Man Of Steel

Chapter 8

My phone rang and I grabbed it on the second ring. “It's me."

“Yeah Blade, just wanted to let you know I've partially barbecued old Sid."

“You did what? Deke…"

“Hey I was torching the woods behind their house like you said, not my fault his ass was hiding out back there. Besides I said partially, there's still some of him left...hey shut the f**k up I'm on the phone here."

I could hear what sounded like a pig squealing in the background. “Is that him screaming in the background?" Fucker sounded like something out of Deliverance.

“Yep."

“Deke get that boy to a hospital."

“The f**k would I wanna do that?"

“Deke…"

“Fine, fine, f*****g cop."

I hung up the phone on that pithy remark. Deke and I had come a long way since his days as a street tough. We were cool like brothers as were the rest of us, but he never let me forget that I was once a 'stinking cop' as he puts it, and what he thinks of my past profession.

“Stryder are you f*****g insane, you sent Deke to torch the woods?"

“Yeah and? What did he do, did he torch the farm?"

“No he torched Sid. That s**t's not funny you know what the sheriff said. Next time he's hauling all our asses in." I wasn't too worried about the empty threat because there was no way it was gonna happen, but the old man thought it was a good way to keep the boys in line. I didn't have the heart to tell him that it didn't work; that these fuckers were a whole other breed from what he was accustomed to dealing with.

Not long after that the nightlight in the room went off. That was our cue that Stephanie had finally gone to sleep. Good, at least she'll have one more night of rest. The way things had been going we were starting to get worried about her health.

When we took a case we didn't just show up and hang around like henchmen, no we went the extra mile. That meant following her to and from the house, making sure she did all the normal things a kid her age should be doing.

Her mom had reported that she'd been dropping back at school, lack of sleep and stress was weighing on her young mind so much that she couldn't keep up her grades. Where before she'd been a better than average student, she was now barely keeping up. Part of our job was to give her back the confidence she needed to get back to where she was before all of this happened.

Lily was a part of the crew now, she was the only doctor I trusted to look after our charges after I'd seen the way she handled herself with little Amy that first night we met. So even if we came to a situation and there was already a doc involved, which was about ninety eight percent of the time, I still had them checked over by Lily. In most cases the families ended up using her as their primary after the dust had settled. My girl was that good.

Lily! Damn, the thought of her still makes my heart pound and my d**k hard. Almost two years down the road I'm thinking it might be time to take that next step. I had no hang ups because of the demise of my first go around, one woman was about as different from the other as two people could get. Besides, I wasn't one to hold onto to bullshit baggage.

Deanna had been a hard lesson, I was young, horny and dumb when we first met but it hadn't taken long for the shine to wear off. Still I'd made a commitment and I intended to see it through. Then she'd fallen pregnant eight years after we were married. I'd lost that loving feeling for the selfish, self centered woman who'd hidden her true self for the first few years of our marriage, but the knowledge that I had a kid coming had me on the moon.

I started planning for my seed from the moment I heard those two words, 'I'm pregnant'. I didn't care if it was a boy or a girl I just knew I wanted it. I'd tried back then to relight that spark that had been there in the beginning but too much had passed by then and I couldn't do it.

For my kid though I decided to stay. I'd been raised in a loving family with both of my parents, aunts, uncles, grand parents and an abundance of cousins and extended family. I wanted my kid to have the same. Things hadn't worked out that way so now we were all making the best of what we had.

Deanna still tries every once in a while to get back into my bed but that was never gonna happen, and now with Lily in the picture there was no way in hell. Lily was just what I needed in my f****d up life. At the time we met I'd been in the middle of turning my life completely upside down. I had a new business and was part of something that filled the void left after I'd quit the force.

I was still a little raw and angry from the s**t that had went down in my marriage, not to mention the s**t that was going on in the force and life just seemed to be thirty shades of f****d up. She'd blazed into my life with her fiery attitude and her f**k me body and I haven't been the same since.

Lily has one of those pinup girl figures, heavy on the t**s and ass and little on the waist with a yard of raven colored hair that brushes the top of her ass when she walks. And boy what a walk! She's all of five two, olive skinned, big brown eyes and lips that made me think of sinning every time I look at them.

Her voice makes me want to f**k her into the wall hard and furious, and her sweet smile makes me want to wrap her up in cotton balls and protect her always. Yeah, I think it's time I put my ring on her finger. I know she wasn't going anywhere but still, women needed that s**t to make them feel secure and loved or some fuckery. Plus if I put a ring on Deanna's trifling ass it would be a grave insult not to marry the woman who was truly the owner of my heart.