Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
V elina…
We took Temperance’s car out to her in Florida and stayed for like a week. I drove, and Saint rode. I would be riding back with him.
It was like a nine-hour drive, and that was a lot, but it was worth it to arrive in Fort Royal and see Temperance absolutely thriving .
She was still stripping, but she seemed happy and was spending a lot of time with one of the Kraken club’s brothers, who looked at her the way that I sometimes caught Saint looking at me. It made me feel such relief.
I was glad she was going to be okay, and I hoped like hell she got everything her heart desired.
She ended up becoming fast and pretty good friends with another girl there named Faith. I learned quite a bit about both the Kraken and the Voodoo Bastards, and how club life was really supposed to work.
I could see immediately why the Voodoo Bastards had envied the Kraken and had wanted to adopt their business model, so-to-speak.
We spent nights on the beach around bonfires, sampling the bottles of different liquors that the Bastards had been distilling, laughing, and making up names for different things like Baron’s Barrel Aged Rum … names that went with not just the voodoo vibe but that encapsulated the feel of New Orleans herself.
Mostly, Saint and I took the time with each other, away from the heavy weight of the rivalry between the Bastards and the Brethren. We held hands and walked along the beach for hours, talking, dreaming, and making plans.
There were so many things that Saint wanted me to experience in my new home.
Greek Fest, Jazz Fest, Mardi Gras, and the history, stories, and local cultures and legends.
I was excited and ready for it all.
I had no idea what this next chapter entailed for me, but I knew one thing – I was excited and grateful that for the next, however many the fates would allow me to have, I would have them with this man, and I wouldn’t be doing it all alone anymore.
We talked about a lot of things, Saint and I.
About our families, our faith, and what we wanted to keep from our pasts and what we wanted to ditch all together.
Honestly, I was okay with ditching my mother and my siblings, all together. Didn’t really care if I ever spoke to them ever again.
He was surprised by that, and it took me a while to unpack it. When I did, it was to realize that they never really treated me like family was supposed to, at least not to my mind. It’d been so long of giving them every opportunity to just treat me right that I no longer felt the need to extend them any more opportunities.
I think that will died in me when I started talking to Louie.
I think Louie showed me the way… that the blood of the covenant was indeed thicker than the water of the womb.
“He was lucky to find that out,” I said as Saint and I walked hand in hand, listening to the Gulf crash upon the shore.
“I think we’re the lucky ones,” Saint said. “Me especially. Not only that I got to know him for as long as I did. Not just that I got to call him ‘brother’ with everything that goes into that, either.”
He met my eyes and raised the back of my hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to it.
“I know, for a fact, I’m the luckiest man alive that he brought you to me.”
I laughed, pushed him a little, and said, “Stop!”
“Hey, I fuckin’ mean it!” he cried, laughing, gripping my hand and not letting go.
“I know you mean it,” I said. “It’s just… awkward for me, I guess.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Still not used to hearing good things about me, I guess,” I said.
He pulled me into his arms and settled them around my waist, his hands smoothing along my lower back until he could palm my hips.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, and I looked at him as he looked at me.
“Well, you better get used to it and quick, because if I have to, I’m going to remind you every fuckin’ day of the rest of our lives that you’re beautiful, smart, funny, kind, fierce, wonderful, and whatever other things I can come up with that are equally as true.”
I laughed at that, shook my head, and said, “You’re gonna give me an overinflated ego.”
He pulled one of my hands from around his neck and kissed my palm, sighing, and said to me, “No, I just want you to see yourself the way I see you.”
I swallowed hard, eyes suddenly misting, and smacked him in the chest.
He laughed, long, boisterous, and loud, and pulled me into his chest. I clung to him in the summer breeze off of the water of the vast Gulf and held to him tightly.
Damn it, I hated when he got to me and could make me get all emotional… but I was grateful at the same time.
This man… healing the pieces of my broken heart one at a time, even though he wasn’t the one to break it.
God, I loved him.