Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137310 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 687(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 458(@300wpm)
It was the type of urge that had only hit him once before, last night when he didn’t know what to do to help Di.
But now he had time.
His first instinct was to fight it.
His second was to set it aside and think about it later.
His last was to just fucking do it.
So he called Dutch.
“Yo, Hug,” Dutch answered. “All good?”
“Yeah, Pete’s with Di and I’m running an errand, but you got a second?”
“Got lots of ’em. Jag and Coe are on the dad and I’m kicking back at the rental until you get home with Diana. Then I’ll be keeping an eye on the complex. What’s up?”
“You and Georgie hooked up fast and put down roots just as fast.”
“Yeah.”
“How’d you…” Jesus, this was tough. “How’d you know with her?”
Dutch chuckled and said, “Man, at first, I didn’t. She was a major bitch when I met her. Then she wasn’t, and I said some stupid shit and nearly blew it. But then she was just her, and I just knew.”
“That was it?”
“You know Georgie?”
He did.
And yeah, she was a damn fine woman.
“I see your point,” he muttered.
“Not lost on any of us you got your eye on Diana,” Dutch said leadingly.
“She’s problematic in the sense she gives everything she’s got to pretty much everyone she knows.”
“Sounds like a match.”
Hugger stared at his fuel tank as he asked, “What?”
“You’re the first to volunteer on missions. You’re the first in to open the store. You’re the first to raise your hand when someone needs something covered. Hop said we gave you the wrong Club name. He said we shoulda called you Shaky, since that’s the opposite of Steady.”
Hugger lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck, which was getting scorched by the sun, but that wasn’t the heat that was concerning him.
That heat was happening in his gut.
“Hug?” Dutch called.
“You know who my dad is?” he asked abruptly.
“No,” Dutch replied. “I know whose seed made you. I also know he wasn’t even close to bein’ your dad.”
“I still was made from his seed.”
“Brother, you know Joker’s story. Now, is Joke one thing like that shitheel who made him?”
Fuck.
“No,” Hugger pushed out.
“And word got out about what Core grew up with, what happened, what his dad did. Core veered hard off the righteous path, but he pulled out all the stops to drag himself back. Hellen thinks he hangs the moon and ushers in the sun. He strayed, but he got his shit tight and earned the love of a good woman and lives a life doing good things for people who need it. In the end, he’s not one thing like the seed that made him.”
Hugger knew Hardcore’s story too.
And again.
Fuck.
“Listen,” Dutch said. “You need to talk to Tack.”
“I’m gonna.”
“Right, then in the meantime, don’t let that shit stand in the way when you find what you want. Hell, when you find what you deserve, man. Just don’t.”
“She lives in a different state, brother.”
“I’d follow Georgie to Kazakhstan if she had to move there for a posting, and I don’t even know where Kazakhstan is.”
Hugger chuckled, but he was surprised at hearing this.
“You would?”
“Definitely.”
“What about the Club?”
“Club’s not going anywhere. My patch will still stand. I’d just be wearing it in Kazakhstan.”
At that, Hugger felt the sun scorching at his neck and he wondered if he could put up with it for a long haul.
“Thanks, Dutch. This was cool.”
“Anytime, you hear that?’
“Yeah.”
“No really, Hug. You hear that?”
The heat came back to his gut and his voice was low when he said, “Yeah, Dutch. I heard it.”
“You got a lotta love, brother. You just gotta open yourself up to us giving it.”
That was when Hugger dropped his head.
And he repeated, “Yeah.”
“Good to let you go?”
Hugger lifted his head. “Come up for dinner if you’re patrolling the complex. Diana would be pissed you were close and she didn’t feed you.”
“Tell me the time, I’ll be there.”
“Gotcha. Later, brother. And thanks again.”
“My pleasure. See you tonight.”
They disconnected, and before he could talk himself out of it, he made another call.
He put the phone to his ear, listened to it ring twice, and then he heard the connection.
“About time,” Tack said.
“I need something, brother, but I don’t know what I need,” Hugger admitted.
“You good with me seein’ to that with your brothers?”
“No, but it’s time.”
“Why the no?”
Because he was shit scared, that was why.
“It’s about her and you. Jackie and Harlan,” Tack’s gravelly voice growled. “It has never been about him. You were legacy because you were Jackie’s, Hugger. Now when you get home, that will be confirmed. I’ll sort it. You got me?”
You were legacy because you were Jackie’s.
“I was legacy because of Ma?”
“You’re ours, Hug. Born that way.”
Ours.
Born that way.
“You got me?” Tack repeated.
“I’m gonna be down here awhile,” he warned Tack.
“Yeah. Pete said you’re connecting with Diana. Glad for you, brother. ’Bout time on that too. You got a lot of good to give a woman.”