Which is why I’ve repaid them in every way I could think of. Through loyalty and bloodshed.
Through a year behind bars and a willingness to die for them.
Maybe Willa is right, and I give too much to my club, but I’d never stop when they’d do the same for me.
“Thank you.” I nod, swallowing down my emotions.
I don’t get emotional. Shit doesn’t affect me. But my brothers’ support has me looking anywhere but at them.
“You and Willa worked shit out?” Havoc asks from across the table.
I nod, clearing my throat. “We talked. Covered a lot of things we should have probably talked about a lot sooner.”
“That’s how it goes.” Havoc understands more than anyone in this room.
He spent fourteen years without Aimee, but they found their way back to each other.
It’s wild how many lifetimes we live in one, because this feels like a different one entirely from when I knew Willa as a teenager. And yet, with our lives colliding again, I’m not split in two between the man I am and the man I was. She pulls them both together.
“How serious are you with that girl?” Steel asks, smirking. “Do we need to be having another conversation?”
“You know I’m no good at asking permission. I’d rather ask forgiveness.”
“Don’t I know it.” Steel laughs.
Just because I’m loyal to my club doesn’t mean I don’t bend the rules on occasion. Most of the time, I check with my president before doing anything drastic, but some things I prefer to wait and see how they play out so I can make my own decision.
Which is why I don’t ask the guys to vote on Willa being my old lady. Not because I don’t intend for that to happen, but the decision will be mine and hers. I just hope she wants it.
This life isn’t for everyone. It’s dangerous and complicated. It will pull me away from her on occasion, and even if I’ll always come back to her, I don’t know if that’s what she’s looking for in life.
I plan on figuring that out.
Willa and I have done everything wrong. Everything backward. When we commit to each other, it’s going to be a conversation between the two of us first.
Steel smirks, watching me like he can read what I’m thinking. All my brothers are looking at me like that, nodding, offering the silent approval I’m not asking for right now. It means something to see they’ve accepted Willa even after the way she came here. Even knowing our past is complicated, even more so with her relationship with my brother.
They don’t judge.
They don’t care.
We’ve all done shit. Made mistakes. Fucked up plenty. Loyalty isn’t about being perfect; it’s about sticking together through the worst of it.
“When are you leaving?” Steel asks.
“In the morning.”
He nods. “Remember what I said. Call us if you need anything.”
“Will do.”
The guys stand, filtering out one by one, until it’s just me and Soul hanging back. Neither of us has left our seats, knowing this conversation was happening without needing to say it. His eyes are on the clubhouse through the window. It’s still a bit of a mess from the shoot-out, but it’s coming back together.
“Of all the brothers to fall.” Soul slaps a palm over his chest like he’s been shot. “Damn, I didn’t see her taking you down, brother.”
“Neither did I,” I admit.
He chuckles, dropping his chin. “You want me to go with you?”
