. It looks to me like she’s in a food coma.

She nods eagerly and touches her belly. “I’m full. It was so yummy!”