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“You slept?” Bront asked from his spot at the table, where he was flipping through a fitness magazine.
“Enough for everyone?” Pudge asked, shooting Bronto an annoyed look.
“Yeah, man. I bought a big pack of chicken legs along with white meat for her. Plus a shitload of vegetables,” I remarked. “Bought more fruit, eggs, and cheese too,” I said, looking at her.
She smiled.
“You a good cook?” Pudge asked Gianna, who was quietly slicing a cucumber.
“Not particularly,” she answered.
“Sit. I’ll do this.” Pudge rolled his sleeves, turned the taps on, and washed his hands.
“You not sleep yet, brother?” Bront asked, louder.
“I don’t sleep much,” Pudge replied. “Not since I got outta State.”
“You’re gonna be good for your shift tonight?” Bront pushed.
“You don’t worry about me. Neither of you.” He pointed the knife in his hand at me. “If I need somethin’ from one of my brothers, I’ll let ‘em know. Aight?”
“Just check-” Bront started.
“New age biker bullshit, boys? This ain’t no kumbaya circle jerk. My day, we’re men, not boys. We need somethin’ we get it. No braidin’ one another’s ass hairs and askin’ about fuckin’ feelings. Stop this shit, aight?”
Bront raised his hands defensively. “Yeah. Aight. How ‘bout go fuck yourself instead?”
“That’s more like it,” Pudge fired back with a grin.
Gianna giggled.
My eyes met hers and something strange hit me in the chest at the look on her face. The smile. She turned her gaze to the counter, plucked a banana off the bunch, peeled it down a little and licked her lips before she then wrapped those lips around the tip. And fuck me, I had to avert my eyes.
***
As we were finishing up the food, traffic started with brothers and their women traipsing through. A whack of club members were gonna hang here tonight. Some would be headin’ over to a card game at Deacon’s woman’s folks’ place. Her father was a good friend to the club.
Blow, our charter’s VP, wandered through the kitchen on the way to his room with his new piece, Marlena. The curvy knockout brunette gave Gianna, who was washing dishes, a pointed dirty look. Gianna caught it and appeared to try to shrink to invisibility.
Time to get her back into my room. But fuck, the girl needed to eat and shouldn’t have to suffer snotty looks while she did. Clearly, Blow hadn’t told his piece that this girl probably saved her life.
Blow looked me in the eyes with a severe expression before he headed down the hall without saying a word to her.
Brady Porter came in then, carrying an animal carrier along with a big suitcase.
He dropped the bag and set the cat cage on the table before grabbing Gianna and picking her up off her feet. “Hey babe,” he kissed her on the mouth.
“Hey!” she beamed a big smile and wrapped her arms around him tight.
“You doin’ all right?” He asked.
She nodded before he set her on her feet.
She barely came to his chest. Brady has a giant Viking vibe with his blond hair and beard. Probably six three, six four, and solid muscle. Covered in tatts like me.
“Yeah. You know… hangin’ in.” She leaned over to peer into the animal carrier and gasped, “Oh my goodness. Is this little baby yours?”
“Joelle’s.”
“Oh my wow. She’s so cute. What’s her name?”
“Marshmallow,” Brady said with a big smile, eyes on the cat who stuck a white paw through the cage bars and put it to Gianna’s nose. “Gonna go get moved in now. We’ll catch up some more later, babe.” Brady gave her a once-over. And it was hungry.
I found myself bristling.
As if picking up on my energy, he looked at me. “Know which room is mine, brother? Hey. Sorry…” He belatedly shook my hand and slapped my back. “Didn’t mean to not say hey. Haven’t seen that sweet face in too long.” He jerked a thumb toward Gianna. “How’s things? You still diggin’ Aberdeen?”
“Yeah,” I said, “it’ll do.”
“Lookin’ forward to makin’ it home,” he said. “All the brothers I’m tightest with are here.”
I liked Brady. Only hung with him a handful of times but knew he was good people. And I thought a lot of his old man. Everybody did. Meeting Torque in the joint and learning a bit about the Dominion Brotherhood while I was inside was a big part of why I agreed to a trial run with Deke as a prospect. Torque had worked on me, got me interested in finding out if this life was the life for me, which I knew it would only be if I found the right MC.
When I introduced myself to Brady and told him I did time with his old man, he was cool with me but reserved. The next time I saw him, he was open and friendly. I figured he confirmed I wasn’t just name-dropping. His father actually gave me one of my tattoos while I was in. And I was choosy about who put ink in my skin. The man was talented and put my mother’s face on my back using the snapshot I kept on the wall by my bed and doing it with such detail, so beautifully, Ma broke into a rare crying jag when I got out and showed it to her.
