He Cheated With His Ex, So the Club President Claimed Me novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Caller

The truck was gone by dawn.

I hadn't slept, and I made oatmeal on the woodstove with the one pot Dot had packed.

Eli ate half and wore the rest.

At nine a car pulled up on the gravel, a small gray one with a county sticker on the door.

A woman in a blazer got out with a clipboard.

I knew what she was before she reached the porch.

"Ms. Dunning? I'm from Child Protective Services. We got a report last night that a toddler is living in unsafe conditions with members of a motorcycle gang."

"A report from who?"

"I can't say."

"Who called at what time?"

"Eleven fifteen," she said. "A woman. She gave this address."

Only Dot, Gage and the man in the black pickup who had sat out front all night knew this address, and he could have told her.

I opened the door wider.

"Come in," I said. "Look at everything."

She walked through the cabin slowly.

She opened the cupboards and found the oatmeal, the groceries, the milk.

She looked at the stove and the smoke detector Dot had put up the night before.

She knelt and put her hand on the crib mattress and looked at my son, who offered her a spoon.

"He's clean," she said, almost to herself.

"He's two," I said. "He's never been hit, he's never gone hungry, and I've never taken a drink in front of him."

"I have to ask about the club."

"My son's father is in it." I paused over the word father and didn't like it. "I left him on Saturday. I have a recording of why."

"The recording isn't my concern. The report says you were seen at a party last night where there was a physical fight."

"I was slapped. I slapped back."

I made myself say the rest.

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