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“You sure, Pres? I know you and Livvy aren’t together anymore, but—”
“No buts. In fact, let me do it.” I stand and grab the basket, taking off for the stairs.
“Pres, Pres!” Swift calls out, but I don’t care. I’m sick of wallowing in the Chapel. I need to be out amongst my brothers.
I have to get on with the day and be a fucking president, not a broody asshole. I storm with the basket over to where Dutch sits with his Old Lady, Ellie, and their twenty-year-old daughter, Rhyan. Plonking the basket down in front of Rhyan, I dip my chin at her. “It’s your lucky day. This just came in for you, Rhy.”
She glances up at me, her innocent eyes wide in shock. “For me?” she asks while Dutch narrows his eyes on me.
“Yep, enjoy,” I tell her as she sifts through the package.
I go to walk off when Ellie begins laughing, and I turn around to see Rhyan holding up a bottle of my favorite tequila and a packet of cigars. She looks at me confused, and Ellie smirks like she knows exactly what’s happening.
Groaning, I walk back over to Rhyan, who legally can’t drink for another year, take the tequila from her, and hand the cigars to her father, Dutch. “Clearly, I didn’t know what was inside. Sorry, kid. I’ll get you something to make up for it.”
Rhyan laughs, shaking her head. “Don’t worry about it, Pres. There are some chocolates in the bottom of the basket… I mean, if you don’t want those?”
“Have at it.” I smirk, nudging her shoulder.
I go to walk off, and Ellie calls out to me, “Alpha?”
Turning back, I look at Ellie. She’s been here longer than any of us. She was born and grew up in this clubhouse—a real Defiance legacy. “Yeah, El?”
“Happy non-birthday,” she quips as Rhyan widens her eyeslike she had no idea.
“Oh shit, are theseyourpresents? Here!” Rhyan shoves the chocolates back toward me. “I didn’t mean to take your presents, Pres. I’msosorry!”
I reach out, pushing the chocolates back toward Rhyan. “Kid, if I wanted them, I would keep them. They’re yours. Please, enjo—”
“Are you sure? I feel like I should be giving you something in retur—”
“Rhy!” I grunt.
She slumps her shoulders and exhales. “I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”
I chuckle. “Yeah… you are. In this world, kid, you need to be bold, be brave. Stand up for yourself. But you’re young, and we’ll make a badass out of you yet. Won’t we, Ellie?”
Ellie chuckles, reaching out and touching her daughter’s hand to comfort her. “You’re a gentle soul, Rhy. You’ll toughen up in your own time.”
“They’re here,” Ink calls out, running in from outside.
“Then open the fucking gates,” I reply.
“Oh. Right. Yeah,” Ink calls back.
Sometimes he says shit but then doesn’t action it. Might be his ADHD. Might be because he just doesn’t think things through. Either way, sometimes we need to be patient with him.
He takes off for the gates while we all chuckle.
Swift steps up to my side. “The prodigal son returns,” he states, slapping my back.
Nodding, I waggle my brows as Loki, Strings, Rip, Eggs, and Weaver all step up beside me.
A lot has gone down since our brother South left us to temporarily patch over to our brother chapter in New Orleans. When he asked for the transfer, I have to admit, I was fucking hurt. We’d always had a good friendship, South and me. Ithought I could rely on him. But he needed a change of pace, and Hurricane, NOLA’s president, needed more bodies to fill their quota.
I will never be the type of president to make a brother stay if they don’t want to be here. That’s why when all that shit went down with City, Izzy, and Dice, I let City transfer too. When Izzy followed him, it was a natural progression. Dice’s death, well, that was bound to happen. The guy was going off the rails for a long-ass time. So losing South just after all that shit happened, made me begin to question whether it was my leadership or whether it wasthis clubthat was the problem.
But now that South is returning, I’m not questioning it quite so hard. I thought we’d lost him to NOLA for good, especially when he’d gotten himself an Old Lady while there, but he’s bringing her back here with him. The fact Ingrid is Hurricane’s stepmom and is a fair bit older than South, well, who am I to judge?
