We’ve just spent four days away doing a fun run ride to help raise money along with our affiliated MCs, The Devil’s, The Untamed and the Huntsmen.
The people love them, and cash always gets thrown our way.
“Alright,” I state as I look at the screen, “the run was successful—over one point five million has been spread between the ten hospitals each club picked. The next run, in five months, will raise money for underprivileged sports centers and help keep delinquents off the streets, and our club accounts are well in the green, so we can upgrade the diner.”
I scan my eyes over the results I did yesterday, ensuring I don’t miss anything while the brothers bang on the table in celebration.
Every five months or so, we do these runs, and every time we earn shit loads of doe for the charities we choose, while each club itself adds in a certain percentage.
We donated fifty thousand, and the other clubs followed suit.
The fun run was a good laugh, and I even had my son on the back of my bike while keeping an eye on Jasmine, Tank's woman, who is pregnant and was really fucking concerned about their daughter, Aisling.
Her mama tried taking her last week, and Jas, fuck, she ended up beating her to death, and it fucked her up a bit, but a rideout with her old man, who is slowly learning to forgive her for not trusting him with shit that happened then leaving, did them good.
“Tank,” Doc says as I continue to look through my notes, “You’re back at the hospital this weekend?”
He confirms, “Three nights in a row, five days off, then three-day shifts in a row. I’ll help Dirty during my five days off, but expect Jasmine to be with me on those days, Dad said he’ll watch Aisling until Jas is ready for her to go back to school and ballet class, which hopefully will be soon.”
I look up and nod to confirm I heard him, then bring up the schedules to arrange certain jobs around his schedule when we need two people.
“Have you two spoken yet?” Ace asks before Stone continues, “What are you afraid of, brother?” and even without looking up, I know Tank is shaking his head.
Since Jasmine came back into his life, they haven’t got down to the nitty-gritty shit of her running instead of speaking to him.
Tank huffs, “Oh, I don’t know, maybe her leaving me again, and not just taking my heart that she finally glued back together and my daughter, but also our unborn child?”
I look back up again and tilt my head at the man.
Surely he knows, deep down, that she won’t leave him, that she loves him.
“She wouldn’t, Tank,” Trigger states, speaking my thoughts, and he looks down with doubt, but Trigger continues, “She loves you. You can see it in her face, brother. Every time she enters the room, her eyes look for you. If you come out of church, she physically relaxes, she won’t leave you again.”
“He’s right,” Doc agrees. “She feels guilty, Lo, that is clear as day and don’t get me started on her trauma with her mother and what she had to do. But where you are concerned, she’s struggling with the guilt of not trusting you, of not coming toyou when the threats first took place,” I nod in agreement with everyone else as Doc continues, “She knows if she’d just spoken to you, then everything that had happened, from giving birth alone and struggling to make ends meet for herself and your daughter to your mama trying to harm her and hers succeeding in harming Aisling would never have happened. She’s scared you’ll run away when you realize you’ll always resent her for not believing you could keep them both safe, for taking your home from you in her and not giving you a chance to be a dad for the first five years of your daughter’s life.”
Tank looks down again, his hair longer than it has been since he was a kid, falling a little with his movement.
He mutters, “I don’t… I mean, yes, there is a little resentment. But I don’t think I’ll always resent her. Right now, it hurts, but I know there are still some firsts I’ll get with Aisling. I also know I’ll be there every step of the way with this pregnancy, and with any after that. I love her, and I want to marry her. I just need her to fight for me, for us…”
“She is,” Anchor insists. “Her being here, bringing Aisling to meet your family, leaving your daughter with your father so she could ride with you—she’s proving she’s fighting for you. If you’d seen her content resting against your back, you’d know she isn’t leaving.”
He nods and chokes out, “Thank you, all of you, for never giving up on me when I gave up on the club.”
Doc snorts, “You didn’t give up on the club, you just needed a little R and R, though Thunder continuously trying to hurt himself was kind of hilarious.”
I chuckle because, yeah, it was kind of funny as Tank grins.
“The fucker is lucky he didn’t do any permanent damage to himself,” Tank reminds Doc, but he shrugs and says, “I say it’s payback for hitting my girl with a bat.”
Fuck’s sake, it isn’t like he meant to hit Brit, but to be fair, he did help her regain her memories, so maybe the fucker should just let it go.
I shake my head at the man with a grin while everyone else laughs just as the church door bangs open and Caleb rushes inside looking frantic, and I sit up straighter, my smile gone, while Vincent follows, looking pissed, holding his junk, and I frown.
What the fuck?
“He went between my legs, but because he isn’t short, his head hit my dick,” Vincent growls, seeing the confusion from the brothers.
What…?
