“Church, brother.”
“Yeah, I heard.”
“When do you want to make it official with Baby in front of the club?”
He rakes his hand through his hair, wincing before glancing back at me. “She’s going to freak, having to claim her in front of the club. I was thinking maybe the barbeque this coming weekend, but there will be too many people.”
He’s torn, no doubt. Even I’m not completely sure of how to do this, the right way anyhow if there is one. The other brothers were so unplanned, more of a spur-of-the-moment thing. Should we be arranging a specific time? It seems to be going against the dynamics of the moment; it’s more intense when it happens naturally.
“What about later that night when it’s members only, along with the ol’ ladies and club sluts?”
He sighs, his fingers scratching through the scruffy growth of his five o’clock shadow. “Think about her, Saint. She witnessed you kill a man in front of her, and she accepted you for your true self. She put up with me being moody to her for months...not to mention losing her mother. She can never know about that, either. I want the most important thing to be for her, not us or anyone else.”
“I get it.”
“I want to do this for her more than the club,” he repeats. “We don’t technically have to do it in front of that many people, only the members, right?”
I nod. That’s the deal we all agreed on after Nightmare claimed Bethany in front of us in the bar. It only seemed fair after two brothers took their women in front of the members to make it official that the rest of us follow suit. It was voted on and made into club law.
A smirk appears on his lips, his enrapturing eyes sparkling with an idea.
“What?” I grunt as we head in the direction of the chapel.
“What if we took her to church with us?”
“Fuck. It’s a good idea, but bitches aren’t allowed.”
“So, we ask for an exception. Give the brothers a heads-up on what we have planned and see if they agree. They’ve had a chance to witness her naiveté for themselves.”
Shrugging, we both flash her a smile as we cross through the bar, and I reply quietly, “Then let’s make it happen.”
“Bet.” He bumps my fist with his, and it’s on like Donkey Kong.
We take our seats around the table in each of our respectful spots.
“Oath Keepers, church is in session,” Viking declares with a slam of the gavel. “First bit of business is Mercenary.” His gaze hits the brother at the end of the table. “Welcome home.”
“Appreciate it,” the new brother acknowledges, and the Prez continues.
“We’ll be havin’ a barbecue this weekend to welcome you properly. Brothers, make sure you’re around to join us.”
We all nod, agreeing to his unspoken order. We need to be here to show support and welcome him into our brotherhood.
“Next, Ruger, will you share where you’ve been with the brothers?”
“Of course.” He lights a smoke and passes his pack to Smokey. “Vike had me up checking out a possible spot for the Fists.”
Half of the table either sighs or hisses in hearing the name of our rival club. I think every one of us wants to skin the fuckers live for how they’ve hit us in the past. We have too much unresolved business with them to move forward.
He continues, his normal easy-going personality nonexistent on this subject. “Spider had a general idea of the area for me to keep an eye on and other than that, I had a whole lot of nothing to go off of. But, I was able to hook up with a stripper eventually.”
Blaze snorts and Ruger shoots him a glare.
“She ended up being more helpful then you’d expect,” he huffs. “I found them, at least some of them.”
“What’d you do?” Nightmare interrupts, leaning forward, his stare a bit wild as his fists clench.
“Nothing, Night. I watched, just like Viking asked me to. But by lying low, they have no idea that I know where they are, that we’ve found them.”