Free Brother to Brother: The Sacred Brotherhood Book I by A.J. Downey Page A

said dropping a plate in front of me. He called to my son, “Come on, Noah. Come help your mommy eat her breakfast,” and I closed my eyes and drew a deep, steadying breath. I reminded myself, that as long as he treated Noah well, and Noah didn’t know anything was amiss, I could take whatever he dished out. I’d done it with my mother and stepfather in Arizona, but anything Archer did was a pale imitation of their cruelty.
    You can do this, Melody. You have to… for Noah. I told myself.
    “Mommy, up!” I opened my eyes and plastered on a brave smile for my brave little boy and lifted him up onto my lap.
    “Good morning,” I said and he hugged me and I loved that he loved me, despite how much of an utter failure I was.
    Eggs and bacon, alongside toast, loaded with butter and jam sat on the plate in front of Noah and me, and as always, I made sure my child was full before I bothered to feed myself. Archer sat with his own plate in front of him, drinking coffee and watching us. When Noah had enough and started to squirm, I put him down and he went back to the couch, climbing back up onto it and resuming his cartoons. I finished the food on the plate, my cheeks burning under Archer’s cold, green-gold gaze.
    “I didn’t mean to sleep for so long,” I murmured.
    “You obviously needed it, I don’t mind so long as you don’t make a habit of pawning breakfast off on me.” I winced at that, and couldn’t meet his gaze.
    “Jesus, Mel. What the fuck happened to you?” he asked and I looked up sharply.
    “Language in front of Noah, please.”
    “Sorry,” he grimaced. “My question stands though, what’s going on? You’re not the same woman we left behind.”
    “Of course I’m not,” I said gently, “The girl you all left in Arizona was scared and pregnant with her first child; the woman you see now is a mother to a one and a half year old boy. They’re worlds apart, Archer.”
    He looked like he tasted something bad, took a drink of his coffee to wash it down and said, “Well regardless, the Pres out here wants to see you and the boy on Friday, so fix you and the kid some dinner and meet me at the club after I get off work,” he said. I felt myself pale and he eyed me, before asking, “Now what’s wrong?”
    “Nothing, he isn’t… I mean I won’t be expected to…”
    “Naw, he just wants to meet you. May not have been official, you bein’ Grinder’s ol’ lady, but the chapter out here agreed it best that you be treated that way.”
    “What way?” I asked needing to hear precisely what he meant.
    “As the property of a fallen brother, with all the protections and aide that comes with it. You know how it goes, Mel. We take care of our own,” he said softly.
    I nodded, I knew how it was supposed to work, yes, but the Arizona chapter sometimes had its own ideas, and back there, Noah and I were nothing but a laughing stock and little better than trash. I may have earned it, I may have gotten in way over my head as little better than a slut to be passed around between brothers, but it’d been better than the alternative of staying under my parents’ roof. Plus, title aside, I didn’t feel like a slut. Grinder was the only brother I’d really been with. He’d protected me from the others despite his refusal to be faithful to me, or to make me any kind of an official girlfriend or ol’ lady.
    When I’d come up pregnant, I might as well have turned into a leper as far as the rest of the guys had been concerned and when Grinder had left? Well, I found myself alone and I didn’t want to be passed around so I simply had stopped going around the club and its brothers. At least until I started to really show, and by then, it was like they’d all decided I was contagious or something. None of them wanted anything to do with the pregnant me. I’d thought it was because I was the reason Grinder had left… now I knew different. Now I knew it was likely because he had died and the Arizona