“What’s that?”Spider asked.When she told him, he said, “Oh, that sounds good, but I want it a little different.”He turned to David, “I’ll take one of those, only instead of water or milk with the chocolate, use coffee.”
“Can do.I’ll be right back.”
Jordon watched as David went back to the counter and got to work on Spider’s drink.While she watched, a couple of the Fallen Angels stepped behind the bar and helped themselves to whatever they were after.
“He didn’t even talk to anyone else.And they’re getting their own drinks.Why is David waiting on us?”
“He’s a prospect, so we’re back to that earning their place thing, but they all know that to the Angels, our women get priority, then anyone who’s injured or less able to get for themselves for whatever reason, unless that reason was their own stupidity.After that, officers get priority, so Raven.Jersey, Hawkeye and the like.”
“What do you mean?”she turned her gaze back to Spider.“What is their own stupidity?”
“Basically, if they’ve done something they knew better than, or they’d been told not to do by one of the officers, that would be doing something stupid.If you do something stupid and you get hurt, that’s kind of a fuck around and find out, and you don’t end up with extra help because then, how would you learn?”
“I’d think the pain of getting hurt would be a decent lesson.”
“For some it is, others not so much.It’s not punishment.More like facing the consequences of your actions.That’s something we all need to learn, whether we learn it before we become Angels or after.”
“Like Daddy making Levi walk back to the barn when he failed to tie up his horse.”
“Exactly.”
She nodded and opened her mouth to ask if he’d ever had to deal with facing the consequences while he was an Angel, but Raven clearing his throat and stepping up onto a chair stopped her.She turned to him, eager to see what they’d been waiting for.
“All right, it looks like everyone’s here.Dax, I need you to come up here.”Raven scanned the room, then nodded when he saw the prospect already heading his way.
“This was a little overdue,” Raven continued as Dax made his way through the room, “but Dax has been busy.He’s spent most of the last few months in Bozeman with Spider and we wanted to wait until they were both back.”He clapped a hand on Dax’s shoulder when he came to a stop in front of him.
“You have been with the Fallen Angels for, what, almost fifteen months?”
“About that,” Dax said.
Raven’s gaze scanned the room then turned back to Dax.“Like I said, this is overdue.We took a vote and decided you no longer fit in as a Fallen Angels prospect.I’m going to need your cut.”
Dax’s shoulders slumped as he slowly peeled off the vest.
Jordon’s chest ached.She couldn’t imagine having worked for so long just to be told, in front of everyone, that she no longer fit in, that she was no longer wanted.It made her wonder if Spider might ever do that to her.Would he just decide one day he didn’t want her anymore.
Spider’s hand covered hers and squeezed.She looked at him.He mouthed something that she couldn’t make out.He must have seen that because he repeated it more slowly, this time she could tell he was asking her to trust him.She could do that, at least until they proved her wrong.She turned her attention back to what Raven was saying at the front of the room.
“In the last fifteen months, you’ve done everything you’ve been asked.You handled shit better than some of us would have in your shoes.As a whole, the Fallen Angels have decided they no longer want to call you prospect.”Raven held one hand behind him, as someone handed him another leather vest similar to the one Dax had shrugged out of.Raven pulled the vest forward and held it up so everyone could see the winged, haloed skull on the back.“We want to call you brother instead.”
Tears sprang to Jordon’s eyes.Around her the room erupted in cheers.She wanted to let her head fall forward to the table as she regained her composure, but she couldn’t.Instead, she kept her head up and her gaze on Dax and Raven.It took a moment for the cheers to die down, but when they did, Raven continued.
“Dax the prospect is no longer.From now on, you’re Echo, the Fallen Angel.”
“Echo?”
Laughter sounded around the room.
“And that’s why.It’s not a bad thing, but you’re the only one who will repeat orders to make sure you got them right, so Echo it is.Go get a drink then join me over here.”Raven waved a hand indicating the tables in the general area.Dax, noEchonow, nodded then hurried off.
Raven stepped off the chair and came to where Jordon sat with Spider.
“Mind if I join you?”
“Not at all,” Jordon said, wondering what was up now.She liked Taylynn and had no reason to dislike Raven, but she was leery—she didn’t know him well enough not to be.Not yet.
