We still had dinner to get through, though. I had mixed feelings about that. I’d asked Natalie to get the guys together for a meal somewhere low key so I could break the news to them all myself. Since Wroth and Marissa were getting ready to go back to Tennessee, I knew I had to do it now or I’d have to wait. I was excited to get to introduce my daughter to them, but anxious about their reactions to the news. Honestly, I wanted them to jump on me and kick my ass. I wanted them to be pissed at me and give me the beating that I deserved for missing out on so much of my kid’s life. Not to mention how much I’d put Annabelle through over the years.
Traffic was hell and Mieke and I arrived at the restaurant in West Hollywood fifteen minutes late. I turned my car over to the valet and put my hand at the small of Mieke’s tiny waist as I guided her into the little Italian restaurant. The hostess was busy, but I didn’t need her assistance to get us to the table Natalie had reserved for our group. I could see Wroth’s wide shoulders and Devlin’s dark head from the entrance and steered my daughter in their direction.
We had a back table well away from most of the other diners. Axton, Liam, and Devlin spotted me at the same time and grinned at me like the idiots they were until they saw the girl at my side. Natalie must have already told Dev about Mieke because he shot me a supportive grin. Wroth, Axton and Liam shot me killer glares and I quickly lifted my hands.
“She’s not jailbait,” I rushed to assure them. For fuck’s sake, why would they think that right off the bat? I was the least likely out of all five of us to go after the younger chicks. I rarely whored around like these fuckers had in the past. Now that they were all in stable relationships, they were ready to start judging me? Fuck that shit.
“Bullshit,” Wroth growled in his scary-ass voice. “How old are you, girl?”
Mieke didn’t back away from the giant who looked like he could swallow her whole in one bite. “Sixteen, sir.” She was polite, but her voice was cool, as if she were sizing the beast up and wasn’t sure if she liked what she saw. Yet.
“Motherfucker,” Liam grunted. “What the hell are you doing, Z?”
Didn’t they see the resemblance? It had taken me two seconds after seeing Annabelle to realize that Mieke was mine. I opened my mouth, ready to explain everything, but suddenly my throat was too tight to get out so much as a squeak. It was time to admit to them just how much I’d fucked up, but no words could squeeze through my tight throat. Glancing down at Mieke, I grimaced and hugged her to my side, loving her so damn much that my heart squeezed just getting to hold her like that. I held on to her for a long moment before turning back to my bandmates.
“This is Mieke,” I rasped out. “Mieke is my daughter. Mine…and Annabelle’s.”
Three out of four mouths dropped open at the same time as three pairs of eyes widened and looked at my daughter with a new appreciation. I looked down at Mieke, trying to determine her reaction to all these rockers looking at her like she was an alien with three heads. She was smiling a little shyly and there was a little pink in her cheeks, but her green and gold eyes were bright with excitement. I hugged her closer and brushed a kiss over the top of her head.
“Annabelle didn’t tell you about your own kid for sixteen years?” Axton was the first to speak and there was pure contempt in his voice. My spine went straight as I glared down at the man, but before I could even open my mouth to defend Annabelle, he continued. “How could she do that to you, man? That’s so fucked up.”
“Yeah, why would she keep something that important from you?” Wroth demanded. “Fuck, man. I’ve been in Tennessee more often than not over the years. All she had to do was tell me and I would have told you.”
I was so pissed I couldn’t find my voice for a second. How could these fuckers talk about Annabelle like that? Didn’t they remember her at all? That they were talking about her like that—and in front of my kid—had rage bubbling in my veins.
“I can’t believe this,” Liam muttered. “How could she do this? That bitch.”
I felt Mieke stiffen against me, her anger as strong as my own. Out of all the reactions I’d imagined getting from these four men, this was not one of them. I never in my wildest dreams would have figured they would put the blame on Annabelle’s shoulders. This wasn’t her fault. She’d tried to contact me repeatedly and I’d turned my back on her every damn time.
“Don’t call my mom that,” Mieke snapped at Liam, turning the full force of her glare on the bassist. “You know nothing about her or what she’s been through over the years. How dare you point the finger at her and make her out to be some wicked witch.” She pulled away from me, her gaze full of all the contempt that had been filling three out of the four men’s eyes. “And even if she were, you of all people don’t have any room to judge. How many rehabs have you been in, Mr. High and Mighty Rock Star? How close have you come to killing yourself over the years, chasing after the next big high? Oh yeah, I know all about you. All of you. So tell me, Liam Bryant, which is the bigger evil of the two of you? Huh?”
Liam’s blue eyes darkened, but his mouth snapped shut and he lowered his gaze to the table, a muscle in his jaw twitching as he clenched his teeth together.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Mieke turned her gaze to Axton next. “You don’t know my mother, you never did. So don’t pretend that you do.” She looked at Wroth next, now completely ignoring Axton, letting the rock god know that he wasn’t worth her time.
If you want the God’s honest truth, I’d tell you that Wroth scared the ever-loving hell out of me. My daughter, however, had bigger balls than any man I knew because she turned her venomous glare on that huge hulk of a beast without so much as flinching. “And you. You think it would have been so easy for her to go down to West Bridge? Show up at your farm with a kid on her hip and ask you to pretty please tell Zander Brockman he was a daddy? She wanted him to know, not you or any other jerk-off. Him. My dad. So shut your mouth about my mom, you dick.”
Wroth’s mouth slowly closed and he blinked at Mieke several times without speaking. She rolled her eyes at him, obviously fed up with him and the rest of my bandmates. “What, nothing to say, big man? No big and bad comeback?” Her glare turned even icier. “Yeah, I thought so. You know what? Fuck you all. My mother is one hell of a woman and I’m not going to breathe the same air as anyone who is going to talk shit about her.” She lifted her head, pride rolling off her just as strongly as her anger. She flipped them off with both hands and turned to walk away, not even gracing them with a backward glance.
I waited until she was several feet away before turning my own glare on the three men who had just put down Annabelle. Over the years we’d had our ups and downs. We were closer now than we’d ever been, but we’d never be like the brothers Demon’s Wings had always been to each other. For me, this just pushed us back to before we’d cleared the air and tried to become a family instead of just bandmates. I couldn’t put up with these fuckers talking about Annabelle like that. If they said so much as another word about her, I’d gut them. Even Wroth.
“Do you guys not remember anything from all those years ago? I was so fucked-up all the time I couldn’t have taken care of Annabelle and a kid. Annabelle tried to tell me, but I was too stupid and hurting too much to listen to her. We all know that if I’d so much as heard her voice I’d have been back in Tennessee and said to hell with OtherWorld. So I stayed as far away from anything that even resembled a connection to her or Noah.” I raked my hands through my hair, trying to grab hold of my control but quickly losing hold. “I’ll admit it. I was a fucking pussy. I wanted this world and her, but didn’t think I could have them both. Didn’t think that I deserved them both. I’m the one at fault here. I’m the one to blame for missing out on watching my baby girl grow up. You know nothing about what Annabelle went through, or how much she needed me to be there with her, and I wouldn’t even pick up a fucking phone. So don’t go sprouting your shit to anyone else. I won’t have Annabelle’s name dragged through the mud while you and the press make me out to be the victim. I’m not. I was a goddamn pussy.”