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Shades shook his head.
“Y’all get a shot glass yet?” Ashley asked as she approached Shades and Skylar. She had a bottle of Jack Daniels in one hand and a stack of little throwaway plastic shot glasses in her other hand. “We’re going to do a toast to Bulldog in a minute.”
Shades took two off the top of the stack and passed one to Skylar. “Thanks.”
Ashley held the bottle up and poured them each a shot. “Now remember to save it for the toast,” she reminded them with a wink at Shades.
Shades made no reply, just gave her a cold look.
She moved off through the crowd, making sure everyone had one.
Shades kept Skylar pretty much glued to his side throughout the event. He knew he needed to have a conversation with her about the women here. Women he’d been with. Some good girls that wouldn’t cause him a lick of trouble. Some like Ashley, who most probably would.
But he hadn’t had time for that with his brothers showing up today. Hell, he’d never intended to be bringing her by the clubhouse this soon. Things were moving really quickly between them, not that he was complaining.
****
Skylar stood, Shades arms wrapped around her from behind her and watched Butcher bring Bulldog’s widow up on stage, her two teenage daughters, as well. He approached the microphone that had been set up for the event.
“If I could get everyone’s attention.” He waited a moment for the crowd to quiet down. “I want to thank everyone for showing up today. I see a lot of club supporters and friends of the club in the crowd today. The Evil Dead want to give a warm welcome to everyone. We appreciate you coming out today. As you all know, today’s event was organized to help out a fallen brother’s family. Bulldog was with this club for over thirty years. What some of you outside of the MC may not know is that today is also Bulldog’s birthday. Before we talk about the money we raised, we got a tradition here on the birthday of fallen brothers. Everybody got a glass?”
The crowd replied with a roar of assurance that they did.
“Then raise ‘em up.” Butcher held his glass in the air and a hundred others went up as well. “Happy birthday, Bulldog. We miss you, Brother.” Then Butcher knocked his back and everyone in the crowd followed suit.
Butcher stepped to the microphone and cleared his throat. He took in the crowd and then he turned to look at Bulldog’s widow.
“Darlin’, we were hoping to come up with enough to cover all those medical bills and make the last two payments on your mortgage. We fell a little short on that…”
Suddenly, Shades was dipping his head to Skylar’s ear.
“Something I gotta do real quick, babe. Be right back.”
And then he kissed her cheek, and he was gone. She watched him make his way through the crowd to the stage. And with two bounds, he was up and on it.
“Hold up, Butcher. Got one more.” Then she watched him turn to Bulldog’s widow and smile softly at her. His hand went in and under his cut and came out with a long white envelope. He held it in his hands as he explained. “Had a kid bring his car in for repairs about four months ago. Needed a lot of work. Bill ended up bein’ about close to two grand. Long and short of it was, he couldn’t pay. I gave him time. Then I gave him more time. Kid never came back for it. So, a couple of weeks ago I sold it. Got five grand for it.” Then he held the envelope out to her. “There’s a cashier’s check in here for that amount. I want you and the girls to have it.”
Skylar watched as she broke down in tears, but shook her head.
“Shades, I can’t take that,” she whispered.
“Please, honey. Let me do this for you.”
Shades heard one of his brothers’ yell out, teasing, “God, is that what you sound like on a date, Shades.”
The crowd chuckled.
“Shut up, asshole,” Shades yelled into the crowd, not sure who had said it. He turned back to Bulldog’s widow and held the envelope out to her again. “Take it.”
“But, you’d be out all that money on the repairs.”
“Don’t worry about that, honey. It’s a done deal. That money’s yours. I want you and the girls to have it. That and in the future…any repairs your cars need, I’ll do ‘em for free. Oil changes, tune-ups, whatever. From now on, you bring ‘em to me. That’s all taken care of.”
She reached out and took the envelope with shaking hands. “Oh, Shades.”
“We take care of our own, darlin’.”
She broke down and Shades hugged her.
