“Thanks a lot, Deeks. Thanks a fucking lot, brother.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ayda
Iwas leaning over the sink, studying the bruise on my cheek when I heard the door slam closed from Tate’s room as he slugged down the hall towards the kitchen. I’d been hiding from him since the bruise had started blossoming under my skin. I’d already spent an hour that morning trying to cover it up. If there was anything that really, truly bothered me, it was the thought of being treated as though I was weak, and that’s exactly what a bruise would convey. Weakness. The fact that Maisey fucking Sutton didn’t have a blemish on her pissed me off even more.
I’d done everything I could to cover the ugly bruise. I headed in the same path Tate had taken, watching him bang around the kitchen angrily while I leaned against the arch between rooms.
“Okay, are you going to stay mad at me forever, T?”
“I’m not mad at you anymore. I’m mad at myself and Sloane’s stupid stepmother.”
My heart dropped for a second and I let my hair fall forward, covering any trace of the bruise on my cheek. “Why? What’s her stepmom done now?”
“She convinced the chief that Sloane shouldn’t be allowed to see me. She said I was a bad influence and lied aboutcoming home to find me in Sloane’s bed.”
“Tate!”
“I said it was a lie and it was. I would never do that. The only place we’ve hung out since she was banned from here was the Chandler’s hayloft.”
“Seriously?” I asked, raising my brows at him.
“I said I didn’t—”
“No, I believe you about that,” I said, waving my arm about. “I’m just surprised about the barn. You can’t wait a couple of days?”
“Shut up. You try being a teenage boy with a stiffy every time you sneeze, then ask me if I’m serious.”
I made a face at him and pushed off the wall to steal some of the cereal he was pouring out. He swatted me away, but I just grinned and shoved them in my mouth, asking him what he was going to do now.
“What can I do?”
“He can’t arrest you for dating his daughter, Tate, and I’m just one person working three jobs, I can’t keep an eye on you twenty-four seven. It takes two to tango.”
“Were you abducted by pod people in the last twenty-four hours?”
“No. I just don’t like that pumped-up piece of plastic telling you what you can and can’t do because she’s a jealous idiot who has no idea what the fuck she’s talking about.”
He obviously had no response to that, because he just stared open-mouthed, much like I had the day before when the bitch had clocked me one. I’d never been a rule breaker. I wasn’t prim and proper by any stretch of the imagination, and I was bringing Tate up with the same attitude my parents had with the two of us. We were given a certain amount offreedom no one else had, on the basis that we were honest with them and never lied. For them, it meant they knew where we were and what we were doing. It gave us the confidence to talk to them about things most people would never talk to their parents about, and there was always open dialogue.
I couldn’t lie, it got pretty weird talking to Tate about his sex life at times, but I could live with that. As long as he didn’t lie to me, we were going to be okay. I was giving him a chance to be honest, even if I wasn’t necessarily going to like it, and more to the point, even if it meant everything I did was under a microscope. It wasn’t like being a good girl had ever really done me any favors in life—just an overhang of debt, a five-figure mortgage and a teenage boy dependent on me.
He didn’t say much as I drove him to school in the car that Drew had repaired and delivered back to me, as promised, but the smile Tate flashed me when he greeted Sloane with a kiss in front of me was priceless. I would take the fist again if I got to see that. No one was going to tell him who he could and couldn’t see.
By the time I pulled up at The Hut, all the bravado I’d been feeling was long gone. Once again I stood outside the doors, staring at the skull as though it held all the answers, but it did nothing but confuse me further. I had an idea what it meant to every man inside this building. It was a way of life, a brotherhood, and it represented safety and a family of their own making. Most of these men lived by the morals and scruples they had set for one another, and when you took the time to really sit back and look at it, it was a beautiful thing. You just had to look past some of the things—the things that were unavoidable when you were in the thick of it and invisible to them.
I’d barely made it through the gate when the door was pushed open and Kenny stuck his head out. The moment he saw me, the rest of him followed, his smile bright as he revealed two mugs in his hand and offered me one that advertised a motorcycle parts company.
“Two sugars and a brief introduction to milk, that right?”
“You remembered. Thanks, Kenny.”
He nodded to a bench that was bathed in sunlight, and though I knew I should probably get in there and start working, the kiss of the sun was too appealing to turn down the offer. The moment I sat on the table, I pulled my legs up close and curled my hands around the mug.
“Gotta tell you, Hanagan, you sure know how to cause trouble.”
Closing my eyes and lifting my face to the sun, I smiled. I was anything but trouble until I met this group of misfits. I wasn’t going to tell him that, though.
