Chapter 11
Pope
Riding with Ocean molded against his back was becoming one of Pope’s favorite pastimes, elevating wind therapy to a new level of relaxation. Today wasn’t about riding nowhere, though.
Pope had an upcoming speaking engagement in four days, halfway across the country in Tulsa, and they had no intention of getting on the interstate unless there were no other options available.
While Ocean had already experienced the thrill of a cross-country odyssey, Roan hadn’t, and much to Pope’s surprise, he’d enthusiastically agreed to leave his bike behind and ride with Danger to avoid drawing too much attention, since all of them, including Ocean, were wearing kuttes.
There was a longstanding tradition among the Jokers to acknowledge family, whether they were patched in or not.
While Roan would have to earn the Joker’s full colors, Ocean’s kutte was already adorned with them, along with the Rollin’ Jokers top rocker and a bottom rocker that read “Founding Family.” Simply put, a vote at the chapel table had unanimously decreed that he was a Joker.
Period.
In time though, Pope could already see him earning another patch denoting who he belonged to, because now that Pope had gotten a glimpse of the possibilities, there was no way he was letting go of any of the three men riding with him.
“Have you lined up a crew for Tulsa yet?”
Danger’s question caught him completely off guard, dragging his attention away from the list of questions he’d been putting together for an upcoming sit-down with a legendary ridge runner.
“Still working on it,” Pope replied as he reached for his drink.
“You can stop,” Danger declared. “Roan and I will go with you and help out.”
“Sure you can stand to be away from your office for that long?” Pope asked. “I’m not planning on a quick trip.”
“You never do,” Danger replied. “It’s all good. Everything’s up to date, nothing needs collecting until the end of the month, and Teddy being back in charge of Joker’s Delight means that nightmare is over, so we’re good to go. I already cleared it with Mark.”
“If you two are going, I might as well see if Ocean wants to ride with me.”
Danger nodded, finger tracing a lazy pattern over the gleaming surface of the bar. “Might be better to take two bikes instead of three so people don’t go clutching their pearls when they see us roar through their town.”
“They’re gonna clutch ‘em anyway, but it might not be a bad idea,” Pope admitted. “If you can convince Roan to leave his bike behind and ride with you.”
“I’m good at being persuasive.”
“When you’re not being a snarly shit.”
“I haven’t bitten anyone’s head off all week.”
“So I’ve noticed,” Pope admitted. “That’s been all Kong. At this point, I doubt he’s ever going to uncover who pulled that prank on Scout. Half of the crew are avoiding him on principle, and the other half have already offered proven alibis.”
“He tried to blame Roan.”
“I heard,” Pope replied. “Was also told that you defended him, rather vehemently too. Glad you finally got your head out of your ass.”
“And it only cost me a hundred bucks, go figure.”
“Mark was laughing his ass off when he told me about that. I’d have loved to have been there when you handed it to him.”
“Why? You’ve been staring at that smug ass look for most of your life.”
“And been the recipient of it on more occasions than I can count, so yeah, I know it well, and you deserved it, much the way I did when he made a comment about seeing the four of us together in the dungeon the other night.”
“Sometimes I swear he has superpowers that allow him to be everywhere at once,” Danger grumbled as a drink appeared on the bar beside him, held in Mark’s meaty fist.
“And you’d best never forget it,” Mark declared before striding away.
“How does he always do that?” Danger grumbled as he picked up his beer.
“Dealing with this riff-raff day in and day out plus raising four boys,” Pope pointed out.
“I missed that,” Danger said, voice low, eyes meeting Pope’s briefly before he glanced away, revealing a hint of the shy pup he’d been when Pope had first trained him.
“The wand, you. I-I fucked up. You were only trying to help me when you pushed me to let the club pay for my schooling and make me the accountant.”
“But you still hate it and you still resent me setting you on that path,” Pope replied, never taking his eye off him.
Danger hung his head, glancing up when Pope stroked his hair.
“I know someone needed to step up and do it,” Danger admitted.
“But I volunteered you, and you saw it as a betrayal,” Pope finished for him.
Danger nodded, meeting his gaze again. “Felt like you did it because you thought you needed to protect me. Keep me away from all the fighting that was going on.”
“No,” Pope replied, cupping his cheek, thumb grazing along the side of his jaw until Danger sucked in a breath and shivered.
“I did it because you’ve got a brain under all that hair, and your loyalty to me and the club has always been above reproach.
I volunteered you so you could help us end all the fucking wars that kept jumping off with other clubs, all that battling for territory bullshit that was getting our guys fucked up, killed, or locked away.
I volunteered you because I knew that you’d learn how to protect our people and their families, and you did.
You made it possible for ideas to become realities.
That’s something to be proud of, not pissed off about. ”
Danger couldn’t hang his head this time; Pope wouldn’t let him. He kept on caressing the curve of his jaw, waiting for the words to sink in and Danger to make up his mind about if he was ready to put things right between them again and see about adding a few new components to their old dynamic.
“I didn’t want to bum around here for ten days waiting for you to get back,” Danger finally admitted. “Figured I’d be in a shit mood by then, which would have probably rubbed off on Roan, and he’d have gone and gotten himself into trouble again.”
“So you decided to be proactive and arrange to go with me,” Pope murmured. “I’m glad. After having you guys over at the house the other night, it’s been much too quiet out there alone.”
Pope could feel the tension draining out of Danger until he leaned into Pope’s touch and closed his eyes.
“We’ll figure out the rest,” Pope murmured. “Road trip will be a good start. You did good, seeing where it would have been a problem and getting in front of it before it became an issue.”
Pope felt him sigh and placed his other hand on the back of his head until Danger slid off the stool and into his arms, swaying, letting Pope bear his weight until he’d composed himself.
Now here they were, roads twisting in gentle curves, carrying them further and further away from the coast. The country out here was tranquil and practically unspoiled.
With a single lane in each direction and a narrow shoulder along the side of the road before it sloped into a drainage ravine, the rural routes were generally free of big rigs and traffic.
Less than twenty miles up the road was a spot he hoped the trio would appreciate making a brief stop at.
Would give them a chance to stretch their legs after over two and a half hours on the road.
Ocean’s arms tightened around him, just a fraction, when Pope leaned into the curve; otherwise, he was still and relaxed behind him.
Pope parked in a mostly empty parking lot, on the opposite end from the red mini-cooper already sitting there. When Danger came to a stop beside him, Roan straightened up and glanced around.
“It’s beautiful out here,” Roan said. “Where are we?”
“You’ll see in just a second,” Pope promised. “Come on, we’re going for a walk.”
“Nice, my ass was falling asleep,” Ocean said as he got off Pope’s bike.
Pope led them to wide, winding stairs no one complained about climbing, though Danger was a bit breathless when they reached the top. Too many hours in that damned office, something Pope was working on a plan to remedy.
Along the way, they passed a group of five coming down from the summit, one of them carrying a sleeping child on their shoulder.
Nice, they’d have the observation platform all to themselves.
“Whoa!” Roan stood at the railing, Ocean by his side, peering out over the valley and Lake Lure.
“This is Chimney Rock,” Pope explained. “I thought you guys would appreciate the view.”
“It’s amazing,” Ocean replied.
Neither he nor Roan had taken their eyes off it. Danger leaned against the railing several feet away, a serene expression on his face as he took in the view. Pope leaned next to him, one hand resting on Danger’s back, silently taking in the bright green of the foliage beside the lake.
A raptor’s cry broke the silence around them, and Pope tipped his head back, searching for it against the brilliant blue of a cloudless sky.
“There,” Roan whispered, pointing to a trio of shadows, one noticeably bigger than the rest.
Bright white tail feathers, majestic wingspan, and brilliant white plumage on the top of its head made the eagle easy to spot as it chased a pair of ravens, veering to pursue one with yet another angry cry.
“Man, those ravens better fly faster,” Ocean said, keeping his voice low as the spectacle played out.
“What do you think they did to piss off that eagle?” Roan asked.
“Probably flew too close to its nest,” Ocean mused. “I’ve seen it happen on the eagle cams a few times.”
The eagle cried out again and changed direction, chasing the second raven now, the trio growing smaller and smaller as the eagle chased them across the valley.
“I’ve never seen an eagle in the wild before,” Ocean said. “Only on camera.”
“I’ve never even watched them on camera,” Roan admitted. “They’re bigger than I thought.”
“Their nests are huge,” Ocean said. “I’ll have to show you some of the eagle cam feeds I watch.”
“Fuck yeah.”
Danger hadn’t said a thing, but he hadn’t looked away from the valley either, even when the birds disappeared from view.