“And the Wolves situation?” Handful asked.
“Unchanged. Their deadline is almost up. They’ll either make a move or they won’t.”
“And Indira?”
I felt every eye in the room turn to me.
“She’s not speaking to me.” I let that land. “I tried to warn her about the threat. She figured out I was keeping secrets and called me on it.”
The silence stretched.
“So she knows there’s danger but not why?” Handful asked carefully.
“She knows I’m hiding something. She knows it involves the club. And she knows I broke my promise to be completely honest with her.”
Handful shook his head slowly. “So your woman is out there, pissed at you, unprotected—”
“She’s protected. Prospects are watching her twenty-four-seven. She doesn’t know about it.”
“That’s not going to blow up in your face at all,” Glitch muttered.
I slammed my palm on the table. “What else am I supposed to do? Tell her everything and violate club code? Let her walk around unprotected while the Wolves are hunting her?”
“You could let her make her own choices,” Holden said quietly.
“She doesn’t have the information she needs to make choices. That’s the whole problem.” I ran a hand over my face, exhaustion pulling at every muscle. “I’m stuck between my promise to her and my oath to this club. There’s no clean answer.”
The room fell silent.
“Actually,” Glitch said slowly, “there might be.”
I looked at him.
“She doesn’t need to know everything. But she needs to know enough, right?” He leaned forward. “We’ve brought old ladies into the fold before. Limited information, enough to make informed choices without compromising operations.”
“She’s not an old lady,” Handful pointed out. “She hasn’t been claimed, ain’t wearing his property cut.”
“She would have been. Before this blew up.” I thought about the box still sitting on her coffee table. She’d have been my old lady for over a year now if she hadn’t walked in on me and Crystal. But she’d also still be in the dark about this side of me. And I’d probably still be fucking club girls whenever she was away, telling myself it didn’t count because it was her I was thinking about.
“Then technically, she’s entitled to old lady privileges.” Glitch looked around the table. “Right?”
“That’s a stretch,” Handful said, but there was less conviction in his voice now.
“Is it? She’s been with Dutch for two years, on and off. She’s observant. She probably knows more about this club than half the old ladies. The only thing she doesn’t know is the specifics—and we can give her enough specifics to understand the threat without compromising our operations.”
I stared at Glitch, something loosening in my chest. “What are you suggesting?”
“Call a vote. Ask the brothers to approve limited disclosure to Indira. Gun running—not routes. ATF scrutiny—not operations. Crystal’s leak, the Wolves threat, why she’s in danger.” He shrugged. “Enough for her to make real decisions about her life. Nothing that would hurt us if it got out.”
I looked around the table at faces I’d known for years. Men I’d fought beside, bled for, trusted with my life. My choice became clear.
“I need to tell her the truth,” I said. “Not every detail. But enough for her to make an informed choice about being with me.” I paused, letting the weight of my next words settle. “If that violates club code, vote me out. But I won’t lie to the woman I love anymore. She deserves better than that. And frankly, so do I.”
The silence that followed was deafening. I could feel my heartbeat in my throat. Sweat prickled along my spine despite the air conditioning.
Handful was the first to speak. “You’re asking us to trust a civilian with club business. A civilian who’s pissed at you. Who might decide she doesn’t want anything to do with this life.”
“I’m asking you to trust my judgment about the woman I love.”
