School and Rock (Raptors Book 5)
no life for a child. Let me take her somewhere safe, I’ll look after her, help find her good foster parents.”“What?” Colorado sounded confused, and next to him Simon smirked. Why the hell was the muscle smirking?
I forged ahead. “You chose gang life with drugs and guns and god knows what, but your daughter could be free of the Craptors, and live a long happy life.” I took another step away, and this time Simon’s smirk was a full-on grin and he even stepped aside to let me pass while gripping Colorado’s arm and keeping him still.
“Simon, what the he—stop him from leaving.”
“He’s right, Col,” Simon deadpanned. “The gang life isn’t for a sweet, innocent baby.”
I walked backward away from the two men, and then in a move that I wouldn’t forget for the rest of my life, Colorado escaped Simon’s grip, vaulted the sofa, did this spin thing in midair, and landed between me and the door like a goddamn superhero, complete with fist on the floor.
I squeaked, or yelped, and at my throat Madeline let out a mewl of dissatisfaction as I tightened my hold.
“Let her go,” he demanded and rose to his full height, which was a good six inches over me, all muscles and fierce intent.
“Let me take her,” I pleaded.
Simon slid to the floor laughing so hard that he couldn’t breathe, and I was on the edge of running from the house, babe in arms, screaming.
Colorado held up a hand. “Dude, my name is Colorado Penn, I’m the freaking starting goalie for the Arizona Raptors hockey team. I’m sure my friend Buick was drunk, but the white stuff was from the thirty sugar donuts he ate. There are no drugs in my house now, so give me back my baby.”
Five
Colorado
Generally, the temper I’d inherited from my daddy would’ve flared up right about now.
We Penns had trouble with people walking over us like we were doormats. That feistiness, as Alchemy liked to call it, could run in two streams. Stream number one was a gentle little babbling brook that carried upset, cares, and irritation away like a fall leaf that just happened to tumble into said brook. Stream two was a flood-swollen river of anger that led to broken trees and bloody noses. Thanks to my grandmother, I recognized those divergent waterways and could, when given time to center, be the leaf. Today, thanks to a call from Alchemy saying she was in Ohio and would arrive within the week if the tires on her VW van held up, I was feeling like the babbling brook.
Also, it didn’t hurt that the manny was cute as shit in a totally nerdy Bill Nye sort of way. I mean, come on, the guy was in frumpy cargo shorts and a tee with a big image of Marvin the Martian. I was ignoring Simon, the newly hired security man that the Raptors had crammed into my personal space like an enema.
“Manny Dude,” I began with after I took a long cleansing breath.
“Joseph, my name is Joseph.”
“That is a righteous name. So, Manny Joe, I assure you the only gangs around here are the Lollipop Guild that are singing to Dorothy out on the big screen.” I hooked a thumb at the living room area then gave him my best smile. It seemed to have little effect on him as it did most of the other human beings I shared it with. “I know it looks harsh in here, and that’s because the cleaning service is late, but nothing or nobody here is going harm my baby, including me or my band mates.” At that I flung a glare at Simon who was slowly gathering his enormous self.
Joe glanced at me then Simon then me again, his grip on my daughter gentle but protective. Fiercely so. Which made me feel that this man was a good choice to help with Madeline when I was gone. I wanted someone who would throw themselves in front of a bus to keep her safe. Just as I would.
“What kind of mad house is this, exactly?” Joe asked as he gently passed my girl back to me.
Could have been I’d broken through his concern. Or it could’ve been that Simon the human Sequoia had walked up behind me.
“It’s a home in transition,” I explained as I placed my baby into the infant sling that seemed to be part of my permanent wardrobe now. Joe’s eyebrows rose. “Yeah, I know, it looks like a fun house but I swear things are not as they seem. Come on in, have a seat. Let’s do this over.”
I padded bare-footed into the music room, one of my favorite places in this mausoleum of a mansion I’d bought with all that Raptor cash. The recording studio in the basement was another fun place to hang, second only to the music room and my bedroom, but my knowledge of how to mix records was minimal.
I heard Joe’s creaky leather sandals a moment later.
“Have a seat,” I waved at one of several couches spaced around the band’s practice instruments and a baby grand. I threw a leg over the piano bench and got situated. Maddie whined and whimpered, her cheeks still red from her earlier screaming spell. “Sometimes when she’s wound like that she digs music. Which really proves that she’s mine.” I laid my fingers to the keyboard and began playing a lullaby. Her fidgeting slowed, her arms and legs relaxing. I pressed a kiss to her fuzzy head. “I discovered this a few nights ago when she was raging. Like, nothing I did eased her. Bottle, clean diaper, nothing. So we walked. Ended up in here and I figured why not? Music soothes the savage beast so it should soothe an irate baby.”
Joe didn’t sit down. He circled the black Steinway like a worried mama bear. “You’re not at all what I expected,” he confessed as he ran a hand over the top of the piano.
“Yeah, of