Prologue #2
I try to focus on why I’m here, while Butcher pulls Greer in for a hug and whispers something in her ear that I can’t hear, but my pulse is banging like a drum in my temple. And my face is frozen like I just had a stroke or something.
Which is, in all honesty, a possibility, given how I feel right now.
My world tilts.
“Dr. Hansen?” Lucy says, and I realize I’m still staring at her.
Thrust back to the day I was remanded to begin an eight-year stretch for something I didn’t do.
I’d hit a man. Twice. Knocked him to the pavement.
That part I’d always owned up to. The part where I allegedly broke into his home later that night and beat him to the point of hospitalization and life-changing injuries was a fabricated lie I could never prove.
Reduced to four years, because during those first six months, Butcher was in prison too.
Took me under his wing and refused to let me be my own worst enemy.
Told me to forget everything about Lucy and focus on what it took to endure in the world I was now in.
How to survive and get out early. Showed me what it was to be an Outlaw.
I was a prospect when I went in. But the day I stepped out to be greeted by Butcher and the club turned me into a man.
My patching ceremony was held right outside the prison gates, accompanied by motorcycle roars so loud, my father heard them inside.
The club was loyal. But the woman I loved more than life itself, wasn’t.
Couldn’t wait for me, even though I was in prison for hurting the man who hurt her.
“Take good care of her, Lucy,” Butcher says, bringing me back to the present. “She’s taking my baby in there with her, and I want ‘em both delivered back to me in one unfrazzled piece.”
“I always do,” she says, with the confidence she’s grown into.
I track her ass until she hits the steps, and even then, I can’t take my eyes off her. She was always everything I dreamed of.
Until she wasn’t.
I can’t decide if I want to puke, fight, or chase after the woman.
I stuff my hands in the pockets of my jeans and march back to my bike.
Might even apologize to Butcher and just drive off.
I can’t be around her. Not because of what she did, but because I don’t trust myself not to forget about it and kiss her anyway.
Just to see if those lips of hers are as soft and willing as they used to be.
Instead, I walk over to the wooden fence that cordons off the parking lot and kick the shit out of it, busting a huge hole in it.
I’m about to reach for the fence post to pull the fucker out of the ground when strong arms wrap around me. Atom has me in a choke hold, and Smoke stands in front of me. “Look at me, brother,” he says.
My breath is coming fast and furious as I try to squirm out of Atom’s grip. “Let me go,” I say.
Atom chuckles. “I’ll let go of you when you stop taking your rage out on that de-fense-less fence.”
Smoke shakes his head. “That’s a terrible pun.”
“You’re right in front of the cop shop,” Atom warns. “Cool your fucking heels, or you’ll end up rooming with your dad. Don’t give ‘em a reason.”
Smoke grabs my face, palms either side. “Don’t make me hit you.”
I shake off Atom’s hold. “I’m fine. And I’d like to see you try.”
“Guess you didn’t know Lucy was back in town,” Atom says.
I shake my head. “No.”
“Hate to say it,” Smoke says. “But if she’s here, and she can practice law here after being in New York, it’s more than just a visit. There’s paperwork involved in practicing in a different state.”
I catch Butcher’s concerned look, but I can’t speak to him yet. Emotions are still too overwhelming. And I’m filled with fury that all she had to do was show up, and I reacted like I did.
It’s like I’ve shown every card I ever held. She still has the ability to turn me into a pretzel. I force myself to take a breath. Then another.
And another.
“Let me walk it off,” I say, moving past the two of them to pace the sidewalk.
I’ve got no clue what I’m going to do when she comes out again. A part of me wants to slice all four tires of her car. But I know that, in spite of everything, I wouldn’t leave her stranded.
Not sure what that says about me.
Time rolls painfully by.
Five minutes.
Fifteen minutes.
Occasionally, I lose control again.
Everyone is looking at me like a bomb about to explode.
Only Atom and Smoke are brave enough to step into my orbit. Even though I threaten both of them, they don’t leave my side.
“Grudge,” Butcher shouts. He tips his head for me to join him where he’s talking with Wraith.
“What the fuck is she doing here, Prez?” I ask when I get to him.
“No clue. I called up a friend. Got my woman a lawyer. Didn’t know Lucy would show up. But we got a problem.”
I’m sure he does, but right now, I’m lacking any kind of focus beyond the myopic statement that Lucy is back. “A bigger one than my ex-fucking-wife walking around here like she’s welcome?”
“Keep looking at me, then we’re gonna look at something above the station door. But I think we got a spy watching us. The other side of the street. A blue sedan. Wraith knows the guy. Midtown Rebel. I need you and Wraith to go deal with him. Now, look above the fucking door.”
Wraith looks with us. “Go around back of the precinct, then come up behind him.”
I don’t want to go anywhere. I want to be right here, to prove with my own eyes that Lucy is actually here.
But I remember who I am.
I’m vice president of the motherfucking Outlaws.
I do whatever I want.
I sleep with whoever I want.
And right now, I have a job to do.
So, fuck Lucy De Bose.
For now…