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I tell her a sanitized version of the truth: that he got arrested, and that he’ll probably be behind bars for a while. She wants me to tell her the whole story, but I beg off, saying she needs to rest first. “I’ll tell you more about it later, baby.” I reach out to smooth back a tendril of hair that’s fallen over her beautiful face. “I promise.”
“What happened to Hooch?”
I know she won’t mourn him, but I still can’t tell her the truth about his death. It’s for her own good for her to know as little as possible. Besides, I have no idea how to explain what happened during Hooch’s final moments, with Rael.
“Let’s just say we gave him a message he couldn’t ignore,” I say evasively. “He’s not going to bother you anymore. I promise. You’ll never see him again.”
But Kat is too smart for that. I know she understands that he’s dead.
“What about the other Royal Bastard who you put on me to watch me for the last few days?” she asks. When I frown, she huffs out something that almost sounds like a laugh. “Yes, of course I noticed him,” she tells me. “But then he wasn’t there anymore, and I figured you’d finally given up on having people follow me around. Is he okay?”
Shit. I don’t have it in me to lie to her about Franco. Besides, she’ll hear it from another Bastard or an old lady eventually.
“I’m sorry, darlin’,” I say gently. “The men who kidnapped you got to him first. They took him out.”
“Took him out?” Kat looks shocked. Her lip starts to tremble again. “You mean, they killed him because of me? Oh, god, that’s so awful!”
“Sshhh. He died serving the club,” I correct her. “He was a Royal Bastard, Kat. That’s what we do. We protect each other, no matter the cost. We’re a family, and you’re a part of that now.”
We sit in silence for a few moments, both of us mourning the man who gave his life for his club.
“So much death,” she intones in a hollowed-out voice. “So much pain.”
“But you caused none of it, babe.” I reminder. “You brought none of it on yourself. Repeat it over and over in your head until you know it, beyond a shadow of a doubt.”
Kat doesn’t answer. I know it’s going to take her a while to process all of this. She’s got a long road ahead of her. But she’s got me to help her through it. Me, and the rest of the club, and the old ladies. We’ll be there for her, no matter what.
Wishbone comes back with a pair of fluffy fuzzy socks that Reenie brought from home to protect her feet. She pulls them on, and I pick her up and carry her out to the main room, against Kat’s protests. I deposit her on one of the couches, and from there, she holds court like a queen for several hours. The men come up one after the other, to make sure she’s okay, and tell her what a badass she was. The women flock around her, hugging her and taking their places around her like ladies in waiting. Rael even goes over to meet her. Kat looks a a little freaked out by his appearance, but she does a pretty good job of just rolling with it.
After Rael spends a few minutes talking to her, he saunters over to me at the bar, where I’m watching the whole scene from a distance.
“Seems like she’s worth all the fuss,” he says cryptically. “Glad you got her back.”
I get the feeling that’s a hell of an endorsement, coming from him.
Gigi shows up, later, too. While Wishbone was tending to Kat, I decided to call her and tell her the bare bones of what happened to Kat — leaving out enough of the details to keep my sister safe. When Gigi bursts through the door of the clubhouse, she’s crying — a sight I haven’t seen since she was a little girl in pigtails.
“Oh my god, Kat!” she wails, flying to the couch and enveloping her in a hug. “You could have been killed! God, I couldn’t have taken it if my brother had lost you a second time! I’m so glad to see you, you have no idea!”
The two share an emotional embrace that lasts several minutes. Mack comes up behind me, looking taken aback. “Shit, Fury,” he says, shaking his head. “It looks like your sister is capable of human emotions, after all. Who’d have guessed?”
Everyone in the clubhouse is in high spirits, and pretty soon a spontaneous party breaks out. Someone turns up the music, and Little Big Mama starts slinging drinks as fast as she can at the bar. We stay for a while, but when I can tell Kat is getting tired, I grab her off the couch and carry her out to my truck, saying our goodbyes as we go. I take Kat straight to my place, and she doesn’t argue. I insist on her letting me carry her inside.
“You can’t carry me around for the rest of my life, Connor,” she teases me as I transport her over the threshold and through the house to my bedroom.
“The hell I can’t,” I growl. “You underestimate me, woman.”
She giggles. “I think that might make doing my job at the hospital a little difficult.”
The laughter dies on her lips. Her face gets a faraway look.
“You okay, babe?”
She nods, looking pensive. “I guess I’m glad Quad and his club are in jail rather than the alternative. But Connor, I’m scared this really isn’t all over. What if the Eagle’s Talon implicates the Royal Bastards to the cartel? What if they come after you?”
I shake my head. “Not gonna happen. The Talon’s got no proof. And besides, the Bastards have steered well clear of Sinaloa over the years. We have no beef with them. But there’s a long history of conflict between the Talon and the Bastards. We can talk our way out of it if we need to. The cartel will buy it if we tell them the Talon were trying to use them, to strike out at us. The cartel won’t like that at all, thinking the Talon used them. Anything the Talon — or what’s left of them, anyway — says about us to Sinaloa would end up backfiring on them. And I’m pretty sure they know it.” I kiss her deeply. “It’s over, baby. I promise.”
Gently, I set her on the bed, and then pull off her thick goofy socks, and then her clothing. She’s oddly silent as I lift her shirt up and over her head, and then I realize why.
