Then, after taking out his wallet, throwing some bills on the bar, and clapping Joker on the shoulder, Tack strode out.

Joker watched him go.

Then he finished his beer.

He ordered another one.

Well, kiss my ass, dickhead. Over a year and this is the first time you come to see me?

God took my boy. Then He gave me you.

You need me back, that’s where I’ll be.

These thoughts in his head, Joker took his time over his second beer.

When he was done, he put the empty bottle on the bar, went out to his bike, home to the Compound, and right into a clean room.

With mostly clean sheets.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Feeling Lucky

Carissa

“I THINK HE likes you,” I said to Big Petey through a smile.

Though, with the way Travis, who Big Petey was holding, was trying to gobble up Pete’s nose, I would say it was more like love at first sight.

It was Tuesday, late morning, and I was standing at the bar in the Chaos Compound next to Big Petey, who was on a stool and had just taken hold of my son.

“Ooo, he’s so cute. I remember the days when they were all warm, squiggly, bundles of goodness,” Tyra, standing behind the bar, cooed.

Pete avoided having his nose amputated by baby teeth and gums and did this slanting his head and blowing a loud raspberry on Travis’s chubby cheek, making my baby giggle and squirm more, which made me smile bigger.

Once he did this, Pete turned to Tyra and ordered, “Don’t get any ideas, woman. Your man is already saving up, not for future college tuition, for future bail money. He don’t need no more headaches in the form of hooligans.”

I looked to the two dark-headed boys currently wrestling around on the floor of the Compound, grunting and giving it their all, something Tyra was ignoring, so I guessed it was normal, and thought Pete was not wrong.

“Tack would give me ten more kids if I wanted them,” Tyra returned.

“Definition of crazy in love,” Pete muttered, turned his attention back to Travis and advised gravely, “Learn early, little man, find an ugly woman so she’ll bend over backward to do your bidding, not a pretty one you’ll break your back to do hers.”

“Pete!” Tyra snapped.

He looked again to her. “What?”

Tyra glared.

I kept out of it but only because Travis had yet to learn how to understand English.

Fortunately for Big Petey (or maybe Tyra), at that moment, a loud crash sounded in the room and I looked to see that Rider and Cutter had knocked over a chair.

But they were still wrestling.

I looked at Tyra. “Uh… is this normal?”

She stopped glaring at Big Petey and looked to me. “I’m an only child, but Tack has a brother he hasn’t spoken to in years.”

That didn’t answer my question, but she wasn’t done.