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“What?”
He smiled softly, squeezing my hand. “That your parents loved you so much that they were willing to get into the car in the middle of the night to go get you. No yelling, no telling you to deal with your own consequences. I know of so many kids whose parents would’ve just told them to deal with it. Not yours. They were coming to get you because they loved you. That’s something to hold on to.”
Tears slipped over my cheeks, and I clenched my jaw to stop it from trembling. My heart ached every time I thought about my parents. They were good people. Strict when they had to be, but fair and kind. They never would’ve kicked me out or let me live on the street.
“I feel like I lost my entire family that night.”
Tyson sighed, pulling me into a hug. “I know. And I’m sorry for that. It’s not fair what your siblings did. But you have a family. You’ve got me. We may not be blood related, but I’ll be damned if I ever let anything happen to you.”
I snorted, hugging him tightly. When I pulled away, scrubbing my fists over my eyes to dash the tears away, he gave me a significant look and I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah, yeah. I know. You’re like a really annoying cousin. Or maybe an uncle. Because you’re so old.”
“Hey! Watch it, you little shit!”
I burst out laughing, and he joined me, shaking his head. Tyson was a lot older than me, early forties, but I didn’t really pay attention to that. He was my friend. He lost his whole family when he started doing drugs. They pushed him away, cut him off, a lot like my family did to me. He took the place of my siblings, and I took the place of his family. We relied on each other.
Tyson was never in a rush for me to get over my spiral. He held my hand and sat with me, talking me down until I could breathe on my own again and the urge to punish myself for something that I never meant to happen disappeared. I had no idea what I’d do without him.
Once I was no longer a fidgeting mess, he opened the bag of food he brought, passing me some fries. I fought back a grin.
“Every time. Are you addicted to these? Should I be worried?”
He chuckled. “Shut up. It’s comfort food. Stop complaining and tell me what’s going on in your life. We were due for our weekly phone call tomorrow anyway.”
I hummed, nibbling on the fries. They weren’t hot anymore, which was disappointing, but he didn’t seem to care. He tossed them into the microwave and listened to me talk about work with an easy smile on his face until I mentioned going to work at the motorcycle club. He stiffened and his face fell.
“Hold on. What motorcycle club?”
My lips pursed. He wasn’t going to like it when I told him. Tyson was annoyingly overprotective sometimes. A lot like Russel. He didn’t think I could handle myself in the world.
“Ever heard of the Devil’s Disciples?”
His eyes widened, and I was right. He looked pissed. “Sam!”
I grimaced. “I know, I know, but hear me out.”
He shoved away from the table, pacing my tiny kitchen. “You can’t be thinking of taking the job, Sam. Talk about the worst idea on the planet. They’re dangerous! What if you do something that they don’t like and they hurt you for it? We don’t even know half the stuff they get into. They could be human traffickers, for all we know!”
“Not that I noticed. The only woman I saw not wearing a leather vest was the president’s wife.”
He spun around to face me, his eyebrows almost in his hairline. “You already went?”
He was getting worked up, and he wasn’t going to let me get a word in edgewise unless I calmed him down. I put my hands up, rushing to explain myself.
“Hold on, let me explain. I didn’t actually know where I was going when I took the job.”
His brows furrowed so fast it was almost comical. Ya know, if he wasn’t freaking out right now.
“I fucking know Russel wouldn’t send you out to a job like that. Try again.”
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “He didn’t! Can you sit down and let me talk? You’re stressing me out.”
He still looked pissed, but he did as I asked, dropping back into his seat with his arms folded across his chest. He kept his mouth shut as I explained Angelo’s request, what happened while I was at the MC, and why Russel was going to let me go.
“For some reason, the president only wants to work with me. I don’t know why, but this is a big opportunity for me. Russel will finally start taking me seriously if I can pull off a job like this on my own.”
Tyson still looked uncomfortable, shaking his head slowly. “Sam…”
