AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Blizzard pulled into the clubhouse, and I looked up. What a fucking sight it was to see. He barely even pulled the truck to a stop before I was flinging my door open and climbing out. Club members and old ladies filled the parking lot of the clubhouse, each with beaming smiles on their faces, and fuck did it feel good.
I already felt like I was home again because that’s what these people were, they were home to me. Not the clubhouse or Athens or where I was brought up. These people, this family and brotherhood, were my home.
The kids were the first to ditch their parents and take off running toward me. Harlyn, Jayla, and Macy hitting me like a ton of bricks. I had a special bond with them. During my time as a prospect, I was often the one who watched over them when they were playing outside and kept them out of earshot when things might get a little crazy or intense.
Some might think that was degrading or lame, being a babysitter, being dumped with the kids, but I guess I saw it as more than that. I saw it as these people trusting me to protect the things that mattered most to them in the world. It was a lot of pressure, but it helped me to gain their trust because I would have done—and actually have done—anything I needed to, in order for those kids to be safe.
One by one, my brothers and their old ladies stepped forward to welcome me back.
Romeo stepped forward, his hands tucked in his pockets. It surprised me, given that since my little brother got here, he’d always looked and spoken like he was so sure of himself. But here he was, looking at the ground as if he was embarrassed or nervous.
“You gonna give me a hug or something?” I asked, holding my arms out.
He finally looked up at me, screwing up his nose. “No, you fucking weirdo. Why you all gotta hug so much? I thought you were all meant to be badas—”
Before he could finish talking I jumped on him, wrapping my arms around him and squeezing him tightly as he fought to get away. Before he could escape from my clutches, I spoke quietly into his ear. “We are gonna have words about that stunt you pulled with Meyah, too.” I let him go, and he stepped back, his hands in the air.
“Hey, not my fault you’re a fucking bastard.”
I pointed at him and narrowed my eyes. “I told you to keep her away.”
He snorted, and suddenly, he was back to that confident take-no-shit asshole. The shy little brother gone. “You also told these lot to keep it to themselves about you being locked up, too. But I blabbed on that one as well.”
“Why didn’t you just keep your mouth shut, Rome?”
He stepped forward and puffed out his chest. “Because you didn’t see how fucking broken she was when she realized there was something going on. Something that every other motherfucker here knew,except for her.”
I had seen.
When she walked into the visiting room when she looked at me through those warm chocolate eyes that seemed to soothe me but had turned dark and hard.
I opened my mouth to argue, even though I knew he was right. But Leo stepped in between us. “That’s enough,” he ordered, his eyes moving between the both of us like he was daring one to argue so he could show us why we shouldn’t. When we managed to keep quiet, he turned to me and pointed at the clubhouse. “In the meeting room, now.”
I was tired, annoyed, and in a foul fucking mood, but I really wasn’t up to arguing with him at that point. Instead, I followed him inside to the meeting room with Optimus falling in behind us.
I raised my eyebrow at him, and he shrugged. “I’m just here to make sure that hot head over there doesn’t fucking kill you.”
Turning to look at Leo, confused at what was going on, I didn’t expect the fist that plowed through my face, collecting my jaw and throwing my entire body into the large wooden table. I was already feeling unstable and dizzy, so I struggled to even gain my wits back, let alone move at all.
“Leo, that’s enough,” Optimus ordered sternly. “He’s half the fucking size he was when he went in there. I’m gonna text Skins and ask him to check him out.”
Finally, I managed to roll to the side and fall into one of the comfortable office chairs which surrounded the table. An icepack was slammed onto the table next to me, and I immediately picked it up and pressed it to my face before I looked up at Leo. “You done?”
I knew he was fucking pissed.
I deserved a goddamn punch in the face.
I deserved a kick in the balls, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.
Just in case he took it as an invitation.
The second I claimed Meyah as my own, the dynamics in this situation changed.
Where Leo, as Meyah’s uncle, had once made the choices for her in relation to her place within the club, she wasn’t just a family member anymore. She was an Old Lady.
My fucking Old Lady.
Which meant it was no longer up to him to make choices in regards to her, that responsibility fell on me. I knew he didn’t like it, especially given the circumstances, but it wasn’t as if I was expecting this situation.
