Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 88215 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88215 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Nolan adjusts his Wolf Warriors cut. I remind myself to ask Rage later why the fuck she didn’t join up with her man’s MC and joined The Lawless instead.
“I know you’ve kept your distance. I just wanted to let you know I appreciate that. I also wanted to let you know that I appreciate you saving my life. You didn’t owe me shit, but you did it anyway,” Nolan says.
“I did it for Rage,” I correct him.
“I know. And that’s why you don’t have a fucking bullet in your head right now,” he says with a smile.
“Fuck,” I say, taking a step closer. “You’re even starting to act like her,” I can’t help the laugh that escapes me. “You’re doing that thing she does where she says something really fucked up but with a smile on her face like she told you she’s running out for fucking frozen yogurt.”
Nolan glances at the mirror then back to me, dropping the smile. “Fuck, I am doing it,” he says.
We both laugh.
“What happened out there that night? That wasn’t your fault. None of it was,” Nolan says.
“I know that,” I say. “Now.”
“I wanted to kill you,” Nolan cracks his knuckles.
“I would have killed you,” I say. “You’re a better man than me.”
“But I came here for a reason. I got something to say. Something important.”
I sigh. “What?”
“You don’t gotta leave again. You can stick around without worry. In fact, after talking to Rage, she brought something up, but she didn’t want to ask you so I’m gonna, and just so you know, the answer is yes because I’m not going to be the one to tell her otherwise.”
“What is it?”
“It’s for her.”
“Just fucking spit it out already!” I groan.
“We’re getting married,” Nolan says.
“Holy shit,” I say, a smile spreading across my face.
Nolan returns my smile looking downright proud of himself. “And I only had to ask her about sixty times before she said yes.”
“I’m impressed,” I say, because I am impressed. Rage of all people. Married?
“What do you want from me?”
“I ain’t gonna ask your permission or nothin’ because she’s my girl, and I don’t need your fucking permission, just let me say that first.”
I nod.
“But, I do want to ask you if you’ll give her away.”
“What about her dad?” Rage is the only killer I know who’s in tight with her mom and pop.
“We’re doing a little backyard ceremony for them. Just the four of us. She doesn’t want to bring them around this world, and I don’t blame her. But we’re gonna do something here right after. At the club. And in that part of it she wants you to give her away.”
I’m so stunned by the request that I don’t speak for a while.
“And?” Nolan waves his hand in the air, waiting for me to answer.
“And I’m really surprised there aren’t bullet holes in the wall right now, and that we’re really talking about this,” I say, making Nolan laugh.
“Me, too, motherfucker. Me, too,” Nolan says. “So, you’ll do it?”
I look across the courtyard and catch Rage watching us. She turns around and pretends to be picking something up off the floor like she wasn’t listening and watching us the entire time.
“Yeah, man. I’ll do it.”
Nolan nods. “Good.” He turns to leave but stops again. “There’s one more thing. The Wolf Warriors are merging with Lawless. I’m going to be Bear’s new second in command. I talked it over with Bear, and this is yours if you want it.” He kicks a bag at his feet that I didn’t even notice he’d brought in, then leaves.
I get up and empty the bag onto the bed. A new smelling leather cut falls out.
The back has The Lawless MC with their logo and on the front, is my name and a new patch underneath. LIFE MEMBER.
I sit.
They want me to be a part of something. Something bigger than myself. I shrug off the worn leather cut from my shoulders. The blank one that tells no stories and no lies. And I shrug on the new one. I pause in the mirror as I turn around and inspect the new logo on my back. I expect to feel overwhelmed. Suffocated.
But I don’t. I feel warm. Comfortable. I can breathe again; the same way Frankie makes me feel I can breathe again.
I feel like I belong. To these people. To the club.
To Frankie.
After thirty some odd years adrift, I’ve found my place in the world.
Who’d a fucking thought.
Chapter Sixty
Three weeks later
“Sit,” he demands, and I’m too tired to fight so I take a seat at the edge of the mattress.
Recovering is exhausting.
Smoke hands me a manila file. “I have something for you.”
“What’s this?” I ask.
Smoke takes off his cut and hangs it over the back of a nearby chair. “Something didn’t add up to me about your father, who was an accountant and a money launderer, suddenly taking up something like human trafficking. One doesn’t exactly lead to the other. So, I had Nine look into it for me.”