“People?” She laughs. “I mean, fuck, I know the club is technically outlaws, but you’ve only been patched in for not quite two years and you’re already up to people.” She jokes.
“The majority were before I ever found the club.” I tell her, honestly, and she cocks her head, looking at me, confused. I sigh as I look at her again and shrug, “I was overseas for a little while, I was home for a year or two before I came out to the club.” I have no fucking clue why I’m telling her all of this.
“You were in the military?” She asks as I look over at her and shrug. “What branch?”
“Marines.” Her eyes widen as a small smirk spread across her lips.
“Why’d you join the Marines?” She asks, slight amusement in her eyes.
“Because I had to.”
“What?”
“Alright, I didn’t really have to.” I smirk. “I got caught with some drugs and, maybe, setting some shit on fire out in the desert. Ended up with some shady ass deal the DA gave me… didn’t even go to trial. He told me he wanted to see me get my life together. And he’d erase my arrest record.”
“Why do you call him shady?” She smirks as she asks me.
Leaning over and looking at her, “Because they’re not supposed to do that, anymore.”
“Ah, I see.” She nods her head as she’s still looking at me, but she moves onto her knees, now eye-level with me. “Why’d you get out?” Looking back at her, I debate not telling her. It’s not that it’s an enormous secret, or anything. I mean, most of the club doesn’t know, but that’s mostly because it hasn’t come up.
“I got hurt when I was over there.” I tell her and she gasps again. “Didn’t have a choice. I was no longer fit for duty.” She bluntly looks at me up and down before she smiles.
“You look fit enough from here.” She smirks, causing me to roll my eyes and look away. “Awe, Axe, come on.” She laughs as I try to keep the smirk from my face. This isn’t the first time since Fury’s wedding that I’ve seen Ella and, just like every other time, she ties some crack in there similar to this one.
Getting up from the couch, I walk to the door, “I should get to the hospital.” I tell her as she nods her head.
“Axe, you regret it, yet?” She asks me, causing me to laugh again, stopping me in my tracks as I turn back around and look at her. Surprisingly, this is the first time she’s asked me this since the wedding, though.
“Not even a little.” She smiles back to me before she bites her lip and I shake my head, rolling my eyes, and walking towards the door. As I walk outside, I feel the vibration of my phone in my pocket, picking it up, and seeing that Khan is calling. “Hey Prez,” I mumble into the phone.
“Hey, did Ella get there okay?”
“Yeah, I’m getting ready to head up there.” I tell him.
“Good, before you do that can you run up to the clubhouse and talk to Rox about getting two rooms ready over at the clubhouse.”
“Both of them are staying over there?” I can’t help but ask him, since between him and Fury they have a couple of rooms over here. That mixed with how uncomfortable the thought of her being that close causes me.
“No, um,” he laughs to himself, “Caroline just showed up.” Oh shit, she would have had to leave almost as soon as Ash was in the accident for her to already be here. “So, she’s going to stay with us and then Oz is staying over at the clubhouse. El is going to be at Lucy’s,” He pauses again. “But we have Cain coming in, so we need one for him.”
“What? Cain is coming in?” Cain is the national president.
“Yeah, I talked to him about what was going on. He wants to come out and see Ash. It’s kind of ironic because Ash swore Cain hates him.”
“Ok, yeah.” I tell him as I stop, turning around and walking back into the house when I catch a glimpse of Ella in the window, watching me leave. I can’t help but smirk before I step back inside and pretend that I didn’t just catch her. As if I’m completely unaware that she just bolted across the house so that I didn’t walk right in on her. When I step inside, I can see her trying to conceal her heavy breathing. I can’t help but raise one eyebrow at her before she gives me an awkward smile. “Where’s your bag?” I ask her.
Leaning over, she reaches into her purse and tosses her keys at me. “In the back seat. I have dad’s back there as well.”
“Khan just called,” I nod my head as I walk back out the door and towards her car that sits behind Khan’s house, getting the bags out of the car, shaking my head at her backseat before I grab some of the trash and walk it over to the trash can, clearing it out from her car, rolling my eyes because this is clearly a 17-year-old’s car would look like. Then I walk her keys back into the house, taking her bag over to Lucy’s and then Oz’s up to the clubhouse.
Walking into the hospital, I can see a group of my brothers standing to the side and I walk up to them. Oz nods in my direction and hugs me as I walk up to him.
“Khan and Caroline are up there right now.” Oz tells me as I make my way back towards the ICU. As I get to the hallway, I can see Caroline’s red hair as she stands in the room, but I cannot bring myself to walk down the hall or back into the room. Just seeing the red-rimmed eyes as she looks at Ash, I can’t take it. She’s one of the toughest women I’ve ever met. For her to be this upset by it… I just can’t. Turning around, I start back out into the lobby. I can’t seem to pull myself to go in there. I’m not sure if it’s hitting something too close to home from my own experiences or if it’s just seeing Ash like that.
Since I’ve gotten to the club, I have always seemed to look up at him. Even if he’s only a few years older than I am. How he can carry and handle himself, gaining everyone’s respect as soon as they meet him. Well, it’s fucking impressive.
Plus, it doesn’t hurt that as soon as anyone sees him, they almost shit themselves. I’m kind of convinced that he got all of his tattoos so that he wouldn’t seem like a pretty boy, but that fucker is terrifying. Even if we all have picked on him about having a pretty boy face.
