“No, she doesn’t,” Nova dismissed. “I think she was just surprised. And then Aunt Kelli started getting hysterical—which, by the way, never happens—and things became a little clearer.”
Her answer only confused me more. “Who is Kelli?”
“You know, the crying crazy woman Aunt Raven was holding back. Trust me, if Aunt Raven didn’t already like you, she wouldn’t have gotten in the way of that hurricane.”
Someone in a dark suit placed two glasses of something fizzy in front of us, but before I could get a look at their face or even tell them “thank you,” they were gone. Nova picked up her drink and took a sip, and I did the same. The lemon-lime soda felt good on my throat, and I took another thirsty swallow before putting the glass back on the table. Moments later, another guy in a suit placed two plates in front of us.
I blinked down at the food then up at the guy who moved to stand only a few feet behind Nova, as if he were guarding her or something. It was weird, but she didn’t even seem to notice the other guy. Picking up one of the little sandwiches on her plate, she offered it to Ryan, who only gave her a hard look.
She pouted up at him, and he rolled his eyes before taking the sandwich from her and eating it in two bites.
But as adorable as the two of them were, my gaze kept going back to the guy in the suit. The way he was dressed, the stoic, completely emotionless look on his face, even the slight bulge of his jacket that suggested he was carrying a gun, reminded me of the men I’d seen all too often from my bedroom window back at my aunt’s house.
Maybe I shouldn’t have decided to trust Nova’s Ryan so quickly after all.
15
Max
As soon as we walked through the door of Hannigans’, every male eye in the room turned to look at my treasure, and I was ready to go to war with each and every one of the motherfuckers. Ninety percent of them were my MC brothers, but I didn’t give a damn. I’d take them all on, put a bullet in each man’s head if they even thought about taking Delaney away from me.
I was still gritting my teeth over it when I introduced Delaney to Mom.
The willowy, beautiful blonde who was my mother just stood there, not even blinking as I told her that Delaney was mine. I could see her mind working, taking in how I was standing beside my girl, holding her hand, trying to pull Delaney into me so that I could hide her from the assholes who were already drooling over the gorgeous creature at my side.
I wasn’t sure if Mom was stunned by the fact that I cared about a girl enough to want to introduce the two of them, or if she just couldn’t understand how such an innocent, amazing little angel could exist in this fucked-up world. But the longer she just stood there, the more tension I could feel coming off Delaney, and it was pissing me off.
Just as I was about to call Mom out on it, she had turned and put her hands up, stopping Aunt Kelli as she demanded I get away from Delaney.
“What the fuck are you doing with her?” she’d yelled, her eyes shooting sparks at me. “Get your blood-covered hands off her!”
“Kelli, cool it,” Mom had told her, keeping her voice low and calm. “Just be thankful that we’ve found her.”
What Mom said didn’t make sense, but all I could think was that Kelli was trying to take Delaney away from me. I pulled my treasure closer, needing to feel her against me so I didn’t lose my fucking mind.
“Let her go!” Kelli yelled. “Give her to me!”
“She’s not a fucking doll for me to hand over!” I roared back.
“She’s not one of your little playthings either!” she screamed. “We’ve all seen you with your little whores. I’ll be damned if I let you treat my niece like you do them.”
Delaney pressed her face into my chest, and I was thankful she couldn’t see what the other woman was saying. If Kelli did anything to make my girl think she didn’t own me completely, I was going to rip this place apart.
“You think I would introduce any of those idiots to my mom?” I tossed back at her. “Delaney is—” I stopped, my hold on Delaney tightening even more. “Wait. What did you just say?”
Niece?
Delaney was her niece?
“If she’s your niece, then why the fuck haven’t you been taking care of her?” I bellowed, making half the people in the room flinch as I took a step in Kelli’s direction, their gazes ping-ponging between the four of us. Lucky for Kelli, Mom was between us, and I was no longer sure if she was trying to protect Delaney from Kelli, or Kelli from me.
River ran up to her mom, trying to urge her to back away. “Mom, calm down. This isn’t getting anyone anywhere. Look. You’re scaring Delaney. That’s not what we want.” The tears in her eyes gave me a moment of pause. I loved my younger cousin, and her tears hurt me just as much as it would if it were Lexa fighting not to cry.
“I couldn’t take care of her,” Kelli answered me, ignoring River’s plea. “Because I didn’t even know about her until a few months ago. Her social worker contacted me, but by then, she’d run away from that fucker Tony Garcia. I’ve been looking for her ever since.”
I heard her words, but they made zero impact on my anger. “Not good enough! Your attempts to find her are pathetic because she’s been here for weeks. She was out there, lost and alone. Dirty. Cold. Hungry.” The word felt like it was torn from my
