“I am going to pay you back for all of this stuff,” I tell him.
Last week, Kelsey helped me figure out how to apply for assistance. Being in a small town, it wasn’t easy, but she’s so good with the internet that she was able to help me quickly. I hate how out of reality I am with things like that, but I guess it’s expected when technology changes so quickly and I didn’t have access to it for so long. Thankfully, I’ve caught on quickly.
After submitting the application, I was told I would hear from someone within thirty days. Kelsey put her number down since I’m with her during the day and not Grizz. This way, I can talk to them if I need to when they call.
“We’ll see,” he says with a smirk.
“Yes, we will,” I add, walking over to the winter stuff. It’s already starting to get cold, and she’s going to need something warm to wear. She’s also going to need a Halloween costume. The club hosts a party every year for all the kids in town, and I told Grizz I would love to go with her.
I had fun at the Community Day with them, meeting the other guys in the club and some of their girlfriends. Seeing the people of the town was nice, and it was good to get a feel of how they feel about the MC. Most of them seemed happy, but there were a few scowling faces too. I will admit it was exhausting though—my first day out and around so many people. I worried about every interaction, unsure if I was being polite enough. After not socializing for so long, I feel like I have no skills. Thankfully, everyone was really nice and accepting of me, and after a while, I stopped worrying about it. Shark’s girlfriend, Cora, was especially nice, and I’m glad there is another girl around for me to hang out with during events.
I decide not to get any of the coats here, because I don’t like them enough for the price. I can either wait until my application goes through to get something, or I can order something onlineand pay Grizz back—because Iamgoing to do that whether he likes it or not.
We cash out quickly, and it’s when we’re walking back to his bike that I wonder how the heck we’re going to get all this stuff home. The look on my face must say it all because he just laughs and pops open the smallest trunk I’ve ever seen and meticulously puts the bags inside—not that we have much. I watch in awe, having no idea that bikes had trunks like this.
“It’s a tight fit, but it’ll do,” he says, shutting it. “Ready to go home?”
“Yes,” I say eagerly.
He straps the helmet on me again, and twenty minutes later, we’re pulling into the driveway. My heart is pounding a mile a minute, worried I’m going to walk into a massacre.
The front door opens, and I step in, feeling dizzy. But all I can do is smile when I see Tommy and Kelsey sitting on the couch. Dorothea is on Kelsey’s lap and she’s playing with her feet, smiling down at her.
They both look up when we walk in.
“You survived,” Tommy says with a laugh.
“Barely.”
I walk over and sit on the other side of Kelsey, looking down at my beautiful baby girl. “Thank you for this,” I say, reaching for her hand. She grasps onto my finger.
Kelsey leans close, bumping my shoulder with hers.
“We’re family, and that’s what family does.”
I almost tell her that’s not true, because it’s nowhere close to what my family did, but I don’t say anything because I knowthisis how it’s supposed to be. And how it will be for my daughter, too.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Grizz
“Is everything all set for the Halloween party?” Prez asks during Church. It’s a little over a week before Halloween, and I know for sure everything has been all set for at least a month. Snapper is handling it and he’s always on top of things. Nothing gets by him.
“Yes,” Snapper says. “I triple-checked that everything was all set after the charity event a few weeks ago.”
“That’s good to hear. So we can move on to other business then?” Prez questions, looking around the table at all of us.
Church is required every Saturday. Everyone who is part of the club has to be here every week, no matter what. Even when I thought a few of the guys were going to kill Prez, we still came because we’re loyal to this club.
I’m not entirely sure what happened on the weekend Shark, our VP, and Snapper took off with Prez. I was sure Shark and Snapper were going to show back up without him, giving some story about how he took off or something. We’d all have known better, and I’m not sure anyone would have questioned it. I wouldn’t have. Not that I want the guy to die, but he got things real messy for us for a while. It’s been stressful as fuck, but I’ve done my best to leave that shit here. I don’t want to take it home and stress out everyone there.
Things have been better here though, and we even made a treaty with the Iron Runners, who we do not fucking deal with at all. Of course we all have our own issues with them, but right now, mine are much more than everyone else’s.
They’ve given us trouble since the beginning, always coming into our town and trying to take our border so they can get into fucked up business, like trafficking and guns. We don’t do that shit, and we never will. We protect and we do good for this town, even if our ways are messed up sometimes too. But it’s always for the right reason.
It seems the IR was having their own issues though, and they had some kind of split. Don’t quite know what it was exactly because that’s the Prez and VP’s business, but we all voted on it fairly, and only one person voted no against the treaty.
I thought about it, because why the fuck would I want to make a deal with them after what they did to my girl? Gunner is now on the outside of the IR, but who the fuck knows who else was involved that’s still there? I don’t trust any of those pricks, but like they say… keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
