“I’ll be respectful. I just want to see their faces. I’ll know if they have a problem as soon as I look them in the eyes.”
Slater nodded, but I could see the tactician trying to read all the unspoken thoughts that were lingering in my eyes. “Good.”
“Did I pass?” I asked sarcastically.
He huffed out a laugh and shook his head. “You always do, Tucker.” With that, he stood and slapped his hand on the desk before he turned to leave. “Stay alive this time.”
“Always do,” I called back out, watching as he disappeared through the door, only for Tate’s head to replace Slater’s. “Don’t tell me, Hanagan… you want to go over a few last minute details, too.”
He slipped through the crack in the door, his eyes never meeting mine until he sank into the chair Slater had been sitting in just moments before. When he looked up at me, he looked like a young man trying to hide the fact that he wasnervous. It reminded me of all the times I’d looked at Pete the same way, and I instantly felt a tightening in my chest. Whatever I’d done or not done to earn Tate’s respect and weird adoration, I was grateful for it. It made me feel like I was something I’d never be until the Hanagans had showed up in my life.
“You okay?” I asked him quietly.
Tate nodded, twisting his hands together in his lap but pushing his chest out to seem more confident than he felt. “Tomorrow night…”
“Yeah?”
“Am I meant to, you know…? Sloane. Am I supposed to kiss her and carry this on?”
“Yeah.” I smiled flatly, hating the position I’d put him in. “That gonna be okay for you and Libby?”
“Libby actually seems cooler with it than I do. She knows this is for the good of the club.”
“Good to know.”
“I’m just worried what else I’m going to have to do for the good of the club.” His eyes penetrated mine with questions I couldn’t possibly answer.
I couldn’t promise Tate a life without sacrifice. Not with us. I couldn’t promise him that he’d never have to do anything else that made him feel uncomfortable after this. There was only one promise I could make.
“You’ll always be loved and protected by this band of brothers, Tate. Always. It might not seem easy at times, but anything worth having in life never is.”
“You sound like Ayda.” He smirked.
“She’s rubbing off on me a little bit.” I rolled my eyes and tried to play it cool, but the kid meant a lot to me, and that wasbecoming more and more obvious with the instant smile that I had to try and bite back every time he was around.
“I really don’t wanna know,” he grumbled before he pretended to vomit.
“You’re screwing two women right now. You’ve no room to judge me.”
“Only for the good of the club,” Tate bit back as he pushed up from the chair and towered over me. “And Sloane is like my sister now. Don’t talk about her like that.”
“There’s hope for you yet, kid,” I said as I stared up at him. Nothing made me respect a man more than when he stood up for a woman. A boy. A girl. Whatever the hell these kids all were. “Now get out of here.”
He turned to leave, and I thought I’d gotten rid of him before he leaned back and peered around the door one final time.
“Is it true you’re gonna marry my sister?” he asked, his lips pursed.
“Excuse me?”
“Asking for a friend.”
I narrowed my eyes and leaned farther over my desk. “You tell that sister of yours to stop asking people to find things out for her that I’m willing to tell her myself every second of every minute of every goddamn day, Little Hanagan. Now get… out… of… here.”
He went with his laughter trailing behind him, while I shook my head and swallowed down my own laughter, too. It might have been the tension of what was to come, the nerves playing out, I wasn’t sure, but as I met everyone out in that bar later that night, it seemed we were all laughing way too much considering that a group of brothers were loading up guns inone corner of The Hut, while Deeks and Harry were pulling our bulletproof vests from an old bag at the other side of the room.
Were we being over cautious? Probably.
Did we have a right to be? Abso-fucking-lutely.
