CHAPTER 17
Rue
“This place is amazing,” I said, spinning to take in the room.
“Thanks!” Mercy said, practically glowing. “There’s still a lot of work to be done to get it to where I want it, but opening day is still a ways out.”
“I’m still impressed you can cook well enough to open a restaurant,” I admitted. More than once Ryan had complained over the years about my lack of culinary skills. A complaint that was not unfounded. If we had adopted Norman years ago, I suspect he would have had a lot of my dinners snuck under the table to him.
“You save people’s lives,” she said with a soft smile. “I just feed them.”
I followed her into the kitchen area and watched as she started pulling out pots and pans. “That’s important too,” I told her.
She grinned at me over her shoulder. “It is, especially fortheseguys. They live to eat.” She hesitated, then added, “And drink.” We exchanged smiles. “We’ll make them a feast tonight and you’ll see that it’s true, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”
“Then I better stay far away from whatever you’re doing,” I said with a laugh as Mercy tied an apron around her rounded belly. “They’ll think you’re trying to poison them.”
“You can keep me company.”
“I feel like they’re trying to keep us occupied and out of their way,” I complained. “Not that I’m not grateful for all their help-”
“It can be a little overwhelming,” she said before I could continue.
“Exactly,” I sighed. “I just…don’t understand.”
“I do,” she said, turning to face me. “Both sides. You don’t understand why they’re helping you. They did the same for me, so I get it. And you don’t understand these guys overall. This is just how they are. They help people. Kind of like you do.”
I let out a soft scoffing laugh.
“Don’t get me wrong,” she said with a wry smile, “they kill people. It took me a while to process that. But they only do it in defense of others.” She rocked her head side to side as though considering the words. “Somehow I’ve come to find that acceptable. Never thought I’d be in the position to ever come across that moral conundrum, but these aregoodmen. Dangerous,” she added, “but good. I can live with that. Well, actually, I’m alivebecauseof that. My whole family is.”
I studied her face, then nodded. “I can, too.” That was a decision I’d made after they’d help me save Teddy. They’d already started making such a difference there was no way I could hold their methods against them. In this case the ends justified the means. Especially when the guys we were going up against were what Overdrive referred to as shit bags.
I’d lost all remorse or guilt for their fates. Not once I found out they were the reason my brother wouldn’t come home. “What are we making?” I asked, hesitant to include myself in her task for the day. But I had nothing else to do for now. I planned to speak to OD about letting me help them in any way I could. I didn’t want to just be left behind while they did all the work. Not when I was the one who started all this.
Kilo had asked if she would make dinner for everyone tonight. The men had split up this morning first thing, all off to do one task or another. Bolo had started bellowing the minute two carbon copies of himself—though maybe a few years older and quite a few years older—had shown up at the clubhouse.
Relay had rolled his eyes and stalked off. That one had some kind of family trauma. Or maybe it was just trauma, but he was holding something deep inside. I wasn’t one to pry, though, so I’d said nothing. I didn’t like it when others did that to me.
This was all new for me. Having people to depend on had never been something I’d had. I always had to be the one in charge. The strong one. And I’d never been resentful of that role. It was just something that had to be done. But it meant that accepting help from others was difficult.
And now here was OD and his family. And there was a part of me, a tiny piece I’d shoved deep down forever ago, that really wanted to belong to them. They’d said I was theirs, but I wasn’t sure where this thing with OD was going. He’d said he liked me, that was a far cry from me belonging to this group though. I also wasn’t sure I could accept everything they were offering me without inadvertently self-sabotaging it.
Everything was so uncertain and just out of my comfort zone. I was determined to take this one day at a time. I needed help with Carrick. For both Ryan and Teddy’s sakes. I also really liked OD and wanted to spend more time with him. So I was workingon not thinking about the rest too much. That way I wouldn’t panic and shove OD away.
“I think we’re going to go with a seafood boil,” Mercy said, putting her hands on her hips and looking around at the tools of her trade.
My mouth watered. “Sounds good to me.”
“Good. You’re going to help me peel and devein shrimp.”
Sucking in a breath, I nodded. There was no way I could mess this up with her overseeing things.
Challenge accepted.
OD had warned me that we’d be in a holding pattern for a couple of weeks. Ruck wasn’t going to make a move until he had a safe place for all of their brothers, and us, to be. That meant getting the apartments at the clubhouse finished.
It gave them time to look into the people involved in Carrick’s business. I was so curious it was hard not to be impatient. But I already knew that these guys would figure everything out. It just took time.
