Forever Zara: (novella 9.5) by V. Theia (ebook reader txt) 📕

meds, then let her fall back to sleep. Then gave his mom a call about babysitting. Afterward, he got food into his rambunctious kids. He wasn’t a novice dad. Rider did his share, Zara did the bulk of it, but he never shirked from diapers or snot noses. He’d witnessed Harper in more than one meltdown over something damn stupid. She was smart, was his girl. So when he watched her poking at the waffles on her plate, he smiled to himself. “Eat it, doodle-bug, don’t play with it.”

“Mama does yello.”

“What jello do you want?”

“Gwape.”

“Grape what?”

She smiled so big with the few teeth she had. “Gwape, please, Papa.”

Spreading the waffle with the jello of choice, he made sure Knox was eating his food and not smearing it on his face before he parked his ass down with Zane on his lap and popped a bottle of breast milk into Zane’s mouth. The kid had an appetite like Rider, and it was empty in moments. His second son burped like him and was napping with a fresh diaper before Annie turned up.

When it was Rider’s turn to shower, after getting Harper ready for the day, he leaned over the bed to check on a sleeping Zara. She came awake when his lips brushed hers, and she wound her arms around his neck. “Hm. Why don’t you climb back in?” She was like a snake wiggling against him, and it stirred his body. Naturally.

“Being sick gets you horny.” He chuckled, getting more meds into her. She was worse than Harper who hated taking medicine. He almost had to pinch her nose.

“I’ll show you how much if you pull down your pants.”

Rider barked out a laugh and kissed her softly again, drawing up the comforter to the chin. “Get some rest, and we’ll see how horny you are tonight.”

Her sleepy eyes were already closing. “Yeah, honey. Love you.”

“Love you too, stay in this bed, you hear? Mom is taking Harper and Zane home. Knox is coming with me. If you want anything, just call me.”

He was a bad man because he was dying to climb back into bed with her and screw the sickness away. He gave her another kiss and let his woman sleep, then ambled down the stairs, got the kids’ stuff ready, and helped them into his mom’s car. Leaving him and Knox alone.

“Never too early to learn how to be a Prez, huh, Son?” His son babbled, chewing on his toy. Rider smiled, kissing his head. “Let’s get to the club.” He took his son’s gibbering for agreement.

* * *

“No fucking way.”

Another brother chimed in. “Maybe Zara was mistaken, Prez.”

“Maybe so, but I ain’t gonna let my old lady be scared out of her fuckin’ mind. She saw what she saw, and now I need to know if some fucker has reincarnated the assholes.” Rider thought someone must have shoved a firecracker into his ribs for all the heat, temper, and anger he was feeling. It wasn’t as though his boys disbelieved her word, but he wouldn’t trust them as he did if they didn’t question every angle first.

He still wasn’t sure if Zara saw what she did, but now he needed to be sure that she didn’t.

“Grinder, can you put some feelers out?”

“Sure, Prez. We going widespread with it, or local?”

“The guy was in Denver, but go further afield to make sure. I’m gonna reach out to Jamie Steele and see if he’s heard anything about the Rebels reanimating.”

“What a fucking thought.” Added Preacher, stroking his long, pointed beard, “not like they had a good rep even when Hades was around. People gotta be cracked in the head to think that’s a good idea.”

They’d known a lot of cracked in the head people, so he wasn’t ruling it out.

“Prez,” called out Reaper from the other end of the table, all eyes turned toward the ghost, “what happens if the Rebels are resurrected? New leader, recruits, nothing to do with Hades.”

“Far as I’m concerned, the sins of the father will follow generation after generation. Don’t care if they don’t know Hades personally. If they have a fangirl hard-on to follow in his footsteps, but they toe the line, they’re guilty by association.”

There were a few grumbles of agreement around the table.

Rider locked eyes with an ashen-faced Snake.

They’d never spoken directly about the Rebels raid years ago, but Rider heard second-hand from Lawless how affected Snake had been by the killings.

Whatever Rider did, it wouldn’t fall on his brother’s shoulders, not this time.

He spoke up. “I’ll deal with whatever we find. Not gonna let some wannabes walk around scaring my old lady, not happening again.”

“They’ve slipped under our radar if there is a new chapter emerging,” said Tag. “But you got back up here, Prez.”

He was grateful, but this was his to deal with. He hadn’t been able to kill Hades, wasn’t gonna let his woman suffer from anxiety over this.

Being the prez meant he was the one who made the shitty decisions. He’d ask nothing of his boys he wasn’t willing to do himself.

He called the meeting to a close and went to collect his boy from Winter, who was watching him while he held church. He found his son throwing out the snores on her lap.

On cue, Knox came awake when he was in Rider’s arms. He might only be two, but he was a nosy kid hanging over Rider’s shoulder collecting tiny fist-bumps from everyone. His boy erupted into laughter like he thought it was the best shit ever.

“You ready to eat again, kiddo?”

“Yeahhhhh, Papa, nuggo’s,” Knox said enthusiastically, grabbing handfuls of Rider’s hair.

He could have asked one of the hangarounds to knock up a plate of food for Knox, but he was gonna kill two birds with