“What was so special about tonight, coincidence?”
“No, it wasn’t. I knew you were there. Some of the bouncers were telling me they were having an issue with a man who was pushing his girls around. The last few weeks said that they had a feeling he was more fucked up than that, and they were right.” I run my hand along the back of my neck as I finish. “I was pretty surprised when I saw on the camera that it was you.” She looks down embarrassed as I hear the backdoor open, and my brothers walk inside. “Don’t be embarrassed.” I tell her, tilting her chin up to look at me. “He saw you as a challenge, as something to break. But you didn’t let him, did you?”
She shakes her head. “But there wasn’t really anything there, anyway.”
“It doesn’t matter. You were still a challenge to him.”
“…you’re still a challenge to him?” I’m staring up at him, still in shock as the men filter into the room.
“What the fuck?” Zane looks up to whoever called out, and he laughs.
“He told me he was going to go get you.” I hear a woman say from behind me. Turning around to see the older woman who was standing with her husband in the woods that first day.
“Seems a little cocky that he was assuming I would just leave with him.”
“Don’t tell him that.”
“Why?” I laugh as I look back over at her.
“Because he is his father’s son. And I know exactly what his dad would have said.”
“Oh, I already know exactly what he would say, because we had that conversation last time.” I laugh, shaking my head again. “That he’s not cocky, because he’s not wrong.”
She laughs, nodding her head as she laughs. “That was Ash…” She trails and I see the sadness wash over her.
“You were close?”
“Yeah, I mean, he practically raised me.” I can tell by her face that I give her a strange look. “It’s a long story.” The photos lining the walls distract me as she continues to talk. “You remind me of Caroline. She was amazing. More of a mother to me than my own ever was.” She shakes her head. “By the way, I’m Ella.”
“Tate.”
She glances back at where Zane stands, looking at me, and he smirks. Ella turns back around and looks at me. “He likes you. He doesn’t like most…” She doesn’t say most of what, but I’m not really sure if it matters. “But like I said, he’s his father’s son.”
“And what does that mean?”
“He doesn’t think he’s good enough. He’ll push you away. A large part because the mission that he’s on is too dangerous.” She smiles again. “And now, he doesn’t think he’s worthy of it.”
“Of what?”
“Of being happy, of being loved. He’s never told me this, but I’ve known him just about his entire life, and I know the fact that he hasn’t found his parents’ killer is still weighing on him. He feels like he’s failed them. It’s a weight that he shouldn’t be carrying. I’ve been trying to get him to see it. You know underneath the tattoos, the kutte, the whole biker exterior, he just wants to save everyone he loves and when he can’t… it eats him alive.”
“You’re saying he has a hero complex?” I kind of laugh.
“Fuck no.” She laughs, looking back over again. “It’s more like a villain complex.”
“What does that even mean?”
“He doesn’t aspire to be a hero. He doesn’t want what he does to be acknowledged. He doesn’t give a fuck about the world, and he’d sacrifice every single person in it to keep the ones he loves safe. And he’d especially sacrifice himself. It’s why he dropped out of school so Drew could live with him. If he wouldn’t have done that, their grandmother most likely would have gotten custody. And God knows Terri would have taken her in, not even given their blood related aunt a chance, not that she would have even wanted to raise her. She would have done it simply because she knew how much Caroline would hate it.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Because Ash’s mother is a cunt.” Her use of the word makes me laugh out loud. “I’m serious. She took off, leaving her son when he was like 8. Then flaked in and out of both of her kids’ lives. Oh, and by the way, he didn’t know that he had a sibling until he was in his 30s.”
“What?”
“I’m telling you, she’s a cunt. And sadly, the only blood grandparent that they have.”
“That’s awful.”
