Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
T he table naturally went quiet.
Custer stood up.
“Please, old man, no,” Monte said. “Stop drinking that moonshine. You have no liver as it is.”
“He’s got a point,” Cyrus said. “Stick to whiskey, Custer. It’s better for you.”
Everyone at the table chuckled.
Cyrus pointed to Darrow.
“Everything is handled,” Darrow said. “For one perfect second here, things feel quiet. Or I should say quieter . Our rodent issue is officially gone. I guess you can say the good Doctor did his job as needed.”
All eyes went to Priest. He had nothing to say. It was done. It was over.
“Everything on my end is taken care of,” Cyrus said. “Again, our brothers in SOFRAN, SOFRAS, and SOFRAE all offer their support. All three were ready to come out here to work with us. I debated having a few, but it’s best everyone stay where they are. We move forward. And I think as we move forward, we need to start talking about the three empty seats at our table.”
Linc’s spine stiffened. “ Prez …”
“I get it,” Cyrus said, lifting his left hand. “I fucking get it. We have two seats that rightfully belong to someone else. We can’t sit here with a lessened table forever. It’s not what anyone wants to hear.”
“At the very least we have one seat that needs to be rightfully filled,” Priest said. “I think we all can agree who deserves the seat.”
There was a collective nod at the table.
“We’ll hold a vote soon then,” Cyrus said. “We have something else to deal with right now. As we put this mess behind us, I want to remind everyone at this table and I’ll remind everyone wearing the leather cut what it fucking means. I hope I never see Dr. Smile again.”
Everyone nodded in agreement. Everyone looked around at one another. This was the hard part of the life. Of the club. You never knew who anyone really was. Things happened.
There were three empty chairs at the table and all three had different reasons why they were empty. For Linc, one of the chairs was personal. Too damn personal. His best friend since childhood— Javen —sitting in jail. The chair could not sit empty forever.
“Okay, next item to bring up,” Cyrus said. “Something on a better note. We don’t need a vote on this. I just wanted to say it. I never thought in my wildest dreams something like this would happen. Priest has decided to ink up a woman.”
“Holy shit,” Slade called out. “How hard did you hit your head, brother?”
“That’s a nice fucking thing to say to me,” Priest growled.
“Congrats,” Deed said. “It’s the nurse, right? She’s beautiful. And she’s a badass. I heard what she did to your wife.”
“She’s got a streak like Mara,” Darrow said with a smile. “They get along nicely too.”
“Are you trying to set up a four way?” Linc asked.
“What?” Darrow called out. “Priest is not going anywhere near Mara!”
“You’re just afraid of what my cock would do to her,” Priest said. “She’d get one taste and forget all about you.”
“Okay, listen up,” Cyrus yelled. “This one is a little different. She has my full protection and full offering from the club, ink or not. I want to make that very clear.”
“Are you trying to fuck Priest’s woman, Prez ?” Custer asked in his growling voice.
“Are you trying to get killed today?” Priest asked Custer. “We’ll have four empty seats if you say something like that again.”
“Let the old bastard drink his moonshine so he’ll shut up,” Slade said.
Cyrus swung the gavel and stood up. “Everyone get the fuck out of here. Celebrate a little. Exhale a breath. Maybe we can finally embrace some sense of calm.”
All the guys lined up and circled around the table, taking a second to congratulate Priest on his decision to ink up Eden. Priest knew ink meant something, but it technically wasn’t forever. Yet for some fucking reason the way he felt about Eden, he wanted everything and forever with Eden.
Priest told himself… that’s just love.
Eden stood up and turned as Priest came out of the room. He walked right up to her, grabbed her by the hips and picked her up. She let out a yell as Priest put her up on the bar. Literally putting her feet on the bar, making it so she stood tall and visible to everyone.
A few of the bikers started to whistle at Eden. She looked down at Priest, her cheeks burning red.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m taking your pants off and I’m inking you up, doll,” Priest said.
Eden’s jaw dropped. “What…?”
“Right here. In front of everyone.” Priest looked over his shoulder. “Anyone who looks at Eden without pants on… I will chew your eyes from your sockets.”
Eden couldn’t believe the power Priest had as everyone in the clubhouse started to look away and scatter.
“Priest, are you serious right now?” Eden asked.
“Yes,” he said. “But not here. I’m just fucking around.”
Priest grabbed for Eden again, this time dropping her over his shoulder. Eden felt Priest’s massive shoulder hitting against her belly as he walked with purpose from the clubhouse.
They were outside and Priest kept walking. There were whistles and cheers for Priest. Eden then felt Priest’s strong left hand smack her ass.
“I can’t wait for you to wear my ink, doll,” he growled at her.
Eden’s toes curled and she felt her body melting. Priest carried her to some random building on the property. He put her on her feet and pointed to a workbench.
“This is not sanitary,” Eden said with a smile.
“Well, if it gets infected, you’ll know what to do. You’re a nurse.”
A few seconds later, Cyrus opened the door. He was followed by Linc and Darrow.
“We’ll keep it a small audience,” Cyrus said. “She already has protection.”
Linc set everything up for Priest so he could properly ink up the woman he chose. The woman he loved. The woman he leaned down and gently kissed while he unbuttoned her jeans.
Eden gasped into Priest’s mouth and reached back for the workbench behind her. Priest backed away and tugged at the left side of Eden’s jeans, exposing her panties and hip. The panties inched down next, showing off skin.
Priest stared at the curve of her hip. The shape of her ass. Of course, around to the front of her body. Still plentifully hidden but he swore he could smell her sweetness. He could lick the air and taste her soft, warm cunt.
He reached for the tattoo gun and dipped it into fresh, black ink.
“Priest,” Eden whispered. “What happens next?”
He looked into her eyes. “You’re going to wear my initials forever. Right here on your hip. You’ll see my initials every time you get dressed or undressed.”
“Okay,” Eden said.
She was nervous. Not a fan of needles, even though she was a nurse. She could administer IVs and catheters and help out with all kinds of intense and sometimes gross medical procedures. But a needle touching her skin?
She braced herself. Priest began to ink her skin. It burned worse in her mind than in reality. Eden watched the ink lather against her skin.
Priest paused, wiped the excess ink away, then kept going. It was just two letters so the tattoo did not last long at all. However, Eden was tensed up the entire time.
When Priest finished, Eden looked at the letters on her left hip.
PR.
“R,” she whispered.
Even with everything she and Priest had been through, including his hospital stay while in a coma, Eden realized she never knew Priest’s last name. It never really occurred to her to care about his name. Her only care during his hospital stay was making sure he was comfortable, cared for, and monitored.
Everyone at the hospital just called him Priest .
“R,” she said again.
“You sound like a pirate, doll,” Priest said with a slight smirk.
“Your last name starts with an R … what is it?”
Priest put the tattoo gun down on the workbench. He then touched Eden’s neck with both hands. Thumbs pressing against her throat. It made her teeth chatter.
“You can worry about my last name another time, Eden,” Priest said.
“Oh?”
“You’ll know it when you take it.”
“Take it?” Eden asked that.
“That’s right. When you take my last name, then you’ll know.”
“Did Priest just ask a woman to marry him?” Linc asked loudly.
“Okay, I need to know how badly his head got hit,” Cyrus called out.
Eden stared up at Priest, her jaw dropped. To be fair, he hadn’t really asked her to marry him. He sort of just made a comment about her taking his last name. It wasn’t something serious. Or maybe it was.
Eden’s hip ached from the tattoo. Her heart pounded from the feelings she had for Priest.
“Do brides of bikers still get to wear a white dress?” Eden asked.
Priest inched closer to Eden. “I don’t give a fuck what dress you wear, as long as I can rip it off your body and fuck you once you’re my wife.”
Priest kissed Eden. Eden melted. Her mind raced…
Okay, Priest definitely just proposed to me in his own outlaw way… right?