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“When are you going to make an honest woman of that girl already?” Viking asks as he takes a seat beside me at the bar.
“Don’t you think it’s a little soon to be talking about marriage, old man?” I chuckle. “I can’t even get Irene to date me and you’re planning our whole future already.”
“Fuck marriage. A ring doesn’t mean shit and you don’t need a piece of paper to prove you love someone.” He grumbles. “What I wanna know is when you’re going to put a patch on her back.”
“Not sure it’s something she would want,” I reply. “Not all women are open to the idea of wearing a property patch.”
“Why would you say that?”
“I heard a couple of civilian women talking about Hadley’s property patch when I took her to the grocery store last week,” I explain. “Apparently, they found it archaic. Said they couldn’t understand why any woman would want to belong to a man. The one woman actually said she wasn’t a horse and couldn’t be owned.”
With every word out of my mouth, I can see the frown on Viking’s face deepen.
“You should have told them,” Storm interjects from behind. “A property patch doesn’t mean she belongs to a man. It means she belongs with him. My property patch means family and security. And for someone like me, like Kaiya and Hadley, who didn’t grow up with everything, it means home.”
“Sorry.” I feel like shit. “I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.”
“Don’t worry about it.” She smiles as she pats my back. “I know what those stuck-up bitches in town say about me. About us. But I have a family and a man that isn’t fucking his secretary behind my back, so the joke’s on them.”
“Fuck the civies.” Viking lifts his bourbon in a toast which has Storm laughing out loud.
“Do you think Irene would want to wear my patch?” I ask Viking after Storm walks away. “She has a family, she’s independent as all get-out, and she doesn’t seem the type, to be honest.”
“I know that things between you two haven’t exactly been simple,” he replies rubbing his beard. “But I fully believe she would be happy to be an official member of the club.”
“I don’t know,” I start to say, doubt creeping in.
“It’s up to you, brother. But if you never ask, you’ll never know.”
With a smile he walks away, leaving me with my thoughts. I would love to see Irene wearing my patch, hell, I would be ecstatic. I’ve had it in a box in the bottom of my cupboard for weeks. But I need to give her time to make peace with the fact she is my woman now, not just some piece of ass.
I may have said friends with benefits but that was only to get her to lower her guard. What I meant was, forever.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Past Never Stays in The Past
Irene
I wish I was with Beast and everyone else down at the clubhouse celebrating his birthday instead of here working. But I offered to take this shift for Preacher. His father, Maurice, has lung cancer and it hasn’t been going well for him. If my father was still alive, I would have given up anything and everything to spend time with him. Even if he was sick.
I know Preacher well enough to know it’s killing him that he can’t be there to take care of his father, even if he doesn’t say it.
The only silver lining is that there’s only an hour left before closing time. I’m counting the minutes, praying for time to pass faster so I can get the hell out of here.
A knock on my door draws my attention.
“Kevin,” I say, seeing one of our bouncers standing there. “What can I do for you?”
“Sorry to interrupt,” he replies. “There’s a girl out here asking for you.”
“I’m not doing interviews at one in the morning.” I sigh loudly.
He frowns. “I know. And I told her that. But she says she isn’t here for a job. Said her name is Trinity.”
“Shit.” My expression must show my shock because he straightens up immediately. I stand and move to the door. “Don’t worry. I’ll see to her.”
I pat Kevin’s shoulder as I walk past him and down the hallway to the main floor. At the bar stands a willowy black woman with a raucous head full of curls.
