"Thank you for loving my kid."
He disappears down the hall. I sitin the office chair he left warmand listen to Lily teaching Finn how to cook. Finn says he doesn't understand what medium heat means. Lily says it meansthe middle one, Finn, that's why it's called medium. I laugh hard enough to spill my coffee.
Chapter 12
Colt
"I'm asking the club to recognize Ellie Frost as my old lady."
Nine brothers sit at the table. Diesel against the back wall because prospects don't sit. The room smells like leather and coffee and the collected sweat of men who slept in four-hour shifts for a week. Sunset pushes through the windows and throws long shadows across the table Knox built with his own hands.
I don't make a speech. I've brought enough proposals to this table. Budget reviews, tax strategies, vendor contracts I explained them line by line until Rex's eyes glazed over. This doesn't need columns or projections.
"She defends my daughter. She stood in front of a library board and told them she's with me. She held Lily during the attack and didn't leave." I put my hands flat on the table. "She makes my house a home."
Knox leans back in his chair. "About damn time."
Finn claps my shoulder hard enough to shift my weight. Garrett's fist hits the table once. His standard vote. Rex crosseshis arms and kicks his boots up on the table because Rex has never once respected furniture.
"Shit, I had money on last month," Rex says.
"Unanimous?" Knox looks around the table. Every hand goes up. Diesel's too, from the wall, which earns him a look from Knox that would've meant something a month ago but now just makes Knox's mouth twitch.
Knox nods. "Done. Welcome to the losing-every-argument club, brother."
The brothers break from the table. I stay seated for a second, letting the vote settle. Twenty years at this table. I've seen patches voted, prospects cut, wars declared. My hands press flat against the grain and the wood sits warm under my palms.
Bruiser catches me in the hall.
"There's a journalist." He shifts his laptop bag. "Ava White. She's writing a piece on the town for some regional magazine. Integration success story. Feel-good shit." He stops walking. "Butthere'ssomething about her that I don't trust."
"What kind of questions?"
His grip tightens on the strap. "I'll let you know when I figure that out." He heads for the back office before I can push.
My instinct says to press, to pull the thread, to find out what Bruiser's digging into and why his face locks up when he says her name. But Bruiser's earned the long leash. He'll bring it to the table when he's ready.
The library sits dark from the outside, closed for hours. The sign on the door reads CLOSED in the block letters Ellie hand-painted her first week on the job.
I carry the cut folded over my arm. New leather, stiff, the Feral Sons patch stitched across the back. The brothers file through the back entrance: Knox first, then Finn, Rex, Garrett, Chain, Steel, Hunter. Bruiser last, laptop bag in hand. Jess slips in behind Finn with her hand on her belly. Sarah follows with Reeve on her hip.
Lily sits cross-legged in the children's section. She looked up once when the brothers came through the door, took stock, and went right back to her book. My daughter, surrounded by bikers, turning pages.
Ellie stands behind the circulation desk shelving returns, a stack of hardcovers in the crook of her arm. She sees the room fill with leather and sets the books down and presses her palms flat on the counter.
"What's happening? Is everything okay?"
The brothers spread behind me as I walk to the desk, leaning against shelves and tables. Knox takes the armchair by the fiction section. Finn stands beside a display of banned books and grins at the irony.
I set the cut on the counter between us.
"I can't give you a ring yet." I push the leather toward her. "But I can give you this. This is my family and now you're my family. Will you wear it?"
She picks up the cut. Turns it over. Her fingers trace the rocker stitched across the back beneath the Feral Sons patch: PROPERTY OF COLT.
She looks at me. "I'll wear it." She holds the leather against her chest. "One condition. This gets changed to 'Partner of.'"
I open my mouth and Knox beats me to it from the armchair. "That's not how it works, little librarian."
