“I always worry about you, brother.”
“I’m fine. Worry about yourself.”
“Believe me, brother. I’m all good.”
He stops me with a hand to my shoulder. “You two patch things up?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. She’s good for you. Keeps you sharp.”
“Got that right.”
We enter the clubhouse, and I find Kady by the bar. “Catch you later.”
Thorn smirks at me. “Go get your girl.”
Sneaking up on Kady, I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her against me. “Want to stick around for the barbecue?” I ask, brushing my lips against her ear.
The tiniest shiver works through her.
“Ah, sure. Karina said some of the girls are doing a bikini wash out front. I—”
“No,” I growl against her hair. “No one’s seeing your sweet little body but me.”
She laughs softly. “Are you planning to tell me how I can dress now?”
Oh, man. It’s killing me to keep myyeslocked down. But if Kady and I are starting fresh, I’m gonna try like hell not to be so overbearing. Pick my battles and all that happy bullshit.
“As long as you save the good stuff for me,” I say, feeling like an idiot.
She chuckles and presses her body closer to mine. “I’m all yours.”
I reach up and brush some hair off her face. “You mean that, Kadydid?”
“Yeah, I mean it.”
Santa stops by and claps me on the back. “Good to see you two together. You gonna be patching her soon?”
Kadence’s scared gaze meets my pissed-off one.
“One thing at a time, old man.”
“Your dad head home?” he asks, jerking his chin at the door.
“He just left. Had business back at the clubhouse.” My way of hinting maybe he should pay better attention to what his president’s doing.
“You staying?”
“For a while.” I don’t mention the threat from Red Storm. Since Santa didn’t bother to show up for our meeting in the parking lot, I’ll let my father decide how to handle that bit of information.
Santa gives Kadence an affectionate pat, that I don’t like one bit, before leaving.
“Patch?” Kady whispers. “You want to give me one of the club’s property patches?”
“Fuck, yeah, Kady. Been wanting you to have my patch since…as long as I can remember.”
“Me? Wha—”
