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Her grin was happy but about half the wattage of her man’s. “I didn’t, either. I was shocked.” She held it out so Duncan could see it.
He took it from her and held it up. A glass shape on a lacquered wood base. The glass twinkled in the lamplight. Oklahoma Association of Veterinary Medicine. Animal Welfare Award, 2024. Dr. Kelsey Denson.
“Alright, sis!” Duncan handed it back to her. “What brought this on?”
“It’s for her work with rescues,” Dex said, his voice practically ringing with bells of pride. In most situations of his life, the man was taciturn, aloof, short-tempered, and capable of truly scary kinds of violence, but with his family he was a big ball of happy fluff.
“That is awesome, Kelse. Seriously.”
His big sister glowed a little as she smiled again. “Thanks. And thanks for tonight.”
“No prob. You know I love hanging with my minions. We had fun. Though I won’t be sad when Tildy decides she’s had enough of Frosty.”
Dex and Kelsey groaned in harmony.
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~oOo~
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Once Dex and Kelsey were home and on the job again, Duncan didn’t stay long. Kelsey went to check on Tildy, then took Ethan from Dex when she came back. Duncan said his goodbyes then and was surprised that Dex walked him to the door as if he were a guest.
“Hey,” Dex said as they arrived at the entry and were more or less private. “I’m gonna try to convince Eight and your dad to keep the younger patches home on this next run.”
Duncan, one of the younger patches, was shocked. “What? Why?”
The next run, less than a week off, was not the usual Bulls business. Both charters, Oklahoma and Nevada, were heading to Northern California to take over a club based in Eureka—in whatever way they had to do it. It was a full-club run, nobody left behind. Marcella and Sage would be running the station, with hangarounds and the prospect working the shop and the garage closed.
They’d been planning this run for months—years, actually, but this actual run had been in the works since the fall. The whole club. And they were ready for war.
“If this goes bad, it could take the whole club down. It makes sense to leave patches back, and it makes sense for a fuck-ton of reasons it should be the young guys staying back. You have less experience and more longevity.”
Seriously, Duncan was stunned. This was the first he’d heard of any reservations about the whole club riding out. Plans were set now, with roles for everybody. And it was even more bizarre that Dex, former Marine Raider who’d signed up for the Corps while he was still in high school, would be balking at twenty-something patches riding to possible (probable) war.
“I don’t want to stay back, Dex. And I don’t think any of the other Young Guns do, either. We don’t want to be sidelined.”
Dex stared hard at him. “Sam almost died a few months back. You’re saying he’s jumping at another chance to get it done?”
That was the real reason Dex was talking about sidelining the younger guys, wasn’t it? He was worried they weren’t ready for the fight. He was worried they wouldn’t make the ride back.
Duncan took a beat to think out his reply. “I don’t mean to talk for him, but I can say I haven’t seen him show doubts about it. For myself, I want to ride with my club. I know what it means. We all do. Fuck, Dex, most of us’ve been living this life since we were born. You don’t need to protect us. We wear the same patch you do.”
“Yeah, but yours is a lot cleaner than mine.”
“And yours was as clean as ours once, right? How’d it get stained?”
Again, Dex gave him a hard stare. “You’re sure?”
“I’m positive. I’m a Bull.”
