He nodded, but he was stilted. Almost like he wasn’t in his body.
“Hey,” I whispered, reaching up to stroke his face, but he reared back like I’d hit him.
“Fuck!” he bellowed.
He turned to walk away, but I reached for him again. “Wait. Doom, you can’t leave like this. Just take a minute.”
He tried to pull away again, but I held fast.
“Lincoln, I need you to look at me. I’ll let you go, but I’m not letting you leave until I know you’re okay.”
He looked at me, but it took a little while for me to know that he saw me. Once his body unlocked, I relaxed and gave his arm a squeeze. “There you are.”
“Sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for.” I smiled. “I’m assuming everyone knows. At the club?”
“No. Doc and Alamo know, so I assume they’ve told their women, but it’s not common knowledge amongst the brothers. I don’t know what the fuck Willow knows, though. She’s like a voodoo witch who can read your soul or some shit just by looking at you.”
I bit back a chuckle. “She’s got that quiet cool thing going for sure.”
“I don’t think Quin knows, though. She keeps tryin’ to set me up with her friends. It got so bad, I had to have Badger shut it down.”
“Did he?”
He shrugged. “Haven’t asked. As long as her harping stops…” He shook his head. “She needs to understand I’ll never have that again. They all need to understand that.”
“What about love? You don’t want that again? More kids?”
“I’m gonna head out,” he said without answering my questions.
I could see he was calmer, so I nodded. “Okay. Thanks for coming by.”
“I’ll text you this week.”
“Sounds good.”
Then he was gone.
* * *
Doom
Saturday night, I headed downstairs, the pig roast in full swing. I got a few surprised looks, but no one said anything as I made my way into the kitchen for a beer.
“Hey, brother,” Alamo said as I pulled open the refrigerator.
“Hey.”
“You gonna hang?”
“Was thinkin’ about it.”
He smiled. “I like that, Doom.”
A feminine gasp had me turning toward Jasmine and I rolled my eyes.
“I’m sorry, who are you?” she joked. “I don’t think we’ve met.”
