Ghost’s voice cut through the room. “Church. Now,” he declared before storming off. It was not a suggestion.
Rose started to shake as one by one patched members followed Ghost up that staircase, feeling very much like they were the jury in Keys’ trial.
Keys shifted to face her without taking his hand away from Oscar. He tipped her chin up and kissed her in full view of his entire club and the ol’ ladies present.“BangwI' SoH. Qapla’,” he professed openly in Klingon.My love. Success.
“JItlhej. Not mev bangwI’.”Rose held his gaze, trying to remain strong for him.I am with you. My love never ends.
Keys’ expression shifted into something softer than the roomdeserved. He pressed his lips to her forehead once, briefly, before following his club brothers upstairs.
Bear was one of the last ones to leave, his eyes flicking back and forth between Keys’ back and Rose. “Nerds are weird.”
* * *
Church had never felt smaller.Keys had sat at this table for seven years. He knew every scratch on its surface, every chair, every face that belonged in this room. He’d been present for decisions that changed lives, for arguments that lasted hours, for votes that nobody liked but everyone respected. He’d watched one president step down and another pick up the gavel.
But not once, had he ever sat at this table and felt like the walls were closing in on him as he did now.
Ghost took his seat at the head, Lucky on his right and Bulldog on his left. Like the other officers, Keys had an assigned seat, and as he walked around the table to it, he wondered if this was the last time he would ever be able to claim that specific seat. Scar had started as the club’s enforcer, but now he was just a member. Not that Scar was “just” anything, but Steel had not offered him his former position back when he returned to the club.
Keys was proud to be the VDMC’s tech. He’d held the unofficial position for years, but one of Steel’s last orders before he abdicated his position was to bring Keys on as an officer. It was one of the happiest days of his life to add that patch to his cut. Would Ghost take it away now?
Scissors took the chair closest to the door, arms crossed over her chest and jaw set. The fury in her eyes as she glared unblinkingly at Keys told of someone who had held it together in front of a four year old and was no longer required to do so.
Around the table, the others took their seats. Nineteen, when there should be twenty-three. Lionheart might have only been aprospect when they lost him, but he was still remembered for his sacrifice. Harper would not be here if he hadn’t placed her life above his own, and neither would Harper and Lucky’s son, Conner, whom she’d been unknowingly pregnant with when she, her parents, Bear, and Lucky had been held captive. Steel would always have a place at this table, despite no longer being a member. Ghost had made that very clear when he’d taken up the mantle. Ranger’s seat was empty between Demo and Bear, while Grumpy’s usual seat at the end of the table remained just as untouched. Both absences were like salt to an already open wound.
The eyes of his friends, his brothers, stared at Keys. Most of them weren’t even angry. Worse, they held disappointment.
The door closed, slamming like the lid of a coffin.
Ghost did not flinch as he ordered, “Start from the beginning, and don’t leave a fucking thing out.”
Taking a deep breath, Keys did. It was a long fucking story, but he needed his club to understand why he went to such lengths, why he’d hidden so many truths from them. He started at the beginning, that first phone call when Rose was still MV. How their friendship had formed, bridging a bond between them of undeniable trust that soon formed into something more. He explained about Rose’s past, too, though he used real names rather than the euphemisms she’d used in the Tale of the Misunderstood Princess. He explained who Kennedy was, as well as who he wasbiologicallyto Oscar.
Keys continued on, explaining the Riley brothers’ roles he’d assigned to them and how he’d been sending them for months to protect Rose between her moves. How devastated he’d been when Rose,his person, had ended things, fearing stepping out of the shadows to be with him. He told them of his plan, and not just to protect Rose but to avenge her, to draw the roaches out from their hidey-holes and squash every last one of them. He didn’t lie,embellish, or evade. There was no reason to, not now anyway. By the end of his story, they knew about WITSEC, the foiled kidnapping plot against Poison, the Jamboree, and Corrigan, too. Theonlypart that he left out was what had happened between Rose and him the night before, after Scar and Ghost had left his building.
The room absorbed it in waves. After he finished speaking, Keys barely had a chance to catch his breath before the first accusation came his way.
* * *
The door upstairsslammed closed with a finality that made Rose jump. It felt so wrong allowing Keys to face his club alone. She’d been hoping they would be able to present their case together, but the moment Church was called, Rose knew that was no longer a possibility—if it ever was one. Still standing in the entry where Keys had left her with Oscar’s hand in hers, Rose took a quick inventory of those left in the room. Thanks to her surveillance of the VDMC, she had no trouble picking out who was who.
Harper, Tessa, Abby, Jasmine, Sophia, Paige, Tally, Dosia, Calliope, and Louisa. She didn’t know where Becks was, though she assumed at home recovering or maybe caring for Ranger. Ten VDMC women, plus Sissy, stared back at her like she was a puzzle piece they simply couldn’t fit into place. Rose had witnessed numerous of their introductions to the club over the clubhouse’s surveillance. Beyond that, she’d seen countless parties, holidays, and simpler times when the club had socialized for no other reason than they could. While a few shared blood and others had relationships that had started before their man had placed a cut on their back, there was no denying the tight-knit family standing before her.
And then there was Rose. Despite Keys’ public claim on her,what hope did she have of fitting in when her own family had ostracized her?
Unlike their men, at least the women didn’t look mad. There was a good chance they had less information than the men. Other than Sissy, Rose wasn’t sure any of them had any ties to theNon Cras. They likely knew Poison by name, maybe had a couple of conversations with her, but to Rose’s knowledge, none of them had a friendship with her sister. Would that help or hinder Rose’s case?
For several heartbeats after the Chapel door closed, no one spoke or moved. Rose felt like she was being sized up, but for what, she had no idea. What did she even say to them? “Hi,” seemed so lame, and was it too much to want these women who mattered so much to Keys to like her?
Oscar, of course, had no such social anxiety.
“Mommy,” he pulled on her hand and pointed across the room. “There’s a slide!”
Rose followed his pointing finger to the toddler play area beside the couch and loveseat, fenced in and stocked with what appeared to be an impressive collection of toys as well as a small indoor jungle gym. Oscar started leaning in that direction with the single-minded intent of getting to play.
Feeling Rose’s hand tighten over his, Oscar looked up at her with wide blue eyes. “Can I play on it?”
“Um, I’m not sure.”
