Page 79 of Beyond the Cut
Maia frowned. “Why? Are you poisonous?”
“Not that I know.”
She stood up on tiptoe and poked his chest. Cade froze. What the hell was he supposed to do now? He lunged forward and the girls shrieked and ran away.
“Hey, Cade. You’re losing your touch,” Tank yelled. “Girls are supposed to run toward you.”
“Fuck off.” He pulled on his shirt and cut and grabbed a polishing cloth. Dawn was due home any moment and he’d already run out of things to do. They’d watched TV, played a video game, and eaten the box of donuts he’d brought with him. But when they asked him to play princesses, he took them out to help him with his bike instead. Bike polishing had seemed a safe and useful activity. Now he wished he’d put on that princess crown.
“Can we sit on your bike?” Maia rested her little hand on his seat.
Cade shook his head. “Only a biker sits in his saddle. His old lady rides in the pillion seat.”
“Is Mom your old lady?”
Unable to resist her pleading look, he lifted her onto the pillion seat while he scrambled for an answer to her question. She was so small and light he was almost afraid he would crush her with his big hands. “You’ll have to ask her.”
“She is,” Maia settled on the seat. “We saw her leather vest. It saysPROPERTY OF CADE. That means she belongs to you.”
“I guess that’s right.” He lifted her off and held out his hands for Tia, but she shook her head and backed away.
“So if Mom belongs to you, we belong to you.” Wise beyond her years, Maia continued with the awkward conversation despite Cade’s less-than-forthcoming answers.
“It’s not really like…”
“So you have to protect us.” She cut him off. “You have to look after Mom and us because that’s what you do when someone is yours.”
Cade dropped to a crouch in front of the two little girls. “I’ll protect you and your mom. If something bad happens and you need me, I’ll be there.”
“Even from Jimmy?”
“Even from Jimmy.”
Maia cocked her head to the side. “Promise.”
“You have my word,” Cade said. “A biker’s word is his bond. That means you can count on it.”
She smiled, the same devastating smile as Dawn. “Then I won’t tell Mom you swore at Tank and T-Rex.”
“Thanks.”
“Since we’re yours, can we have our own bikes so we can ride with you?”
Cade closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He so knew what was coming.
“No. Even if you were old enough to ride, I wouldn’t let you have a bike.” He polished the chrome until it gleamed in the sunlight.
“Why?”
“Because they’re dangerous and I promised to protect you.” He braced himself to be called out on his hypocrisy but she just kept going.
“What about a leather vest? I want one that saysPROPERTY OF TREVOR.”
He squirted more polish on his cloth. “Who’s Trevor?”
“My boyfriend. He pulls my hair in class and chases me around the playground at lunch.”
Cade put down the bottle of polish, his brow creasing in a frown. “Does he live nearby?”
