Sinner's Steel (Sinner's Tribe Motorcycle Club #3)(64)

Zane let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. That bastard, Mark, wouldn’t be able to walk after Zane got through with him. “No.”

Ty’s gaze flicked to the kitchen door and then back to Zane. “I cried when Mom fell down the stairs. I thought she was going to be dead and there would be no one to look after me except Mark, and he didn’t like me. I wished I was strong enough to fight him, but I wasn’t.”

Zane thought he’d f*cking cry, too at what Evie and his son had to go through. “I cried when my dad died.”

Ty looked up, his eyes wide. “Really?”

“Really. It doesn’t make you less of a man.”

“Will you teach me how to fight? Just in case I need to help Mom when you’re gone.”

Christ. Even his kid thought he was going to abandon them. Well, that made three of them. “Who says I won’t be around?”

“Mom says you’re busy with the club and maybe you’ll see me on weekends, or you might go away and not come back for a long time. My friend Mason only sees his dad on weekends ’cause his parents are divorced. They get to go to restaurants all the time and football games, and he gets to sleep on his dad’s couch, like you do.”

“Yeah, I’ll teach you to fight. But you gotta eat something. Can’t fight if you have no energy.”

Ty slid off his seat and reached into one of the grocery bags Arianne had brought to the safe house this morning. He pulled out a box of cookies and carefully pulled it open, his eyes never leaving Zane’s face. Now there was a challenge if he ever saw one—and that he understood.

“Your mom usually let you eat cookies for breakfast?”

“Yeah. All the time.” Ty bit into a cookie, watching, his body tense.

Zane bit back a smile and stretched out on his chair. “You know … even outlaw bikers got rules. We live by a code: honesty, integrity, brotherhood and loyalty. You want to be a biker, you gotta live by the code. You got to be able to trust your brothers just as they got to trust you, because the world we live in is not forgiving of mistakes. We had one brother, Axle, he did lotsa bad shit and betrayed his brothers. He lied, stole… In short, he was dishonest. In the end, he died alone.”

Ty’s eyes widened and he stopped chewing. “He died?”

“Yeah. You get involved in bad shit, it always comes back on you.” He leaned across the table, made his son a promise. “What Mark did to your mom … that’s gonna come back on him. Big time.”

Ty placed the box and the unfinished cookie on the table. “I’m not hungry anymore.”

“Didn’t think you would be.” Zane gave himself a mental high five. Maybe parenting wasn’t so hard after all.

They cleaned up the breakfast dishes together and put the groceries away. Ty talked about his friends, the games he played, and movies he had seen with his mother. Except for that one outburst about Mark, he never talked about Stanton, and Zane wondered if he didn’t remember much, or he didn’t want to remember. He was an easy kid to be around, curious about Zane’s life as a biker, enthusiastic about his friends, and passionate about superheroes.

“Batman. He’s the only true superhero,” Zane said as they put the last of the food away. “He’d win a fight against any of the others hands down ’cause he’s got that streak of dark in him, makes him able to cross the line that pansies like Captain America can’t cross. He doesn’t take shit from anyone.”

“Duh.” Ty rolled his eyes and pointed to his Batman pajamas. “I know that.”

Nobody had ever said “duh” to Zane since … well, ever. The kids at school had been afraid of him and the junior patch and prospects knew to stay out of his way. “You allowed to say ‘duh’ to a grown-up?”

Ty shot him a sideways look. “You allowed to say shit to a kid?”

Damn. The kid was smart. He would have to watch his mouth. He stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out a roll of bills. “How about I pay a couple of months in advance since I seem to have used up my last advance payment?”

Ty took the money and put it in his swear jar. “Can I use some of it in case I need to swear sometimes like you?”

“Definitely not. Bikers swear. Boys don’t.”

Ty’s smile faded and his face grew solemn. “I’m going to be a f*cking biker when I grow up. I’m going to swear and shoot guns and be in car chases. I’m going to be a Sinner’s Tribe motorcycle man like you. But first you have to teach me how to ride a motorcycle.”

“When you’re older.” He let the swear slide. Boys needed to learn how to cuss so they could express themselves when they became men.

Ty deflated. “I want to learn now. Trevor’s dad plays baseball with him and takes him to football games. And Jason’s dad is building a clubhouse with him. I want you to do things with me. Riding a motorcycle would be epic.”

“And dangerous.”

“I thought that was the point. Or maybe you’re not cool like I thought.” Ty’s bottom lip quivered and Zane’s pulse kicked up a notch. What would he do if Ty cried? Evie would think he was a failure as a dad. Fifteen minutes and he couldn’t keep his son happy.

“I am cool,” Zane protested.