Moving around them I slip around them to check on Parker. Seeing her slide to the ground and pass out is enough cause for alarm in my book. Considering everything she’s been through today. A wreck, being kidnapped, and from the looks of it, she’s been beaten to a bloody pulp.
“Turn around, Chigger, and face me,” Cane orders.
Reaching down to Parker, I notice right away she’s not looking good and needs help asap. “Cane, brother, we need to get your ol’ lady to a hospital,” I mutter, getting my brother’s attention.
“I know,” he grumbles, his eyes still locked on Chigger.
“No, brother, we need to get her there now,” I declare, needing him to understand the urgency in my voice.
“Take care of Chigger, Cane. Venom and I will get her to the hospital. You join us after you finish here,” Raven says, the woman appears out of thin air. Swear to fuck the woman is the same as the fuckin’ bird she’s named after. “Finish this for her. She needs to know she has nothing to fear and the only person who can do that is you, I’ll stay with her until you get there.”
I lift Parker into my arms and stand to my feet. The woman is light as a feather, needing to put on some weight. “I’ll be there as soon as we’re done here. Watch her,” Cane says, meeting my gaze.
“I’ve got her, brother. She’ll be okay.” I nod and follow Raven out.
The two of us head for a car out the front. Nothing about this whole scenario tonight sits well with me. I only hope what’s heading our way is something we can handle, and it doesn’t cause us to lose anyone else.
Chapter One
Amaya
“Tell me why I’m doing this again?” I mutter to myself as I look down at the little one lying on my bed sound asleep.
Lincoln, he’s the reason why I’m packing up my entire life. I never expected to be a parent. Or I hadn’t planned on it considering everything, but I’ll do anything for him. The little boy looks so much like his father with his dark hair and beautiful hazel-colored eyes. Shoot, he even carries himself at three the same way his father used to.
It’s these reasons, along with the fact he’s his father’s spitting image, that I love him so much and would do anything to protect him. I might not be his mother but the day I walked in on my best friend, well ex-best friend, Emilia, his mother, trying to drown her son in the bathtub, I took him. He became mine. Or at least he is until I get him to where he belongs.
See, I refused to stand by and allow her to do something horrific to such a precious little boy. She claimed he wouldn’t stop crying and she couldn’t get him to stop and then he’d puked on her. No parent in their right mind does that.
Refusing to listen to all of her excuses, I’d held Lincoln in my arms and threatened to call the police on her. Emilia begged me not to and said she’d do anything. She didn’t want to give up her son. But I demanded that she sign her rights over to me.
That had been five months ago. Being a parent scares the crap out of me, I didn’t have the best role models growing up. It was always Emilia and me. Now it’s only Lincoln and me facing the unknown together.
Two months into being Lincoln’s guardian, Emilia came over to the house drunk off her ass crying about who she’d called Isaac, wanting to make things right. This confused me. For the longest time she’d been upset he’d left her and all of a sudden, she is calling his number seems strange to me. Not that I knew he had the same number. He and I never spoke to each other.
Emilia begged me that night to give her Lincoln back. She claimed to want to do better to be a good mother to him. I’d told her to go sober up and we’d discuss it the next day. She never showed. And in the past three months, I haven’t seen her or heard from her.
Guess she didn’t want him as much as she claimed.
Then yesterday, out of the blue, I received a call from her asking to see Lincoln. I’d been apprehensive about it but I wanted to make sure she was okay. So I told her to meet us at a local Mexican restaurant. When she showed, she didn’t look to be herself and she kept begging to hold Lincoln and in the state she’d been in, I didn’t trust her. Her gaze flashed and she leaned forward and snapped at me, “You can’t keep the one thing from me that connects me to the man who I love.”
I didn’t know what to do at the time but I knew now what I needed to do. Lincoln needed his dad and I couldn’t wait any longer. It was time to move.
Sighing, I pull out more of his clothes and put them in the duffel bag. We need to get out of here and as much as I’d love to keep Lincoln to myself, I really need to find Isaac. He has a right to know about Lincoln. I never thought it fair Emilia kept this little boy a secret. Then again, I can believe it. She’d been furious with Isaac for leaving her.
Four Years Ago
I’m standing to the side of the room, listening to the two of them argue. They’d been doing this a lot lately. I want to side with my best friend, I really do, but Isaac’s right. Emilia is getting out of hand with her wild child antics.
