Jigsaw throws Steer a middle finger.
Steer lifts his chin at Z. “You all take a vote without me?”
“As far as I know, Grinder’s a brother of this charter,” Rock answers. “So, yes, we did. That okay with you?”
Steer frowns and holds his hand in the air. “I saw Z’s patch on there too, that’s all.”
Z meets my eyes. “Grinder and I go way back. He sponsored me. I’m honored to have his ol’ lady wear my patch. Serena’s loyal. We know she’ll protect the club like a good ol’ lady should.”
That’s a lot of words out of Z’s mouth. More choked up than I want to admit, I nod at him until I can finally force out a response. “Thanks, brother.”
“You know it.”
“She’s got mine too, brother,” Jigsaw says.
“Same,” Rooster adds. “Got no doubts about her loyalty to the club.”
Steer eyes Rooster and Jigsaw carefully, then shrugs. Since I never expected this today, I’m not annoyed with Steer’s questions. I’m surprised Z didn’t mention it to his SAA but it sounds like he didn’t say anything to his VP either. Rooster just has more respect for his elder brothers than Steer does. Doesn’t matter what Steer says at the table. As long as he’s respectful to Serena out there, I don’t give a fuck about his opinion.
“Congrats, brother.” Steer stands and leans over the table, offering his hand for a quick shake.
“Thanks.”
Rooster and Jigsaw each pat my shoulder on the way out.
Teller turns my way. “Carter will be up here later if you still want to talk to him about that owl throat piece.” He runs his hand over his neck. “He sketched something that’s really cool I want him to show you.”
Damn, I like this more mature, thoughtful version of Teller. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
He stands and pushes his chair in halfway, then nods to the vest still clutched in my hands. “Congrats, brother. I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks.”
“So, did we surprise you?” Z walks around to my side of the table, taking Teller’s now-empty seat.
“Sure did. Wasn’t expecting this today.” I grip the leather tighter. “Thank you.”
He leans in closer to me. “I didn’t say anything to anyone about…you know. That’s not why we took the vote now.”
Knowing how tight Z, Rock, and Wrath are, it must be killing Z not to say anything. “Thanks for letting me get adjusted to things myself.”
“Yeah, of course.”
We both stand but before I can make it out of the room, Rock stops me. “Z was adamant about this happening now,” he says, almost as if he’s looking for assurance that he didn’t piss me off. “I went with you to order the ring. Figured you might want to do this first.”
I glance down at my hands. Since I’m not ready to be honest about us having a baby yet, I decide to share something else with Rock instead. “I wanted to…I would’ve asked but I got this idea in my head that I can’t be a full-patch who asks the club for things until I’m off parole and able to wear my cut loud and proud in public, you know?”
“Yeah,” he answers slowly. “I get that. But it’s not true.” He thumps his first over his heart. “In here, you never lost full-patch status or anything like that, brother.”
“Do you need more hugs, G? Have we been neglecting you?” Wrath lumbers over to me with his arms spread wide. “Come here, old man.”
“Get out of here with that shit.”
Too late, the motherfucker wraps his arms around me, squeezing like a fucking python.
“I’m gonna kill you,” I wheeze.
He lifts, bouncing me in the air.
“Now I’m really going to kill you. Put me down.”
He finally releases me, grinning like an idiot.
“I hope you hurt your back doing that.”
“Please, I could bench two of you without breaking a sweat.”
“Don’t ever do it again.”
He grins even wider.
“Careful,” Rock warns. “He’ll take it as an invitation to do it every single fucking time he sees you.”
“What the fuck happened in the last fifteen years that Teller is more mature than you, huh?” I slap Wrath’s chest.
“Ooof.” Wrath clutches his chest. “That’s low, G.”
“All right.” Rock claps his hands together. “Let’s stop it with cuddles for the deranged. I want to go find Hope.”
“Find? We all know she’s waiting right outside that door for you, Prez,” Wrath says. They keep bickering back and forth on their way out of the war room.
Z watches them with an amused smile. “I’m concerned now that I’m not here on a regular basis to mediate, they might accidentally kill each other one day.”
“Won’t be no accident.” I straighten my shirt and tuck Serena’s vest back into the brown wrapper.
“Are you going to give it to her now?” Z asks.
“Yeah, I am.”
“Good.”
Serena
My heart patters faster as Gray approaches me after church.
“You doing all right?” he asks in a low voice.