by Addison Jane
“Where’s Gage?”
“Less questions, more action.” He placed his hands on my shoulders and turned my body toward the stairs, tapping my ass hard and making me jump before pointing, silently telling me to move my ass.
I trudged upstairs, my tears drying on my cheeks though my chest still felt heavy.
The weight of today, I was pretty sure, would always be the same, pressing down on my chest, making getting through the day even harder.
The dress on the bed was a deep navy-blue color, a sexy but conservative pencil skirt that fell right at my knee but was tight as hell and had a split that finished halfway up my thigh. Now, my man was talented in many different areas, but I knew for a fact he did not pick this dress out, meaning he had other people in the clubhouse involved in his plan for today.
I had a shower and slipped into the skin-tight dress, pulling my hair into a high ponytail before looking in the mirror.
The smile came on its own, lighting up my face like I didn’t imagine I would see today.
“Fucking hell,” Shotgun cursed from the doorway. I spun around, my jaw hitting the floor. “You better close that before I stick my dick in it, and we end up fucking late.”
I slowly strutted across the room, my hips swinging with the heels I decided to pair with my new look. “This is hot,” I rasped, reaching for the navy-blue tie wrapped around his neck, the color almost matching my dress perfectly. The crisp white button-up shirt was a new edition to his wardrobe, though the leather club cut that he had on over the top, that was so fucking perfect.
A little bit of fancy but still exactly him.
“Where the hell are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
When I thought the smile on my face couldn’t grow any bigger, I spotted Slate standing outside the clubhouse doors, wearing much the same as Shotgun and holding the back door of the club SUV open.
“You need to pay Slate more if he’s moonlighting as an Uber,” I commented, elbowing Shotgun in the side.
He let out a low, rumbling laugh while Slate’s bright smile never changed. “Fuck you.”
“Well, he’s not getting a tip.”
“I’ll give you a ti—”
“Slate!” Shotgun cut in, slapping his best friend around the back of the head before helping me up into the car, my body shaking with laughter. Slate had decided to stick around in Phoenix for a while longer. He said the weather was better here, but I was pretty sure there were other things keeping him close.
Like Gage.
And a sexy undercover cop who wouldn’t answer his calls. Though. I couldn’t really talk, because Holly was ignoring mine too. I hadn’t seen her since Beta Beta burned down, but I just wanted to let her know, despite everything, I missed her.
Just a few hours ago, things had been so heavy, but they were getting lighter and now brighter.
Slate drove us into town, complaining the whole way about how he’d woken up early for this bullshit, but avoiding every question I had about what the bullshit was exactly or what it entailed.
When we finally pulled into the courthouse parking lot, a row of glistening Harleys lining the right side, almost twice the number we would usually have for our men, it let me know we had visitors from out of town. “Are you getting locked up today?”
Slate clears his throat. “Ding, ding, ding...”
“Remind me why I bought you along again?” Shotgun growled, rolling his eyes. He took my hand, and we walked toward the building. The entire place was empty, which I was strangely suspicious of, given it was still a weekday. He shoved the double doors open, storming through the hall like we were meant to be there.
Turned out because we were.
The second we stepped into the courtroom, the seats full of men in club cuts, old ladies, club girls, and everyone else I considered family, I couldn’t stop the emotions that hit me. “I would like to stop crying sometime soon,” I announced, Shotgun rolling his eyes while the room chuckled collectively.
“Please join us,” the judge at the front of the room called, and it was like a prod in the ass.
When we reached the front, standing in front of the judge, Thayleah turned to me and smiled, Gage sleeping peacefully in her arms. I wanted to hug her, to wrap them both up and promise them the world because, goddamn, it was what they deserved.
Thayleah had come out of hell a little worse for wear, the night terrors and the memories often hitting her hard when she was least expecting it. There were a lot of tears and a lot of talking, not to mention a clubhouse full of men who had made it their mission to stay close by her whenever possible, the tension in her shoulders always easing when one of them was nearby.
Shotgun, he had become a dad not once but twice in the past few months.
First with Gage, then with Thayleah.
One may have been his blood, but he’d welcomed Thayleah with his whole damn heart, and I admired him every day for wanting to keep her close to Gage and in our family when it would have been easier to let her go.
“What’s going on?” I murmured, brushing my fingers across Gage’s head, unable to keep from touching his baby-soft skin when he was close by.
“Application for Avery Joyce George...” that was me, “… to adopt Gage Hall.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, my hand going straight to my chest as I fought to breathe. “What?” I whispered, looking to Shotgun, who was smirking like he knew he’d got this shit done without me knowing a damn thing about it.
“Everything has been done. You just need to sign the papers if you accept,” the judge announced, a woman in a business suit placing some papers on a table beside me and holding out a pen.
The answer was, of course, yes.
It was always going to be yes.
So I signed, and applause filled the room.
As far as I was concerned, I would have helped Shotgun raise Gage like he was my own anyway while always letting him know about his real mom.
Emma would hold an important place in our home, and I would always treasure her for bringing that beautiful baby boy into this world. Without her, I wouldn’t have him.
“Great,” the judge chirped. “Second agenda, Gage Hall name change.”
“Yes, your honor,” Shotgun agreed, though this time I was simply confused.
“Emma never gave Gage a middle name,” Thayleah explained with a smile and tears in her eyes, though they seemed more happy than sad tears. “She always wanted that part to be Shotgun’s when she finally told him about Gage.”
“So…” Shotgun started, shifting from one foot to the other, “… from now on, he’ll be Gage Micah Hall.”
Micah.
“Like I said before, it’s okay to feel that ache in your chest when you miss someone you’ve lost, but now today isn’t just the day your sister died… it isn’t just your birthday… it’s also now the day you adopted our son. And the day we chose to remember Micah and treasure and honor her and celebrate her life right alongside yours.”
And from now on, we would.
“I love you,” I told him, sinking into his arms.
“I fucking love you, too.”
SHOTGUN
“We appreciate you boys choosing to join us down here in Phoenix as we grow,” I announced, the crowded clubhouse listening in as I welcomed our new recruits. “I can already tell from the way I can see my ugly face in your chrome out there, you’ll fit in fucking perfectly.”
I shook their hands, slamming my palm hard on their backs before handing them their new Phoenix, AZ patches and taking a step back. Seeing Rein and Bandit’s face light up at their new Arizona patches was something that made my chest swell.
The two boys had come to us from the Montana Chapter of the Brothers by Blood. Both looking for a change in atmosphere, and I imagine a change in temperature. They were still young, not been patched long, but they’d both sure as hell done their fair share to prove themselves—Rein’s transfer taking a little longer than we would have
liked because of probation orders from his last stint inside.
The kid had a story.
One that not only involved the club ranch in Montana but also the rich streets of California, an overdose, and a horny stepmother. The kid had been through it all and come out the other side with his shit together. If that wasn’t strength, I don’t know what the fuck was.
I was already proud to call him my brother, though I was still going to put him through his paces, just for fun. After all, I had a fucking reputation to keep.
A few years ago when Shake had come to the club looking for members to join him and someone to take the lead into the unknown, I wasn’t sure what the hell this new path would bring. I sure as hell didn’t imagine we’d be growing so fucking big, so damn fast with new applications for transfers coming in every couple of months from clubs around the country.
And I never fucking imagined we’d have two nightclubs open with business so damn good, other clubs were sending men down to look around and see how they could do something similar in their own cities.
Our club was new, but it was fucking thriving.
And I couldn’t imagine raising my boy anywhere else.
With anyone else.
I couldn’t help but admire my old lady wearing her brand new colors—the boys not the only one I’d given new patches to today. Avery had been mine since she walked into the clubhouse, everyone fucking knew that, but the property patch meant more to me than just showing the world she was off-limits.
Asking her to wear my colors was asking her to stand beside me.
To have my back.
To help me see clearly when my vision was blurred.
It wasn’t about me just wanting her to be my girlfriend or my wife. It was about me being vulnerable enough to admit that I needed her to be by my side and that she made me stronger because she did.
I hooked my arm around Avery’s shoulders, pulling her back against my chest. She fit there perfectly like our bodies were puzzle pieces, and she was made to slot perfectly against mine. “Where’s the boy?” I murmured in her ear, and she nodded across the room where he was entertaining Kennedy and Saff, one of Empire’s bar staff with his babbling. “Perfect.”
I moved quickly, trying to usher her toward the stairs, but she just laughed, placing her hands on my chest. “We have to wait,” she argued, pushing back against me. “Adrian will be here in a few minutes to take him and put him to bed. He needs a bottle ready.”
I rolled my eyes, pressing a long hot kiss against her soft lips before pulling back. “I’ll get his bottle ready,” I told her as I walked backward. “Then, you’re mine.”
“Yes, sir.” She laughed, but the flush across her cheeks told me more, and all I fucking wanted to do was get her alone.
I gathered up Gage, much to the girls’ disappointment, and strolled through into the kitchen, surprised to see it already had one occupant. “You don’t want to eat with everyone else?” I questioned Thayleah while trying to rein in my son, who was squirming on my hip, ready for his bottle and bed.
Thayleah looked up from the burger she was mindlessly pulling to pieces, blinking a couple of times before the dazed look in her eyes finally disappeared, and I knew she was here with me. She slipped back into the past easily, the memories of the hell she went through still haunting her daily.
She’d worked through a lot of her demons over the past few months, but it still wasn’t unusual to find her staring at the wall in tears or hidden away in a quiet space with her mind still struggling to find that line between recollection and reality.
“Yeah.” She nodded, pushing the plate away and holding out her hands for the squirming child in my arms. “One day, they’ll go away, right?” she asked, not even needing to specify exactly what she was talking about. She didn’t need to. I knew. I’d heard the night terrors when she first moved in and sat with her while she tried to sleep, so she didn’t feel alone.
It was the least I could do.
I had failed to protect Emma, but like hell I’d fail her sister too.
She forced a brave smile in front of Gage, but the tears that sat precariously on her lower lashes told a different story.
I handed him over, his giggles loud and echoing off the walls of the kitchen.
The boy loved his aunt.
And she needed him.
He was something she had left of Emma that didn’t include the pain and torture she’d endured.
“Maybe,” I answered, reaching for a clean bottle and the container of formula, the process of making him his bottle becoming almost instinctive now. “But memories don’t really disappear. One day, you’ll just get stronger. You’ll find a way to cope with them. And you’ll realize they can’t hurt you anymore.”
“You think I’ll get stronger?”
“You already are.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes while I waited for Gage’s bottle to heat in a pot of hot water. I fought a smirk as I watched her pull her burger back toward her, as though the anxiousness that had turned her stomach a few minutes ago was now settling.
I picked up Gage’s warmed bottle just as a grinning Adrian walked through the kitchen doors. “Okay, so someone tell me…” he started, coming over and leaning his shoulder into the refrigerator door and folding his arms across his chest, “… when guys apply to join the club, is there a part that requires them to be hot and tattooed, or is that just a coincidence? ’Cause Avery just introduced me to Rein and Bandit, and well…”
“Coincidence,” I growled.
“Requirement,” Thayleah answered at the same time, followed by a short giggle.
I tossed the bottle at Adrian, watching him fumble a few times but finally managing to catch it before it hit the floor. “Okay, okay,” he huffed out, rolling his eyes at me before turning to Gage. “Come on, mister, let’s get out of Daddy’s way before he has a hernia or something.”
“I swear,” I mumbled under my breath, my shoulders sagging as I shook my head.
Adrian drove me crazy at the best of times, but I simply had to think back to that day with Avery stuck in the car and remember how he had my back and how he looked after my old lady when push came to fucking shove.
Thayleah handed over Gage, and Adrian was gone, flying out the double doors and up the stairs like some kind of manly, tattooed Mary Poppins.
It let me breathe a little.
Having a welcoming party for two new brothers was stressful enough without having to constantly be aware of where my baby was. “You good here?” I asked Thayleah while taking a couple steps toward the door, needing to get back to things and welcome my new men properly.
Her head bobbed up and down as a smile filled her cheeks.
This one is definitely real.
“Yell if you need me.” I left her to her devices, walking out into the main room where the music was playing, and the club was alive and kicking. Some of the Exiled Eight had come down from Vegas, and a handful of workers from Empire and Dynasty had made the trip too.
“There you are,” Shake announced as I approached the table he was sitting at with Rein and Bandit, the deep frown etched on my Vice President’s face an instant concern. I took a seat, looking between the men as I waited for some kind of explanation. “I’m gonna send these two on a job.”
I let out a sharp laugh, leaning back in my seat. “Their patches aren’t even sewed on yet, and you’ve lined them up?”
Shake gritted his teeth. “The asshole who raped Phee when she was in that group home, he got out last week.”
My gut twisted. Phee had only just recently admitted to the hell she went through courtesy of the foster care system. Shake had been keeping an eye on the bastard, just waiting for an opportunity to take him out, whether on the inside or the outside.
But it seemed like that had passed, and now we had to consider the options.
“Phee isn’t gonna come in,” I announced, making Shake cough out a laugh.
“Yeah, we already
established that,” he answered before nodding to Rein and Bandit. “And she’s not gonna be happy with me announcing two bodyguards following her around all day every day either. So, it’s gonna have to be discreet. Rein has contacts in the area Phee’s in. And his probation lets him be in Cali for family reasons. Gives us time to know she is protected while we look for this bastard.”
I leaned back into my chair, eying the two men carefully. “You realize this means you leave tomorrow, and you don’t come back until it’s done.”
They nodded in sync.
No apprehension.
Not one moment to consider.
“The club is my life,” Rein announced when I didn’t respond right away, Bandit nodding in agreement. “They gave me something neither of my fucking parents could give me. Family. And we do what we have to for family.”
Shake nodded. “My sister… she’s been to hell and back before. She doesn’t let people close and is quick to see through someone’s lies and bullshit,” he explained, the corner of his mouth curling up as he described Phee, though even I think he was downplaying the fire that consumed her. She was a sweet kid. But she was broken, damaged, and still playing in defensive mode, just like Thayleah, who was still struggling and finding it hard to define then and now.
Maybe that was why Shake kept his description to a minimum, so these guys didn’t get scared of just what they were about to get themselves into.
They were bikers.
But I’d seen Phee throw a punch.
“The one thing I shouldn’t have to say, but I’m going to anyway,” Shake continued, narrowing his eyes and clenching his fists. “She’s been through enough bullshit in her life. You keep your hands, lips, and your dicks to yourselves.”
I chuckled under my breath as Shake and I both pushed away from the table. “We’ll talk about the details tomorrow,” I told them, both nodding as Shake and I walked away, both our old ladies meeting us halfway across the room. “You sure this is a good idea?”
“I’m not losing my sister again,” Shake growled, a darkness settling over him. No doubt reliving that moment she was taken from him the first time. How hard he fucking fought for her only to come up empty-handed. “Rein and Bandit will get close. They’ll keep her safe.”
