Page 77 of Tank’s Weakness

I shake my head. “Not a joke.”

“And why do you two share each other’s locations?” Gunner asks.

I rub the back of my neck, wincing. “Because right after he joined, I might have gotten lost. I couldn’t figure out where I was, and the maps app on my phone wasn’t working. It was just a white fucking screen. He helped me out.”

Gunner barks out a laugh while the girls begin to cackle. Meanwhile, I can’t help but smile as they laugh at my expense.

“That’s…out of everything you could have said, I wasn’t expecting that,” Delaney gasps.

“Me neither,” Sloane chokes out.

“Why him?” Gunner asks.

“Because he’s from the area, and he was a prospect at the time. He wasn’t going to rat me out when he wanted in.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Delaney says.

She places her hand on my thigh and squeezes it. When she goes to pull away, I place my hand on top of hers. She looks at me and smiles.

“Okay, can we talk about something else? Anything else?” I sigh, acting put out.

Delaney looks over at Sloane. “I think I heard you have a brother?”

Sloane lights up. “Yeah, Lee. He’s a shithead, but he’s mine.”

As the girls talk, I look over at Gunner and find him already looking at me.

“What?” I ask quietly.

“She’s good for you,” he murmurs.

“She is.”

“Happy for you, brother.”

I nod when words evade me.

His approval means a lot to me. Not just because he’s my vice president, but because we’ve been friends for a long fucking time. Most of us that left Boston came up together. Prospected around the same time frame and went through the bullshit that Smoke’s dad was known for.

When Ghost took over, we knew we didn’t want to stay. Ghost is a good dude but not the person we wanted to follow. He’s too much like his old man, whereas Smoke was hungry for the job. He’s the one we gravitated to and put our trust in.

So far, it’s worked out well for us. If we hadn’t followed Smoke, we wouldn’t have ended up in this damn beach town. We wouldn’t have found the women who complete us in ways we will never willingly admit out loud. We wouldn’t be exactly where we should be.

Delaney squeezes my leg, pulling me into the present.

“What?” I ask, looking down at her.

“The server placed your food in front of you, and you never thanked her,” she quietly scolds.

I wince and turn toward the server. “Thank you.”

Her lips twitch, but she keeps her thoughts to herself. “You’re welcome. If you guys need anything, just holler.”

“Damn Delaney, you’re making him all polite and shit,” Sloane teases.

“He was already polite. I just have to sometimes give him a little nudge.” Delaney winks, then changes the subject. “Okay, so I met Smoke, Kelly, Mac, Jane, Jagger, and Bear. Jagger and Bear were the only two who were single, so who do you think will settle down next?”

Gunner winces. “I rather have my nuts waxed than talk about the love lives of my brothers.”