What is it with people and money? Always with greed. Isn’t there a saying in the Bible or something about thou shall not take what isn’t mine?
“Do not wear yourself out to get rich. Do not trust your own cleverness. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle,” Shadow says from where he’d been standing behind Luca.
“I don’t understand,” I utter, furrowing my brows.
“You asked if there was a saying in the Bible. Well, there is. That’s one of them.” Shadow shrugs.
“Damn, brother, I didn’t know you knew Bible verses,” Coyote says, coming up next to Shadow with a sandwich in hand. “Do you know any more?”
“Yep,” Shadow mutters.
“Are you always eating,” Momma B chastises Coyote.
“I’m a growing boy, what can I say?” Coyote grins, patting his stomach. “Shadow, how come you know that verse by heart?”
“It’s nothing but a thing,” Shadow mutters and crouches down to give Luca his toy he’d dropped. He might say it’s nothing, but I can see it in his haunted eyes— there’s a story behind him knowing Bible verses.
“So, does anyone know how to play Spades?” I ask in an attempt to change the subject away from Shadow.
“Spades? Seriously, Ray? I’d stomp your ass in Spades,” Nerd said excitedly.
“Like you could stomp my ass,” I grin.
“Oh, you’re on. Momma B, wanna be on my team?” Nerd asks.
“Why not?” she giggles.
“Shadow, you want to be on mine?” I ask.
“Naw, I don’t play cards,” he says.
“Oh, okay.” I nod, turning to Coyote, giving him the pleading eyes.
“Sure, why the hell not? It’s not like I’m your second choice or anything.” Coyote chuckles.
“Shut up and sit down,” Momma B snickers as she points to the chair while Nerd gets up to grab a deck of cards.
I guess this is one way to pass the time while trying not to stress. Yeah, right, but it will be something to do besides stare at a TV while holding Luca. Glancing down, I smile at the sight of him sleeping peacefully in the bouncer.
“He’ll call you,” Momma B says as I check my phone for the millionth time since coming into the main room.
“I’m just really nervous right now. I haven’t heard from him yet and I don’t know what’s going on with Corinne. I miss my baby,” I murmur.
“I know you do, Rachel. Stoney will call you when he can. If he hasn’t messaged or called yet, it might be for a good reason,” Momma B states.
I nod my head and put my phone in the side pocket of the diaper bag to keep myself from looking again.
Luca draws my attention to him as he starts to stir from his nap. He scrunches his face, yawns, and blinks before letting out an ear-piercing wail.
“What’s my boy screaming about?” My heart flutters at the sound of his voice. Glancing up, my heart soars at the sight standing in the doorway.
Stoney is holding Corinne with his arms securely wrapped around her little body.
34
Stoney
Damn if she isn’t the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Even with all the bruises that are fading on her skin. Striding across the room, I don’t take my eyes off her as I watch her grab hold of her crutches to stand.
Rachel is barely out of her seat before I’m standing in front of her.
“Hey, Doll,” I murmur, leaning down to press my forehead to hers.
“Stoney,” she sighs.
Rachel lifts a hand off one of her crutches to touch Corinne. “You're both here.” A sob escapes her, and I know I need to get her alone. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that she doesn’t like to look weak, and it’s happened one to many times in her life already.
“How about I grab Luca and carry these two to the room? You go ahead of me,” I suggest before addressing my brothers. “Tomorrow at noon we’ll have church. Till then, no one fuck with me,” I growl before squatting down to unfasten Luca from his bouncer and pick him up.
As I stand back up, I realize Rachel hasn’t moved. “Come on, Doll,” I sigh, nodding my head for her to go ahead of me. After a moment, Rachel seems to pull out of the trance she’d been in, turns on her crutches, and heads for the room. I let her get a few feet in front of me, appreciating the view of watching her ass. My dick begins to throb behind my zipper, reminding me he hasn’t been inside Rachel’s pussy in over a week now.
Yeah, that’s about to be rectified here soon, that’s for sure, once I know how she’s doing pain-wise. Seeing her now, I realize she didn’t tell me the truth about how much pain she’d been dealing with. From what my brothers had told me, Rachel hadn’t left our room all week, but every time I asked her, she played it down as it not being a big deal. I’m goin’ to have to show her just how much that’s not true. Everything about her is important to me.
Now that I have Corinne back, I’m not about to allow anything else to hurt this woman ever again.
Once the both of us are in our room, I gently place both babies on the bed and move back to the door to close and lock it. I have no intention for either of us to leave this room for the rest of the day. Shit, might not even leave tomorrow. When we’re hungry, I’ll send Neo or Cane out for a pizza or Chinese food.
Turning back to the bed, I watch the way Rachel maneuvers herself to be able to prop her leg
