“Yes. Thanks, Gracie.” She gave her a quick hug, then went back to straightening up the kitchen as Lexa ran off to watch TV in the living room.
Fuck, she was hugging people. My female was hugging. She was so fucking happy she was letting down her walls and getting all touchy with people. Yeah, I definitely couldn’t piss her off by staying home now. Fucking hell.
From out front I heard the rest of the MC driving up, and I reluctantly stood. It was time to go. Grabbing hold of Raven, I pulled her against me and kissed her mouth long and hard, memorizing her taste and the feel of her body against mine all over again. Something was screaming at me to stay home, but she wasn’t going to let me and I didn’t want to argue with her on a day that she’d been looking forward to for so long.
“Be careful,” I murmured against her lips. “Please, just be careful.”
She grinned up at me and cupped my face with both her hands. “No, you be careful. Bring my brother home where he belongs and keep everyone safe. I love you.”
I held onto her for a minute longer and then brushed another kiss over her lips before following my club brothers out the back door. As I climbed on my bike I glanced back and saw her standing in the doorway. She was grinning and waving at everyone that called out to her in greeting. When had I ever seen Raven Hannigan that happy?
Never.
Catching my eye, she blew me a kiss and then stepped back into the house, closing the door. I turned to glare at my club. “Let’s ride, you fuckers.”
The ride down to San Quentin was supposed to take a little over four hours, but we got there in three and a half. We were early, so we parked right outside the gates and waited. I leaned against my hog, my eyes trained ahead while I watched for any sign of the man that had been determined to end me the last time I’d been face to face with him.
Beside me, Hawk turned his hog off and leaned forward. “You gonna pussy out?”
I spared him the killer glare I wanted to give him. I was worried that I might do something stupid if I looked at my VP. Like grab him by the neck and choke the life from him. Not smart to murder a man in front of a badass prison like San Quentin. Too many cameras and witnesses. “Fuck you,” I growled and stiffened when I saw the doors open and Jet Hannigan walking toward us.
Hawk chuckled. When he spotted his brother, he climbed off his bike. Around us, everyone else followed suit. The gate opened and out walked my club’s old president. I watched with what felt like a ten-ton anvil sitting in my stomach as one club brother after another hugged and patted Jet on the back.
I wasn’t going to pussy out. I just had to suck up the fucking balls to ask the man that had beat me to the point of unconsciousness, busted my arm and then told me I could have his sister for keeps before I’d tucked tail and deserted her, if I could marry the same sister I’d abandoned. Nothing to it.
Fuck.
Sucking in a breath, I climbed off my hog and stepped forward as Uncle Jack released the eldest Hannigan brother. Jet took a step back. Those freaking green eyes so identical to his sister’s were assessing me, measuring me. I stood there and let them, knowing that when there were two alphas like him and me, sometimes you had to let the other sniff you out to gain his respect.
It felt like we stood there for hours, but after only a few seconds Jet snorted and stuck his hand out. The weight that had been pressing down on my chest eased and I clasped my club brother’s hand. Jerking him into a hug, I pounded him on the back just as hard as he did me.
When we both pulled back, I grinned at him. The fucker had gained even more muscle while inside and he was just as strong if not stronger than I was now. “You gonna let me marry her?”
The grin on his face dimmed slightly. “You mean your ass hasn’t asked her yet? What the fuck were you waiting on, dumbass?”
I shrugged. “You.”
Jet shoved me back a few steps, but he was grinning again. “Idiot. You better ask her soon or I’m going to tell her to get rid of your sorry ass.”
“If you two are done getting all emotional over there, lets get this motherfucker home,” Colt grumbled and tossed a set of keys at his brother while Little John unloaded Jet’s hog from the flat bed he’d driven down.
Jet’s eyes brightened and something about him changed as he climbed on his hog for the first time in almost a year. His shoulders straightened, his body tensed, and when he started his bike I thought I saw a glitter in the older man’s eyes. We stood back, watching him, not judging him for getting emotional over being on his hog again after so long. It would have been the same for any one of us. A man’s bike was
a part of him, sewed in to his soul from the first time he sits on it. Being away from it for so long and then getting back on it was like being welcomed home by an old friend.
“Take me home, boys.”
Raven
“But I don’t w-want you to go.”
I bit back a curse as I glanced down at Lexa. Her big, blue eyes were shining with tears and her little face was scrunched up in an expression that I rarely saw from the little girl that I considered my own. She was seconds away from a full-on meltdown and I didn’t know how to stop it.
We were in the kitchen and I was standing in the doorway, ready to leave so I could decorate the bar for Jet’s homecoming party. I’d told her more than a few times that I had to leave her for a little while this afternoon and she hadn’t gotten the least bit upset about it. Now that I was going out the door she was clinging to my leg.
I glanced from the top of Lexa’s dark head where she now had her face buried in my thigh to Willa, who was just a foot away, gazing helplessly down at her niece. “I have to go,” I murmured to her, as if trying to explain myself to the woman that had been the only motherly figure in Lexa’s life until recently.
“I know,” Willa murmured and gave me a small smile. “It’s okay.” She bent down and carefully pulled Lexa into her arms. “Hey, doodle bug. I thought you were going to teach me how to make those friendship bracelets that Gracie had taught you to make.”