Priest: A Motorcycle Club Romance (The Viking’s Rampage MC: Tucson Chapter Book 2)
Priest: A Motorcycle Club Romance: Chapter 6

“You look fine.”

Caitlyn glared at me in outraged indignation—in the way only a girl could—and crossed her arms over her chest. She went back to the closet in her room and grabbed a different dress.

“Fine. Put it on, but hurry up or we’re going to be late,” I told her, shaking my head. Amazing how decidedly… female she was. Even though she wasn’t talking yet, between the glares and eye rolls I was in familiar territory, and knew exactly what she was telling me.

It took another twenty minutes to get her out the door. I borrowed one of the cage rides, buckling a booster seat in the back. She was still too small to let her ride loose. I kept extra of all my kids’ stuff here at the clubhouse for when they came to visit, so Caitlyn was all set up with everything she could need. Eventually I would get her her own things, especially clothes. I knew it was important to a kid to not be perpetually borrowing from others. But compared to our other problems, that was further down on the list and she wasn’t complaining. I knew from my other girls that Caitlyn didn’t need to be speaking to protest about something like that.

Getting her situated, I climbed into the front of the pickup and drove across town to the CPS office where Jenny was working. As soon as we stepped into the building I spotted the riotous curls inside an office across the way. I suppressed a smile; much like Jenny’s personality, there was no containing those curls. “Come on, Cait.”

I couldn’t wait for today to be over. Then I’d be able to focus on Jenny at our dinner tonight. She deserved my attention and my explanations. Kit was all set to watch over Caitlyn while I was out on my date.

My eyes were locked on Jenny, my heart giving a heavy thud as I approached. She looked beautiful, sitting there, frowning down at something on her desk. She’d texted me this morning to bring Caitlyn in at nine. I was appreciative that she was making this a priority and getting things done so quickly.

Her head popped up as soon as we got to the door. It didn’t surprise me. One thing I’d learned about Jenny as soon as I met her was that she didn’t sit still well. She was always racing from one thing to the next, and if she was forced to sit her leg would bounce hard enough to shake anything near her.

“Hi.” Her tone was completely detached and professional, beautiful chocolate eyes wary as she looked at me. Irritation threaded through me at her brush off. She softened it then and smiled at Caitlyn. “Hi there, Sweetie.”

Caitlyn gave her a small smile and stepped into the office when I urged her forward. Her small hand was clutching mine in a death grip, but otherwise she didn’t show her fear. I was proud of the way she was handling all this. She was being incredibly courageous.

It was the reason I’d decided to fight for this adoption. I would gladly watch over any orphaned kid in her position. Some of our brothers had kids and would also take an orphan in without hesitation, but I wanted to be the one to care for her. Caitlyn, despite her silence, was a fighter. I’d known it from the moment we rescued her. That much trauma would make most adults go catatonic. Yet here she was, with the loudest silent personality you could imagine. I’d be damned if I let anyone else take her. I’d die before I allowed anyone to harm her. This girl would grow up to shine right alongside my other kids. I was going to make sure of it.

I got her settled before taking the chair next to her. “Morning, Jenny.”

It was impossible to miss the light flush that rose on Jenny’s neck. I purposely lowered my voice a bit. “What do you need from me?”

Her plump lips parted in surprise and I had to fight off the wicked smile that wanted to emerge at her shock. I’d worded it that way on purpose. She thought she was going to give me the cold shoulder and keep her professionalism. She was wrong. I didn’t have her address here in town—though I could get it—and it wasn’t time to take things that far. Especially not since she’d agreed to dinner.

“Can you please fill out this form?” she asked, voice a little breathless. She hitched in a breath when our fingers brushed as I took the paper from her.

This wasn’t necessarily going to be easy, but I was grateful that I could read the interest in her body language. It was a good thing, because she was sure as shit trying to keep me at arm’s length any time her mind cleared enough to realize what I was doing. I’d been surprised she’d agreed to go out with me tonight. Happy about it, but I knew she was fighting the attraction between us.

Jenny spoke quietly with Caitlyn while I filled in the information—or to the girl since she still wouldn’t talk. It didn’t matter how much I assured her she was safe with our family, she wouldn’t speak. The therapist said she would in her own time and I’d have to be patient.

I’d been a sniper in the Army’s Ranger Battalion. If there was one thing I knew, it was waiting patiently until I had the right shot. I once waited three days on a rooftop, covered in linen to hide myself, just to shoot one asshole. In retrospect, that was easy compared to this, but I had the patience. I’d have to utilize that legendary control with both these females. I could handle that.

“You want to live with Priest and the others?”

I glanced over at Jenny’s question and watched as Caitlyn’s head bobbed up and down. Relief was quick and sharp. I didn’t want anything happening to her and I knew my brothers and I could protect her.

There were some who might think it was odd for a single man to want to adopt her, but I knew she’d fit in perfectly with my three girls. Lockout had given me the largest apartment in preparation of what was to come. I didn’t know when I’d have full custody of my children, but I had a feeling it would be soon.

In any other circumstance I’d be fucking thrilled at getting full custody. Right now, for their sake, I would push that off as long as possible.

Regret and sadness filled my chest. Wendy and I had been volatile together. We’d lasted ten years, but they hadn’t always been good. Despite all the arguments and fighting, she’d stood by me deployment after deployment. She had always been faithful, and since the divorce she had asked nothing of me other than this, and I was honoring her wishes now. That was all I could do. Our divorce was the best thing that happened to us—second only to our girls—and we’d managed to co-parent and end up friends somewhere along the way. We’d managed that much for the girls’ sake. I’d put them through enough with the deployments, the least I could do was be friendly with their mother.

I handed the paperwork back to Jenny, letting my eyes roam over her as she read through everything, making sure it was correct. She pulled the other documents I’d filled out yesterday out of the folder as well.

She hadn’t slicked her hair back into a ponytail today and it hung down past the edge of the desk. I loved it like this, all wild and free. The curls weren’t frizzy, but smooth ringlets, there were just so many of them it caused her hair to go everywhere. If I didn’t know better I’d guess it was a perm, but it was natural. Her inky black lashes were lowered as she looked down, contrasting against her silky smooth pale skin. There was a smattering of freckles over the bridge of her nose and they feathered out onto her cheeks.

The urge to strip her bare and see where else she had freckles had a stranglehold on me. I swallowed hard and tried to pull my mind away from what those delicious fucking thighs might look like bared. Or, even better, of what her thick ass would look like in a pair of swimsuit bottoms. The kind that didn’t cover nearly enough cheek. I licked my lips and shifted in my seat so I could subtly adjust my growing dick. This wasn’t the time, place, or company for these thoughts. Didn’t mean I could stop them, though.

“Everything looks like it’s in order,” she said, looking up, then past me. She was speaking a little louder than she had before.

My lips twitched in amusement. The fact that she wasn’t shying away from helping me—helping the club—was amazing, but an actress she was not. I didn’t want her to get in trouble with her work, so I’d play along however I had to. As long as it didn’t include giving her up.

“You have every right to still be pissed at me. Thank you for agreeing to come to dinner tonight.”

Her eyes darted back to mine, then she glanced meaningfully at the little girl next to me.

“She’s going to be living in the clubhouse. She’ll hear a lot worse than that.”

Her lips turned down into a frown and I wanted to wipe it off her face with my lips. Replace it with ecstasy. “That’s going to be the hard part,” she told me, lowering her voice again, and also effectively changing the subject. “Getting my managers to sign off on a single dad—living in an MC clubhouse—adopting her.”

I sat back in my chair, thoughts of our naked bodies rubbing together leaving my head. “Maybe we could grease some palms.”

Her brows pinched together. “God, I hope that wouldn’t work.”

She was so adorably naive. I loved it. I never wanted her to change, but it would work. It always did.

The look on my face must have convinced her because she sighed in disappointment. “Let’s leave that as a last ditch option. I have another plan.”

“What?”

She spun her chair around and away from the desk and plucked a paper off the fax machine sitting on a table behind her. She rolled back forward and handed it to me.

I smiled as I read the contents of the letter. It was from Caitlyn’s Aunt Sharon. It pleaded to allow Caitlyn to live with her dear friend as she was unable to take care of her niece herself. Jenny had contacted Sharon—though I didn’t know when—and after speaking with her convinced her to write this, the devious little vixen.

“Will it work?” I asked her.

She picked up my paperwork again and smiled. “That along with my recommendation?” She looked down at what I’d written and smiled. “You’re damn right it’ll work, Mr. Mitchell. Grant Mitchell,” she said, as though rolling my name around on her tongue.

“How long do you think it’ll take to get custody of her?”

She pursed her lips as she thought about it. “I’ll be honest. It usually takes quite a while, but I’m hoping that with her mother…” she paused and looked over at the little girl who was watching her with solemn eyes and changed course. “I’m hoping that with her Aunt Sharon willing to sign over her rights as Caitlyn’s last living relative—that they know of—we’ll be able to push this through a lot quicker. My bosses are going to want her to be able to settle into your home securely, rather than being kept in limbo. Especially considering her inability to speak. She needs a stable environment and her Aunt knows that is you. That’ll go a long way to smoothing everything out.”

I took a deep breath, glad that we had Jenny on our side. She was already making this process easier and I’d always be grateful to her for that. Reaching over, I squeezed Caitlyn’s little shoulder, comforting her. Her eyes moved over to me and she gave me a brief smile. I focused back on Jenny as she began speaking again.

“It would also help if you had full custody, or at least joint custody of your kids. Perhaps you can have your…ex,” I couldn’t help but note the anger in her voice, not at Wendy, but at me, “also write a letter.”

I hesitated before answering, “I, um, I can work out something like that. I’ll have full custody soon.”

Her head perked up in curiosity. “Really? When? What changed?”

I couldn’t do this now, and especially not in front of Caitlyn. It was just too much. “Something changed. A lot changed. Anyway, you think all this together will work? Caitlyn will get to stay with me?”

“I think you have a really good shot.” She looked down at Caitlyn and all her anger drained away. She looked back at me, smiling hugely before remembering she was angry with me. “I’m going to fight as hard as I can to make this happen, Grant.”

I liked the way she said my name, though I didn’t hear it much anymore. Like most of my brothers, I went solely by my road name since retiring from the Army. I’d gone in young—at eighteen—and worked my way through the ranks until I’d gotten that coveted spot in a Ranger Unit. It’d always been my goal. I’d only retired two years ago at thirty-eight.

Hit my twenty years and called it a day. I’d seen more than enough to last me a lifetime. Spent so much time away from my family that I’d almost lost it. Not my brothers, they’d always be there for me. I’d joined the MC when I hit twenty-five. The Army knew, they just thought we were a band of military men who liked to ride bikes. They had no clue what we did over the years. We’d been together since before we retired—and some of them were medically or honorably discharged—and we stuck together now. Nothing would tear us apart.

It hadn’t been the same for me and Wendy. She’d taken my girls from me and left. It’d taken over a year before I could convince her that we could work together to raise them. Finally, she’d begun letting me see them again. That year without my kids was one of the darkest of my life. I’d never choose to go back to that.

“I’ll still have to play this by the book,” Jenny warned, snapping me back into focus. “I’ll file this with my managers once we get back.”

“Get back?”

“From the home check,” she said in a tone that told me she’d just gone over this while I was zoned out.

“Sure. No problem. Now?”

She sighed. “Yes, Priest. Now.”

We walked outside toward the truck and she tilted her head. “Who’s is that?”

“Belongs to the club.”

She frowned, then shot a look around. “You’re going to need to prove you have reliable transportation that belongs to you. Not the club. And not your bike. Something that you can take Caitlyn back and forth in.”

“No problem.” Buying my own truck was a waste with the cage rides always available at the clubhouse, but it was a small price to pay to secure Caitlyn’s safety. I could probably get Lockout to sign over the title of one of the trucks or SUVs to me. “You may as well ride with us,” I told her, putting a hand on her shoulder to stop her from going to her car.

“You’d have to bring me back. That makes no sense-”

“Ride with us. You can talk more with Caitlyn.” Caitlyn, picking up on my vibe, reached out a hand and grabbed Jenny’s, then proceeded to give her the doe eyes. I owed that little girl for that alone. Giving her a wink, then letting my face smooth out into an innocent expression when Jenny stared at me suspiciously, I fought not to laugh. I knew bringing Caitlyn into it would get her. I wasn’t above using my daughter—I already thought of Caitlyn as mine, we just had to make it through the formalities—to convince this woman to spend time with me.

“Fine,” she said with a glower at me, then a sweet smile for the little girl holding her hand.

She stepped aside as I settled Caitlyn into the booster seat. She scribbled something down on her clipboard.

“Seriously, Jenny?”

“I told you. I have to do this by the book. Anything you do right, I’m noting it. If there’s something wrong I’ll have you fix it,” she told me. She waited until I shut the door so our voices would be muffled. Still she lowered hers before continuing. “I have eyes, Priest. That little girl is already in love with you. More importantly, she feels safe with you. That is why I agreed to help the MC so quickly. If it wasn’t the best thing for her, I wouldn’t be doing this, no matter how nicely you asked.”

“Lucky for me it is then.”

“Lucky for you,” she echoed, tapping her pen against my chest.

I grinned and opened the door for her. I’d dressed the part today, was wearing a pair of slacks and a button down shirt with a collar. Felt like a prison. I longed for my jeans and cut. Soon enough I’d be back to being me and I’d be hard at work pursuing the woman climbing into my truck. Once we got this inspection out of the way, she was all mine.