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I fell in line behind and between my guys, who crowded me in as we entered the main bar. A sign in the window said ‘Closed for Renovations’ but the guys had told me Diesel had no choice but to set up all the injured Saints here. Better to keep everyone together, close, in case of an attack. And it seemed, even now that nearly everyone was back on their feet, he was still using the bar as a makeshift safe house and Saint headquarters.
The warehouse where they usually met was too in the open for comfort given all the recent threats.
Rock classics hummed at a low volume in the background as Saints chatted, sipping beer at the bar and racking up at one of the pool tables in the back.
Heads turned as we entered and some guy in the back lifted his pint, letting out a loudwoop!Others followed his example until Sanctum echoed with the raucous cheers of everyone in the bar.
I dipped my head, shrinking behind Corvus for him to enjoy his welcome home with a ball in my throat at the warmth in the room.
“What are you doing, AJ?” Grey asked, gently tugging my elbow, guiding me back out into the open, where I realized they weren’t looking at Corvus as they clapped and jeered, sloshing beer over the floor as they raised their cups. They were looking at… me.
“Welcome back, Ava Jade,” Pinkie hollered, his throaty bellow reverberating in my chest from where he stood in the middle of the room.
I couldn’t move.
Couldn’t breathe.
“A-va Jade,” Vance called from his wheelchair, turning my name into a chant that others soon joined.
“A-va Jade, A-va Jade, A-va Jade.”
My gaze caught on a familiar pair of steel blue eyes watching me from the bar, but I’d never seen them like they were now. Crinkled at the edges, pulled taut from how he was smiling around the cigar clenched in his teeth. Diesel stood from the stool, clapping with the others in time with the chant.
My stomach twisted. My throat burned. My hand went absently to my throat, fingers grasping at empty skin where a black stone used to rest.
I whirled on my guys, who’d joined the chant with the others. So much pride in their eyes.
“What is this?”
“This is for you, Ghost,” Rook answered, his black eyes glittering in the light. “Welcome home.”
A hand grasped my shoulder, and when I turned it was to find Diesel standing behind me… wearing the leather jacket I bought for him.
“The boys filled me in on what you went through escaping that bastard,” he said, shouting to be heard over the chant. “Hope you don’t mind, but I shared some of it with the others. You got guts, kid.” He leaned in close. Squeezing my shoulder. “More than most of my crew.”
I didn’t know what to say, but I was hella fucking shocked when he pulled me in for a hug. My chest squeezed, making me clench my teeth to fight back the tears at the complete sense of belonging. The paternal sort of affection I thought I’d never feel again.
Diesel released me, and I quickly sniffed, covertly wiping my sleeve over my eyes as he spun back to face the crew of Saints in the bar. “All right, all right,” he hollered. “Calm the fuck down.”
The chanting slowly petered out, most of them going back to what they were doing, but Pinkie and a few others waded through the crowd towards us to greet me personally.
“Damn, kid,” Pinkie said. “I already knew you were a badass, but…” he trailed off, shaking his head. “I don’t think there’s another girl on this planet better suited for our Crows. Isn’t that right, boys?”
Despite myself, I blushed. Something about everyone here knowing I was intimately with not one, butall threeof these guys made me just a smidge uncomfortable. But Pinkie wasn’t judging, and the others next to him had only respect in their eyes.
“You know it, Pinkie—”
“Boy, if you call me Pinkie Pie one more time, I swear to god—”
I laughed, the ball in my throat shrinking until I could breathe again.
“Oh, you think that shit’s funny, do you?” Pinkie challenged, fixing me with a mock glare.
I swiped a tear from my eye. “Fucking hilarious,” I corrected him. “I wish I’d thought of that.”
“Come on, you four,” Diesel said, interrupting before a red-faced Pinkie could take a swing at any of us. “Let’s talk, shall we? We’ll bring the others into the room once we’ve reached a decision. Pinkie, with me.”
“Yeah, boss.”
