Page 64 of Property of Fang
“They upsetting you?”
“No.” Her eyes drift closed. “When are you going to sleep, Daddy?”
“Not for a while yet.” Her dark waves sit messily over her face. I risk disturbing her and sweep the strands from across her nose and cheek away with a finger. “Don’t you worry about me, though. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
“Uh-hmm.”
She’s so small, lost in the vast emptiness of my bed. Her fragility spears me in the heart.Thisis why I pushed back against having her here until now. This right here.
“Night, baby.” I slowly rise and retreat from the room, softly closing the door behind me.
Highway leans against the doorframe for the front parlor, phone in his hand.
“All good?”
He glances up from the device. “Yeah. Just keeping an eye on this lot.” He nods toward the remaining females.
The Kid sits curled in Darko’s usual armchair, tucked in the corner, his iPad on her lap. Darla and Jenna sit opposite one another on the floor, the coffee table between them, with a rudimentary draughts board set up.
It has to fuck with their heads having nothing to do. Nowhere to go.
No reason to leave.
“You seen Chaos?”
Highway jerks his chin. “You just missed him. Caught sight of him crossing over to Vanessa’s a few minutes ago.”
“Damn it.” I drag a hand over my face. “Wish I could just fucking leave when I’d had enough.”
“Eh. Take it easy on him,” Highway jests. “You’d need to blow off steam, too, if you had to deal with Selena’s hissy-fits.”
“True.” The guy never gets a break. If it’s not us giving him a hard time, it’s his baby sister. “Thanks.” I head for the kitchen, figuring a quick cup of coffee is the best I can do when all I really want is a goddamn cigarette and a quiet moment on the back step.
Laughter spills down the hall, a weird juxtaposition to the gravity of our current situation. One of our prospects, Goblin, helps Jezabel prep tomorrow’s breakfast, baking utensils and flour scattered on every surface around them.
“I’m not interrupting anything?” I direct the question at both of them, yet stare down the kid as I walk behind the duo to get to the stools at the counter.
“Not at all,” Jezabel answers. “I roped him into cutting dough for me.”
As a prospect, he doesn’t get the privileges of her special attention until he’s patched in. We’ve had hangarounds and prospects alike try their luck in the past only to find themselves swiftly out the gate, freshly stripped of their rocker.
“Thanks for settling Molly.” I lean over the counter and snag one of the cut rolls Goblin has lined up. “Appreciate it.”
“She’s no bother,” Jezabel assures me. “Having another girl around makes a change from the overload of testosterone that flows through this place.”
“You haven’t complained before,” I tease whilst ripping off a hunk of warm dough to pop in my mouth.
“Not much point,” she ribs right back, eyeing my choice of snack. “You’ll give yourself a guts-ache eating that.”
“Naw.” The savory goodness of onion and herbs hits my taste buds. “Hasn’t yet.” I’ve snagged raw dough since I was a kid, too impatient to wait for it to cook.
“Dolly wants to put in a grocery order tomorrow.” Jezabel retrieves paper to line an oven tray, kicking the drawer shut with her heel. “Any idea how long we’ll have the extra mouths to feed?”
I feel Goblin’s eyes on me as I answer. “Nope.”
“Not even a hint.” She abandons prepping the tray to turn and look my way.
“If I knew, it’d make my life a lot easier, too. You might want to take that one to Chaos.”
