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“Mae, you’re safe. Do you hear me?”
She blinks and takes a shaky breath before nodding. “S-sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for, Mae, but I need you to get control of your breathing. I’d hate for you to faint,” Doc says, and I notice he’s got his fingers pressed against her wrist, checking her heartbeat.
Nodding again, she takes some deep breaths, and slowly, her body stops shaking. After a few moments, she looks around at everyone before settling her gaze on me.
“None of the guys behind us got hurt, did they?”
I shake my head. “Thanks to Timber’s warning, they all broke off in time. A few are following all three cars to see what they can find out. Aside from that, I don’t know anything more.”
And while that is true, even if I did know more, I wouldn’t be able to tell her since it’s now club business.
Shit, that reminds me, I should tell her about that.
“Did Timber talk to you more about how the club works?”
She shakes her head. “No, he said he’d tell me more later today after we were done shopping, but then this happened.” She bites her lip nervously.
“Okay. I’m going to tell you a little about it because at first, there was one thing that really rubbed me raw. However, after a bit, I understood it even if I didn’t like it. When Thor and Dragon couldn’t tell me more about something, even if it affected me, they would say the dreaded phrase I hated: that it was ‘club business’. Has he mentioned that at all to you yet?”
“No. So you mean, I’ll be left out of some things even though it’s regarding my safety?” she asks and her brow furrows in confusion.
Sighing, I nod. “Yes, but you should still talk to Timber. He can tell you some things, but not all the details. I almost left my guys because they wouldn’t tell meanythingat first, but Uncle Bear convinced them that I’d be safer even if I only knew tidbits of information. It’s better to be aware that there’s danger and maybe they’ll be able to tell you some things to watch out for. But that’s a big maybe. When it gets to the in-depth details and specifics, that’s where they won’t be able to tell you anything. What I mean by that is how they’re going to protect you or any of us women and kids. Does that make sense?”
Her brow furrows further as she thinks, and I hope she’s going to be okay with this because she’ll have to deal with it for the rest of her life if she stays with Timber. I doubt she’ll want to Prospect to be a full club member based on what I know about her so far.
“Do you mean like plausible deniability? That they won’t tell me something as a way to protect me for if something goes wrong and cops are called in or something? Though from the little I’ve read, and I could be wrong, it sounds like clubs usually try to take care of their problems themselves rather than involving the cops.”
“Holy fuck, I hope when I find a woman that she understands this like you do,” Andre says from behind me, which has all of us laughing.
Mae looks around, confused. “Wait, what?” she asks, getting more even confused.
Punisher plops down next to her and puts an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head there, sis. You didn’t say anything wrong. We’re all just surprised by how well you understand what Levi’s saying.
“She’s right, though. We’re not going to be able to tell you the deets, but Timber should be able to give you the cliff note version. Especially if they already did that with Levi when her shit went down. If they did that for her, then I’m guessing Thor’s also going to be okay with Timber giving you a little information. If you don’t know you should be looking out for something, then that just puts you in even more danger and makes our job harder as well.”
He hugs her close and starts talking to her quietly. It’s surprising to see her relaxing as much as she does while he continues to talk to her.
My heart clenches at Punisher’s words and seeing him take care of Mae like a little sister right now. I know this must be hitting him hard. He wasn’t able to protect his own sister, and she died by her abusive boyfriend’s hand. Thank fuck the club tracked the asshole down and delt with him.
My cell phone dings twice and I pull it out of my cut to see one’s from Thor and the other’s from Timber. Then, I hear my brothers’ phones ding as well.
Thor: We’re calling Church, Wildcat, so we’ll need you all to come over to the clubhouse. Prospects will watch over the ladies and kids in the main room. We’re on semi-lockdown.
Timber: How is she? She okay?
I can’t help the smile at seeing Timber worried about Mae. I quickly snap a picture of her and Punisher together before sending it to him.
Levi: She’s calmed down since I talked with her, but she’s doing even better now that Punisher is talking to her. I think he may be adopting Mae as his little sister before long, if he hasn’t already.
Timber: As long as his relationship stays that way since she’s my woman. Fuck, I bet this is dredging up a shit ton of memories for him.
I bite my lip to suppress a giggle at the first part of Timber’s text. Then my mood instantly sours because he’s right. I can see the tightness around Punisher’s eyes and I bet he’s reliving some awful memories.
Pushing those thoughts away, I pull up the message from Thor and respond to him.
Levi: We’ll be there in a few minutes, Hun.
