"Sounds good."
"I'll wait to hear back from you about the brother," Ice says.
"Will do, boss. Talk to you soon."
He disconnects the call and looks around the room. "Any thoughts?"
Nobody says a word for the longest time. Then, Emma breaks the silence. "It all makes sense now," she says as if she is talking to herself.
"What, babe? What makes sense now?"
"Mark. There was always an uncertainty that I felt about him. I could never pinpoint the reason why I was never able to set a date for the wedding. I always thought it was because of you, but at the time, I never believed that you would be back in my life. It's the question that's always plagued me about him and it's all so clear to me now," she says. When nobody responds to her words, she continues, "Mark was always odd. One minute he would be this sweet guy and then the next minute he would seem very aloof and detached. He truly scared me during those times, but I always chalked it up to him having a bad day. There were so many times when I almost believed he was two different people. I thought I was losing my mind. Now I know he was two different people, and both of them messed with my head." She gets up from the table.
Ice shakes his head and says in almost a whisper, "What a fucking asshole." He walks over to Emma and pulls her into his arms, "You ok, babe?" He pauses then adds, "We'll get him. I promise."
"I know," she says. "I know."
He really does love her. I can see it in his face, the way he speaks to her and his actions. I guess I always knew it, but seeing them interact like this, it's staring me in the face.
He turns back toward the group. "I think we're done here. Unless anyone else has anything to say? We've done everything we can on the Grayson thing. It's now a waiting game until we hear back from Hawk. And everything is ready for Friday. So, I think you all deserve a break. What do you think?"
"A break?" Rebel asks.
"What do you mean, a break?" Ryder chimes in. "You never give us a break when we're working on shit." He laughs.
"I do too!" he says defensively.
"Yeah, boss, sure you do," Doc says sarcastically.
"Well, if you all don't want a break …" he teases.
"No, no, we do. Really, we do!" Ryder says quickly.
"That's better! Now, what I was saying is that you all have been going 24/7. But now everything is in place and we don't need to do anything until Friday. So, if you want to take in the city, do it. If you want to go hang with Declan at our sister club, do it. Take the next 36-odd hours and do what you want to do." Everyone still looks shocked; I think he may have just lost his mind. "What?" Ice asks. "Can't I give you fuckers a day off?"
"Well, Ice," Doc says, "in all the years you have been our prez, you have never given us a day off."
"Of course I have."
"Name one," he retorts.
"Well, there was the time when … ok, so maybe the time when … oh, fuck it. Never mind. Just take the fucking day off."
They all start laughing. He turns to Emma, who is laughing right along with us, and says, "You too?"
"Well …" she says sheepishly, "you have to admit, it's kinda funny."
"Fuck it, you fuckers can do what you want. My girl and I are gonna do some sightseeing. If anyone wants to join us, feel free." He pauses and says, "Babe, get on the web and check out the sights. Let me know where you want to go. The day is yours."
Every one of them gets up from the table and hurries out of the room. We can hear Ice laughing as we leave.
