CHAPTER 6
Two nights ago, Zach earned his patch and became Scope and now we’re sitting in Church with our brothers. Viper is on one side of me with Scope on the other. The nervous energy coming off them is almost suffocating.
I don’t think anyone is going to challenge our claim, but this is the day we’ve been waiting for. It would have been a long wait with Heather here but with her gone and off in Sweetwater Valley, it felt even longer.
I haven’t seen our woman in so damn long, it feels like a part of me is missing and the hole left behind is becoming bigger and bigger with every passing day. I’m unsettled to the point that falling back on humor and putting a smile on my face has felt impossible lately.
I’m sure my club brothers have noticed. I used to be an agreeable guy and now I’m quick to snap at someone. I know it’s no one’s fault, but my own. I shouldn’t have insisted we wait to claim the woman we knew was ours.
The night in Club Sin changed something and took the relationship between us from casual to something so much more. We should have waited to let that happen. We should have waited to give her our collar.
I just couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to show her, at least in some way, she is ours and belongs to us.
Having that with her, that level of connection where we could just be ourselves without worrying about anyone else, wasn’t something we would only be able to have for one night without wanting it all the time. I knew we couldn’t offer that to her yet. We knew.
But I got fucking greedy, and I wanted more. Even though I couldn’t have it completely.
The thought of her running because of our actions, my actions, has been gnawing at me for the last three months. Did she feel used by us? Did she lose trust in us? Did she really not know our hearts only beat for her? Did she resent us because we gave into the temptation to own her, but not claim her officially?
I don’t know if I would do it differently if I were to go back and have the chance to change anything. The night we spent together in Club Sin was fucking amazing. We didn’t have to look over our shoulders to see if someone was watching us with our woman and seeing too much. We could let go and so could she.
I don’t regret it. I just wish she was here with us right now.
“That fucker Martinez is still underground. The Guidice family will keep their ears to the ground, but we need to do the same,” Lucifer growls and I know I should be paying attention because this is important.
I should be giving my club and my brothers my full attention but it’s hard when we know Heather is out there alone and unprotected. I’m trying to keep my shit together with a forced smile on my face, but the edges are starting to fray.
Well, fray more. I haven’t been holding it together very well over the last three months since Heather up and ran.
“He hasn’t had any further contact with the Rebels that we’ve found out about,” the bitterness in Prodigal’s tone is completely understandable considering his old lady was put in danger by the Riding Rebels.
The only good thing is that Anarchy, the Rebels’ Prez who was obsessed with Wrenley, was put down, and the whole situation brought Wrenley and Prodigal together. Well, together again, more accurately. Their story gives me hope that maybe, just fucking maybe, we have a chance with our woman.
As long as we haven’t waited too long.
I understood the reason Viper suggested we wait after he was patched in. We couldn’t all leave New Orleans to go and get her considering Zach was still wearing his prospect cut. It should be the three of us going after her as a united front, not just some of us.
I get it. I do.
And considering she’s probably pissed at us, and we don’t know how she feels or how resistant she’ll be to us bringing her home, the three of us going is better than two. I just hope she gives us a chance to explain our actions.
Not that I would take any of them back.
Which is probably going to be a problem in terms of apologizing to her.
What should I say? Sorry for giving you so many orgasms? Sorry for showing you that you’re ours instead of saying it? Well, to be fair, that last one is probably not the best thing to say.
I regret not saying the words and falling at her feet to let her know how much I love her. How much the three of us love her.
“We’ll find him, Prez,” Hacker assures him. “There’s no way he can stay underground forever. He doesn’t have enough resources or money for it. He might have wanted everyone in the city to think he had a lot of money to flash around, but he was stretched thin. With his operations not running like they were, he won’t be able to stay hidden forever.”
Lucifer doesn’t look any less pissed with Hacker’s words. He shares a look with Prodigal, a heavy one which has me paying closer attention to what’s going on in Church.
“Leonardo Guidice came by a few days ago to show us some new stock.” Lucifer sighs as the stoic mask he keeps in place slips slightly, showing just how tired and on edge he is. “He let us know that Giovanni got some information from one of his informants. Apparently, someone has been asking around about and was sounding a little too interested in Fleur.”
The entire room erupts and chaos reigns. Which isn’t surprising because Fleur Whelan is the DSMC club princess. She’s Lucifer’s daughter and Prodigal’s sister. Since she normally spends a good deal of time around the clubhouse, we all consider her our sister. She’ll come and hang out with the brothers or make a meal just for fun while spending time with her mom, Cherise.
Cherise, now there is the queen of fucking old ladies. She’s the mom of the club, and a lot of the guys around the table with me need her in our lives. She’s kind and sweet, but she’s tough as nails when she needs to be. I have zero doubt that she would kick any one of our asses if she needed to. Not only that, but we’d let her without a fight because if we’ve pissed her off then her wrath would be greater than Lucifer’s.
Our Prez is devoted to his woman and his family the same way he is to each of us. He makes sure we know it as well.
When I first came on as a prospect, I expected to find some sort of weakness in the relationship between Prez and his old lady. Not because I wanted to find it, but because it was what I was used to seeing. My parents might still be together, but they hate each other.
Hell, I don’t know if they ever loved each other to begin with. They’re selfish as fuck on a good day, but then when that selfishness is working against each other? Fucking watch out.
I figured more relationships were like my parents’ than not. That’s what had me watching Cherise and Lucifer closely. The more I watched, the more I saw how deep their devotion for each other goes. It’s a connection I’ve craved ever since.
I found it, too, surprisingly enough. Then Heather ran without even leaving us a note or anything.
Anger churns in my gut and I’m not sure if it’s about Heather leaving us without a backwards glance, Fleur being in danger, or just feeling like I can’t keep my feet underneath me right now. It’s almost too much, but I also know I can’t give up.
Not when giving into my desire to show Heather we were more, without then making her our everything, backfired right in my fucking face. That shit is on me.
“What the fuck do you mean someone is asking about Fleur? Don’t they know she’s un-fucking-touchable?” Gallows, one of the older members of the club who came up next to Lucifer, growls, “Do we know anything about this fucker?”
“No,” Prez’s voice is hard. “We don’t know shit. I’ve told you all I know. Gio will continue to work the ears he has in the city. We need to do the same and keep our eyes fucking open for anything that might be going down. There’s no way in hell I’m going to let any harm come to Fleur.”
The sound of everyone pounding on the table is almost deafening. It takes a few minutes for everyone to calm down and even though we don’t have any answers, there’s a feeling of being together to fight whatever comes our way in the room.
We don’t have to wait much longer for Lucifer to open the floor to the brothers and any new business. I clear my throat, suddenly nervous. Not because I’m not sure about what I’m about to do, but because it’s not as straightforward as I thought it would be months ago since Heather is gone now.
“We,” I point between myself, Scope, and Viper, “need to claim our old lady. Heather is ours.”
There’s a beat of silence in the room that lasts long enough for my stomach to drop and my heart to start pounding. Then, the men around me, my brothers, start hooting, hollering, and banging on the table again with wide grins on their faces.
Lucifer winks at me. “You’re finally bringing your claim to the table, huh, brothers?”
“It’s about fucking time,” Gallows grumbles.
I shouldn’t be shocked there aren’t more surprised faces around the table. I knew some of my brothers had an idea of what was going on, but I didn’t realize we were transparent to the point where everyone knew. Shit.
“I just see one problem with your claim,” Tack, the club’s Sergeant at Arms, speaks up. I give him a nod to indicate for him to keep going. “Heather left.”
“We know where she is. We’ve known since a few days after she ran,” Scope tells them. “We wanted to be able to claim her as ours together which couldn’t happen until I earned my patch, if I ever did. She is safe and Hack’s been keeping an eye on her as best he can.”
“You have your patch now, Scope,” Apostle’s voice is a challenge.
“Exactly, which means its time to stop fucking around and go get our woman,” Scope growls.
Tack eyes us curiously, “What if she doesn’t want to come back?”
Viper shrugs, his voice sounding a lot surer than what I’m feeling, “She’ll come back. We’ll figure out why she left and then we’ll bring her home. She belongs here with us as our old lady.”
“Well, shit,” Hacker mumbles, “guess I need to get her property cut ordered.”
I bark out a laugh along with my brothers. It helps to dissipate some of the tension swirling in my gut.
Lucifer rubs the underside of his jaw, his voice thoughtful, “It’s not common for a club angel to be claimed.”
My body goes rigid, and I clench my jaw to stop myself from saying something I shouldn’t to my Prez. “She was never an angel like the others, and you know it,” some of the anger I’m feeling leeches out through my voice, but all Prez does is smirk at me in response.
Instead of pushing me further, he looks around the table and asks, “Does anyone have any objections to their claim?’
No one says anything and my heart starts to pound in my chest so loud that I miss the rest of what he says. All I know is that when no one spoke up against the claim that she became ours, officially, in the eyes of the club. Now we can do what I’ve been dreaming about doing since I found out she left. It’s time to go to her and show her how much she means to us.
I might have to spank her ass red for running while I’m at it. But that’ll come after holding her in my arms and making sure she’s okay. I’ve fucking missed her, and I need her in my life and in my arms.
Hammer chuckles from across the table, a look of understanding on his face. “Is this why the two of you,” he points to Viper and me, “had us start on a house already?”
Scope turns to us with a look of surprise on his face. We didn’t tell him we were going to get the ball rolling on a house. It was one of the few things that has kept me fucking sane while Heather’s been gone and kept me looking toward the future. It’s not done yet, which is a shame, but I wasn’t going to wait until we got her back here.
From the look on Scope’s face, he’s not pleased to be left out of the plan, but I have a feeling he’ll get over it. It was all for her anyway.
Our club brothers give us some shit, but it doesn’t bother me. It makes me smile because knowing we have the club at our back makes me feel like I’m floating through the clouds. It’s surreal. The only bad thing in claiming our Cherub is that she’s not waiting out in the common room for us right now.
“When are you leaving to go and get your woman?” When I snap out of my fantasies of all the things I’m going to do with Heather when we go to her, Lucifer is looking at me with knowing in his eyes. “You better take some shit women like. You might not know what you did, but a woman doesn’t run for no reason.”
His words sink in, and it only makes me wonder, again, what happened before she left and why she did it without talking to us first. I’ve been over that day in my head so many times. It’s to the point now that I’m not sure if I can trust my own memories. Everything was fine and then she was gone.
That’s it. Just that simple.
“We’re getting on the road tomorrow,” Viper answers Prez and the knot in my gut starts to loosen.
One more night and then we’ll be closer to getting to the bottom of what the hell happened and making sure Heather knows that her home is with us. Always.