Unattainable (Undeniable, #3)(27)

CHAPTER EIGHT


Seated at the far end of the dining room table, I watched Cage stomp into the kitchen, past the island that separated the cooking area from the dining area, and grab the closest chair, next to Cox. Fuming, he sat down hard and slumped backward, his thick arms folded across his chest. I knew that look, had seen it a million times on his face growing up alongside him. And if I hadn’t already heard Deuce laying into him, as if everybody in the house hadn’t, I would have already known that was exactly what had happened.

I actually caught my emotions start to lean toward him in sympathy and the urge to touch him, to comfort him arose, the strong feeling every bit as familiar to me, as natural to me as when we were children.

Before he’d—

Oh no, I wasn’t going to feel bad for him like I used to. No way. Cage was a slut and dumbass, and it wasn’t my fault Deuce liked to remind him of that every other second.

Deuce was next to storm into the kitchen, giving out glares as freely as he breathed. As much as I appreciated all the man had done for me financially, he had such a serious caveman complex that I was loath to comprehend what Eva saw in a man that was just so…

I glanced back at Cage, then again to Deuce, and shut down my line of thought. I knew exactly what Eva saw in Deuce. It was the same thing I saw in Cage. It was the reason I kept sleeping with ZZ. They were all just so…

Men. They were f*cking men. Hard-core, badass, live by their own set of rules…men.

Goddamn, I was such an idiot.

Taking his seat at the head of the table, Deuce gave everyone his signature once-over, then he growled, “Eat.”

And eating commenced.

I rolled my eyes.

“Tegen?”

I glanced to my right where Kami was offering me a large bowl of mixed vegetables, looking more like a vegetable model than a mother of two, a wife of a heavily tattooed biker just passing a dish full of food. Tall, waif-like, blonde, blue-eyed, and beautiful, Kami was a runway’s wet dream.

She smiled at me. “It’s nice to see you at dinner, T. You should come home more often.”

Forcing a smile, I accepted the bowl. Avoiding all carrots, I took a small helping before dishing my brother out an equally small, carrot-free helping, and then passed it to Danny.

“Carrots are good for little kids,” Danny said, frowning at Christopher’s plate.

“Carrots are f*cking disgusting,” I retorted, my bad mood rearing its ugly head.

“Carrots are f*cking disgusting,” Christopher mimicked and Cox burst out laughing.

“See,” I said, smiling sweetly at Danny. “He agrees.”

Danny glared at me, her icy blue eyes narrowed in annoyance. “Oh, shut up,” she said, sounding every inch like the valley girl she resembled.

“Momma!” Harley cried, looking properly horrified. “You said shut up is a bad word!”

“Mommy tells Daddy to shut up all the time,” Diesel said, pointing at Kami.

“She tells him way worse than that,” Devin muttered.

Ripper started laughing, only stopping when the fork Kami threw at him nearly hit him in the face.

“Hey!” Danny snapped.

“Damn, Ripper,” Cox said, snorting. “You’re so *whipped you need your old lady defendin’ you?”

“Cox, don’t speak,” Kami said. “It makes you less hot.”

“Shut up isn’t a bad word,” Ivy said matter-of-factly. “Goddammit is a bad word.”

“It is a bad word!” Harley insisted.

“It is not!” Ivy screamed.

“Stop it,” Deuce growled, looking at his youngest daughter. “You don’t need to be sayin’ it either.”

Ivy’s face contorted into what I liked to refer to as Danny’s prissy angry face. “You like her better than me!” she screamed. “You wish Harley was your daughter and not me!”

Harley grinned at Ivy. “Papa loves me best,” she said, her tiny voice sugary sweet.

Eva closed her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. “Nobody loves anybody more than anybody else. Everybody loves everyone the same.”

Cage snorted and Deuce turned his glare on him while Ivy stuck her tongue out at Harley, who scowled back at her.

“Fuck me,” Deuce muttered, picking up his beer and taking a long swallow. Setting it down, he looked at Eva and pointed his beer toward her stomach. “That kid in there better not be a girl. And will someone give me the motherf*ckin’ salt?”

“You put enough salt on already!” Eva yelled.

I tuned out after that, listening but not really, pushing my food around on my plate as the bickering continued much the way it always had. Nothing had changed, not even with the latest wave of bikers and old ladies-to-be.

Just another generation of aspiring criminals and the sad, pathetic women who will love them despite their inability to keep their dicks in their pants.

Halfway through the horrible ordeal, my endurance nearly shot, the doorbell rang. Ivy shot out of her chair and raced through the kitchen, screaming, “I’ll get it! I’ll get it!”

My head started pounding.

“Hawk is here!” came the high-pitched scream from the foyer. “Hawk is heeeeere!”

The pounding in my head worsened.

Hearing his father’s name, Christopher’s green eyes widened. “Daddy!” he shrieked, jumping up to a standing position in his chair.