Page 176 of Romeo

Fiona had been trying to tell me something for months. Something she thought could change the way I saw her. I’d told her it wouldn’t.

Standing there watching Chasm’s brothers prove the same thing to him made me wonder how long it would take before she believed me enough to test that promise.

“Alright. Then let’s get started.” Chasm finally released the chair. “I’m not going to assign anything. We make these decisions together. Who do you want for Veep?”

“B!” the men shouted.

“Fucking hell,” Zombie cursed.

Chasm grinned. “King said you were willing to be my VP, but you didn’t want to be president.”

“King’s a fucking liar. I never said shit about being VP.”

Chasm threw his head back and laughed.

For the first time since we arrived, he looked less like a man trying to decide whether he still belonged here and more like the brother these men remembered.

“All in favor of B being Veep?”

The response nearly shook the damn room.

They moved through the remaining positions, rebuilding the club one patch at a time. I listened, but this wasn’t my circle to shape. These men would have to live with the decisions made around that table long after Ace and I returned to Nebraska.

And, if I had anything to say about it, long after I finally made it to Virginia.

I touched the phone through my pocket.

Fiona had said she was tired of missing me.

So was I.

That didn’t mean I could abandon Chasm in the middle of this, but it sure as hell meant I was counting every day it took to finish.

Once the final decision had been made, Chasm looked around the table.

“Things are going to be different here. Church won’t just be the officers; it will be everyone. We’re brothers. We do this shit together, or we don’t do it at all.”

“Together!” everyone shouted.

Chasm finally lowered himself into the president’s chair.

He still looked uncomfortable there. I figured that was probably one of the best arguments for keeping his ass in it. Voices filled the room and fists struck the table as men welcomed back a brother they’d believed dead and accepted him as the man who would lead them forward.

I was happy for Chasm.

I was.

But somewhere beneath it lived the memory of a seventeen-year-old girl sitting beside me in front of a fireplace and asking whether girls like her ever got a happily ever after.

I’d told her yes.

Nine months later, I was beginning to understand just how badly I wanted to be right.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Romeo

Chasm had disappeared into Steele’s office an hour ago while Ace, Big Ben, and I worked downstairs with the Little Rock brothers. Weapons were counted, damaged furniture shoved aside, and anything Steele or Stone might have left behind was separated for Omen to examine.