Page 24 of Thunder

Scottie furrows her brows and murmurs, “I can’t really remember exactly how long, but my first memory was when I was six, and I was bandaging my dolls up.” and her father cuts in and adds, “She was four, I’d gotten a papercut and she instantly wanted to help me,” and fuck the shock that is written over Scottie’s face is clear as day.

After she left the clubhouse, before my sister came running in with a fucking baseball bat that I had to run away from. Dr. Thomas mentioned that Scottie was basically the black sheep of the family, going down a different path than what her parents wanted.

Apparently, their relationship is strained, and I can definitely see it.

“Marshall,” Dr. Thomas says, gaining the man’s attention, and Scottie blinks before looking my way. Fuck, the pain that shines in her dark blue eyes kills me.

“I guess I was four,” she whispers, and I tilt my head and murmur, “I guess so…”

Clearing her throat, she asks, “What is it you do then?” and I grin and admit, “I’m a tattoo artist,” and she smiles a small smile and asks, “Does it hurt? Having a tattoo?”

Chuckling, I admit, “It’s like a slight sting, depending on where you get it. Why do you want one?”

“I wanted to get Sammie’s name on my ankle,” she admits.

“I approve,” her dad cuts in before continuing the conversation with Dr. Thomas and Scottie giggles in shock and fuck me, my heart.

“I can do it, just give me a day and time and I’ll do it,” I say not willing for anyone else to touch her virgin skin, and her mouth parts, making me smile before I ask, “Favorite food?”

“Huh?” she stutters, and her dad says, “It’s pad tai,” before he says to Scottie, “The man wants to get to know you so, get to know him.”

Well, well, well, her father is on my side.

I bite back the smirk as the men around us try to hide their chuckles while Dr. Fuckface doesn’t hide his growl.

He fucked her sister behind her back, had a kid with her, fucking married her, yet he wants her?

Yeah no, he can go fuck himself. She’s mine.

“I prefer a good pizza,” I state, hoping to get her out of her stupor, and she blinks, then asks, “What kind of toppings, and don’t say pineapple!”

I give her a wicked grin and the woman groans making me chuckle. I admit, “Everyone has different preferences so stop judging,” and she giggles again. Fuck, I think I’m always going to want that sound out of her mouth.

“What do you like to do on your days off?” I ask before I take a sip of my coffee.

“Spending time with Sammie,” she admits with a smile, and I grin wide again before she asks, “What about you?”

“I have two blood nieces and a blood nephew, another niece or nephew on the way and several non-blood nieces and nephews so I try to help the brothers out,” I admit and the woman before me physically melts. I silently thank the kids before we get into a comfortable conversation talking about family, about my sister and the dynamic between us. I don’t bring up Kathleen. We speak about her brother and his wife, her father chiming in about his daughter-in-law being lazy and his son believing living at home would be easy for her. The conversation continues and it just feels right with her, even with the fucker glaring at us, we chat with ease and the more we talk, the more relaxed she becomes. This feels different, we gel together, we get each other.

“So, tell me about the surgery,” she asks after we just spoke a little about our childhoods. I learned not to shy away from by my lovely brothers before taking a sip of her coffee, and I wince.

“I have a trapped nerve in my shoulder,” I admit, “Doc or Dr. Thomas, should I say, mentioned I’ve left it too long for therapy.”

“Okay, so the surgery for that should only take up to sixty minutes,” she says, “Your recovery time, you’re looking at a range of a few weeks to a few months to feel no pain at all, but gentle massages should help relieve that.”

“What about a nerve graft in the knee?” I ask, and her eyes widen in shock.

“What on earth did you do to have two separate nerve issues?” she chokes, and I clear my throat while Axel coughs to cover his chuckle.

“I grew up in a club where we were taught the club always comes first,” I begin, “Over the years, the men I grew up with, messed up one way or another and instead of seeing their error, they blamed the club. I kind of hurt myself on purpose a few times, ended up in the ER hoping to bring the brothers back together again. The last time, around three years ago, I ended up going over my handlebars on my bike hoping to convince our secretary to move back home after he left the club due to his mother. He refused to come home but he is still a part of the club.”

Scottie blinks, then blinks again, before she mutters, “Why do I got a feeling you’ll do something stupid to get your own way?”

The man sat beside me, coughs, but I hear his laughter, and I shrug, not denying her because yeah, I’ll do anything for her to be mine.

“I made it,” I hear, and we look to see my Pres rush over and I raise a brow seeing that he’s on his own and he winces, “I snuck out and your sister is going to fucking kill me.”

I laugh before I nod over to Scottie and introduce, “Doc, I’d like for you to meet Scottie.” I look at my girl, “Treasure, meet my president and unfortunately for me, my brother-in-law.”