Chapter 37
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
RYAN
NOW
I t had been a week since I last met with Silas to get us out of the deal and I had tried to think of every possible option to get the money rather than using the money Lexi offered. The morning after she told me about the money, she went straight to the bank and took out fifty thousand dollars in cash. The bank thought she was in some sort of trouble and offered to call the police for her if someone was forcing her to get that kind of money, which probably had something to do with the fact that Haz and I stood outside the bank in our Viper cuts. Since then, the cash had been sitting in a black duffel bag in the hallway cupboard at Lexi’s house all week and she asked me every day when I would be using it.
Silas had sent me a text message yesterday, reminding me there was a deadline on the payment and if payment wasn’t made by tonight, then I wouldn’t be able to get out of the deal. That was why I was currently standing outside a dirty bar in Ridge Point. I walked into the bar and the place was full of men wearing Horsemen cuts and all of their attention turned towards me. I spotted Silas sitting near the bar on a faded red stool with a girl draped across his lap. His back was towards me so he hadn’t seen me enter the bar yet. I nodded at a few of the men as I walked past them and each one returned the nod with a glare.
I held the black duffle bag in my hands and slapped it down on the bar in front of Silas. The loud noise made him turn on the stool before pushing the girl off his lap. She let out a little squeal as she caught herself before landing on the floor and walking back over to her group of friends.
“I’m surprised you actually pulled this off.” He opened up the duffle bag to see the piles of notes filling the bag.
“This is all of it, the whole fifty. The Vipers are out, Silas.”
He held up two fingers to the man behind the bar who walked over to the spirits and poured two whiskeys and slid them across the bar towards us.
“You know, it’s a shame you wanted out of this deal Ryan. I think we could’ve been a good team.” He picked up his glass and took a swig as he motioned to the seat beside him for me to sit down.
“We will never be a team.” I picked up the glass in front of me and drank it in one sip before patting his shoulder and walking back through the bar.
“See you later, boys.” I pushed past the last two Horsemen who were standing next to the door and took a deep breath once I got outside.
“How’d you go?” Haz stood from his bike the second I got outside. Haz wouldn’t let me come to Ridge Point on my own, so he and Ty rode with me. Much to their disapproval, they waited outside while I finally finished all business with the Horsemen.
“It’s done. We’re out. How’d you go?” I asked Haz quietly. We were planning on making one more stop on the way back to the clubhouse tonight and I asked Haz to make sure it was all set up and ready. Haz nodded at me, letting me know he’d got it all sorted.
* * *
W e were back in Haven Cove and parked up out the front of Ink’d on our bikes. Ink’d was where Ricky worked and he had done tattoos for all of the Vipers over the years. He did my initial viper tattoo as well as Haz’s and Jay’s, and today he’s doing Ty’s.
“Who’s getting ink?” Ty asked as he took off his helmet and looked at Haz and I, probably wondering why he was coming with us.
“You,” I answered him.
His eyes widened. “Me? But I don’t have an appointment.”
Haz walked behind Ty and pushed him inside the shop to where Ricky was sitting beside the chair. He had already had the chair wrapped up and ready to go and the stencil sitting beside him next to the tattoo gun and ink. Haz slid off Ty’s leather cut and pulled it down his arms and sat Ty down on the chair. The kid looked terrified; he had no idea what was going on and why he was here or why Haz took off his cut, but he watched Haz hold the leather as if it was his most prized possession.
“Ty, this is Ricky. He’s done all of our Viper tattoos and now he’s going to do yours.”
“But I’m not a Viper yet.” Ty’s eyes darted around the room, still confused. Haz came back towards us holding Ty’s cut and he handed it back to him. Ty looked down at the cut before noticing the prospect patch had been removed.
“You’ve been a Viper since day one, Ty, but now it’s official.”
Ty looked up at me from the chair, face struck. His eyes started to water and he tried to blink it away before I noticed. He stood up from the chair and pulled me into a hug and Haz joined in by wrapping his arms around both of us.
Haz and I were waiting by the shop for Ricky to finish Ty’s tattoo, which was going to take over an hour, so we decided to walk to the bar for a drink. On the way back, the window of Sol’s caught my attention. The Vipers had been looking after Sol’s security for the last ten years and he was still yet to find out it was Jay and I who trashed his shop five years ago when he tried to hire another club for security. I stopped walking and looked in the window at the rings that were lined up on display. There was one in particular that caught my eye. The second I saw it, all I could picture was it on Lexi’s finger. It was a simple gold band with one large diamond in the middle. I was no expert on rings or jewelry, but I couldn’t stop looking at this ring. All of the surrounding rings were nothing special compared to this one.
“Dude, I was walking up the street talking to myself.” Haz’s voice got my attention as he stopped next to me and looked into the window to the same ring I had my eye on.
“That’s a nice rock, bet baby Davis would love that. It is Lex you’re thinking of, right?” I looked at Haz and rolled my eyes at him and he laughed at his own joke.
“Obviously it would be for Lexi.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were thinking of asking Lexi to marry you? I can come and hold the ring or something for you.”
“I didn’t know I was, but yeah, I think I want to ask her. I love her, Haz, you know that. I don’t want to be with anyone else. I will need your help though.”
I knew the perfect spot to propose to Lexi and it would involve Haz and Bella’s help. Lexi and I spent so much time up at Cove Point when we first got together; it was our favorite place in Haven Cove to just sit and watch the town below us. It was the first place I kissed her and even though she moved away for five years, she never left me. She was still in my head and my heart every second of every day, and I never wanted to spend another day apart from her. I wanted her to be my wife.