Ryker by Jeneveir Evans

Chapter 4

I really, deeply believe that dreams do come true. Often, they might not come when you want them. They come in their own time.

~Diana Ross~

Viper

September 20th, 1999

I’d had a feeling Cami wouldn’t want to keep her baby. It was totally understandable, she was just a kid herself. I also knew the one woman on the compound who would welcome the baby with open arms. Of that I had no doubt in my mind. Like Dog, I didn’t want to lose her. She seamlessly ran the club girls and the Clubhouse. The MC needed her and it would hurt us if she left.

I’d immediately started thinking of ways of making everything work. Clair enjoyed being a club girl and the house mom. I knew she wouldn’t want to give that up. Yet in our hands we had the power of making her dream of having a child of her own come true.

Now to see if my idea was something that could bridge the gap I knew would come up in the conversation Dog and I were about to have.

~*~

Mad Dog

Hell, I wish I was as certain as Viper was about how this was all going to play out. He didn’t think it would be a problem. I wasn’t so sure of that. We were about to offer the woman something she has wanted her entire adult life. A child. I wasn’t sure how the club would measure up to that. Was it enough to keep her here? Was there some way we could make this work so she could have both?

I knew Viper had something in mind and if I wasn’t so fucking worried that she might leave if she decided she wanted the baby, I’m sure I could figure that shit out. Yet my damn gut was tied in knots thinking about the possibility of her leaving and having to tell all the men she was moving.

If I’d been paying attention, I’d have seen Vip tilt his head as he heard her come down the hall, as it was, I didn’t notice her until she was in the doorway.

“Dog, y’all ready for me?”

“Yeah, Clair, c’mon in, shut the door and pull up a seat.”

She looked at me puzzled. She didn’t have a fucking clue about the bomb I was about to drop on her. She had her pad and pen in her hand. She thought that I wanted her to plan something. I sighed. I wished that was all I was about to do. Yes, I knew I was being selfish and irrational. Sue me. I liked how things had been going in the Clubhouse.

After she sat down, she studied my face. “Is something wrong? Dog, you look like someone just stole your dessert.”

I grimaced. “Sorry, no nothing’s wrong.”

“Y’all need me to plan a cookout?”

“No, it’s nothing like that, Clair.”

“Okay, now you’ve got me a little concerned.”

I winced. “Nothing to be concerned about, Clair. I’m being a selfish ass and I know it.”

“Okaaayyyy,” she dragged out.

~*~

Clair

I had no clue what was up with Dog. He looked like a kid who’d lost his puppy. I glanced at Viper, he didn’t look the same, although he was studying me intently.

“You guys are starting to freak me out a little bit.”

“Sorry, Clair,” Viper said. “Didn’t mean to do that.”

“Explain to me what’s going on, why does Dog look like he’s about to walk the plank?”

Viper barked out a laugh. “Bastard does look like that, doesn’t he? I’ve told him we’ll work this out but it appears he’s not trusting me.”

“Alright, enough of this shit, what’s going on?” I demanded. I hadn’t ever seen either of them act this way.

“Clair, did you hear about the little girl the guys brought back that is pregnant?” Dog inquired.

“Yeah, I did. That poor kid. I hate what those monsters did to her.”

I’d seen her earlier when she came to talk to Dog and Vip. She didn’t look like she was ten years old, much less the fourteen I’d heard that she was. I was trying to figure out what that had to do with anything. Why had he brought this up?

“Darlin’, she doesn’t want to keep the baby,” he murmured.

My stomach tightened at hearing that. Life was so fucking unfair at times. How I’d yearned for a child and couldn’t have one and here was a child that had been forced to get pregnant. I could understand her not wanting to keep the baby. She was so young. There was no way she would know how to take care of an infant, much less be a mom. I knew that if she wanted to keep the baby that Emily would teach her how, but the kid had the right to want to be a child herself.

“I hate to hear that but, Dog, what does that have to do with me?”

He looked at Vip with a frown on his face. I could tell he didn’t want to say whatever it was that was on his mind.

Viper spoke up, “Clair, the baby is going to need a home. We’ve discussed this with Cami and we asked her if she minded if we had someone that lived here at the compound adopt her. She liked that idea. She thought it would be nice to be able to see that the baby was being loved and treated well.”

“Okay.” Hell, I felt like I was a blonde, what was I missing?

“Darlin’,” Dog drew my attention. “We want to know if you’d like to adopt the baby. It’s a little girl.”

I drew in a deep breath of air and tears hit me instantly.

Oh, God.

I’d wanted a baby for so long. A child of my own. And here I was being offered one, yet I loved where I lived now. I didn’t want to give this up. I felt a tear roll down my cheek. But a baby. A child of my own. Something I had yearned for, for so many years. What do I do, oh God, what do I do?

“You’re seriously asking me if I want the baby?” I asked huskily.

“Yeah, Clair, we are. We both saw how much you’d always wanted a child the day we interviewed you to be a club girl,” Viper responded.

“Oh, God.” I moaned and wrapped my arms around myself.

“Darlin’, you don’t have to take the baby. I’m sure someone else will. But like Vip said, we both know how much you’ve always wanted kids. It only seemed right to ask you first. To let you decide if you want to adopt her.”

“That’s all I ever wanted was to have children,” I whispered.

“Then, Clair, adopt the baby with our blessings,” Dog stated.

“Dog, Vip, I’m torn, I don’t want to give up the club. I love it here. Y’all are my family now. This is so unfair, I want a baby, I do, however, I want to be here too. Maybe I’m too old to have a baby,” I uttered. I knew as I said it that I wasn’t. They were offering me my dream. Yet I didn’t want to leave my home, my family, the club.

“Clair, what if you could have both?” Viper questioned.

I looked sharply at him as hope took hold of me. “What do you mean both?”

“You still want to be a club girl?”

“Yes. I love what I’m doing. I like being the girls’ club mom too.”

“Your apartment has two bedrooms, right?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve got an idea and it may need to be tweaked a little bit. Plus, I still haven’t run it by Dog.”

“Brother, if you have some way that will let Clair have the baby and keep her ass here, I’m all ears.”

“Me too,” I added.

“One of the girls that was rescued was certified before she graduated high school to work in a daycare. Her job at the time she was taken was in one of those facilities. I had Zane check into her work history. He said she had glowing recommendations. She’d been employee of the month several times.

“What if she were to be your nanny? You could still live in the Clubhouse until the baby was around two or three. She could live in the small apartment and in the evenings when you were with the men, she’d keep the baby. If you wanted to get her once you were finished for the night, that would be up to you. Then you would have her all day. We’ll just let the guys know that your schedule is going to be different. That you won’t be available to be with them until after seven p.m.

“Sage could keep the baby in her apartment until either later that night or in the morning. Once the baby gets older and if you still want to continue being a club girl, then you could move into a house on the grounds and, if not Sage, then another girl could live with you in the house and keep the little girl there in the evenings and you could keep a room here. If Sage agrees to this but is too uncomfortable to live in the Clubhouse, then we could immediately go to the plan of having you move into a home.

“If Dog agrees, you could do that until you don't want to continue being a club girl or the house mom any longer. If you decided to give up the club girl part but still wanted to be a house mom, I’m sure that would work too. Yet either way, this is your home now and we aren’t kicking you out. I think Dog will back me up on that. What do you think, Clair, Dog? ”

“Damn right I will back you up on that. Clair, until you don’t want to live on the compound any longer, this will always be your home. If you want to stay for the rest of your life, we’ll all be happy about that. I fucking think Viper’s idea is perfect. Clair, what do you think?”

My dream. I was being given my dream. I wanted this and I wanted it bad.

“I say yes. Yes, yes, yes. A thousand times yes,” I breathed out excitedly. “How much longer is it until the baby is born?”

“Cami is twenty-seven weeks right now. I’m sure that she wouldn’t mind if you were with her at her checkups with Doc. It might do her some good to see who is taking the baby and how much you want the infant,” I replied.

“I would love to do that. Is there any way that I can be here when you talk to Sage so I can get a feel for her? I want to make sure that she’s responsible enough to take care of my daughter,” I questioned.

This was going to be my child. I already felt a fierceness inside me. This was my daughter we were talking about and I had to make sure that Sage was capable of taking care of her.

“Darlin’, you’re going to be a fantastic mother,” Dog said, then smiled at me.

“I can’t thank either of you enough for thinking about me, for giving me the chance to have my dream and for figuring out a way so that I can stay here.”

“No thanks necessary, Clair. You’re one of ours now. We take care of our people. Besides, I think I would have mutiny on my hands if you were to leave,” Dog responded wryly. “Let me see if Cece can bring Sage back out today, if so, we’ll get together and get this thing figured out.”

“Alright, Dog, let me know. Viper thanks for thinking of a way to make this all work.”

“Clair, I’m with Dog on this one. You’re the rock that keeps the Clubhouse on firm footing. You keep an eye on the club girls plus, you go above and beyond your duties in feeding the Brothers. Everyone is happy and content. That makes Dog’s and my job easier.”

~***~