Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jessa and I had decorated the house for Merci’s return. Balloons and vases of peonies filled the living room. We’d set up a station next to the couch with her favorite snacks and the TV remote within easy reach.
Jessa did her homework beside Merci on the couch while I cooked dinner. I watched Merci stand, holding her side, and shuffle toward the bathroom for all of two seconds before moving in to help her.
“I can walk on my own,” she grumbled.
“I know. But if I can take away an ounce of pain right now, I want to help you.”
She muttered as I helped her maneuver to the toilet, and I gently pulled down her panties.
“This is not how I envisioned you taking off my clothes when we moved in together,” she complained.
I snorted. “Hellcat, I’ll rip them off with my teeth when you’re healed up.”
Her gaze heated, even as she rolled her eyes. A knock pounded on the front door, and I yelled for Jessa to see who’d arrived. A deep, familiar voice greeted my sister and dog.
Once we left the bathroom, I resisted every urge to pick Merci up and carry her back to the couch. She gripped my forearm while taking careful, slow steps. Once she settled, I covered her with a blanket and kissed her forehead. “Need anything?”
“A margarita,” she said flatly.
I raised a brow. “Do you want juice or sparkling water? No alcohol while you’re taking those pain meds.”
“I’m a doctor,” she scoffed. “I know the risk. I still want a margarita.”
“Juice or water?” I repeated firmly.
She sighed dramatically, glancing at Merrick and Kenna standing in the kitchen.
“They’re not going to give you alcohol either.”
“Fine,” she grunted. “I’ll take a juice.”
Merrick’s eyes burned into me, watching my every move. Kenna settled beside Merci on the couch, opening up a folder and sharing her latest plans for their women’s center project.
My eyes shifted to Merrick’s, and he broke the silence.
“Can we talk outside?”
I nodded and followed him out the door.
“I’m sorry for everything I said.”
I raised my brows. “That I’m an asshole for going behind your back and not good enough for your sister?”
“Never mind. That still holds true. But Merci’s alive because of you. And I see how much you care for her.”
“I’ll do everything I can to keep her safe and happy,” I assured.
“I know you will.” He reached for a folded stack on the porch swing. “That’s why I wanted to give this back to you.”
I unfolded my cut, the patches still worn. The leather was shockingly free of bullet holes and burn marks.
“And I thought you might want this,” Merrick said, handing me a paper bag.
A smaller cut was folded within it. I pulled it out and turned it over to read the bottom rocker across the back. “Property of Hatchet.”
“You’re OK with this?”
“As Kenna has reminded me many times over the past few days, Merci’s romantic relationships are ‘none of my fucking business.’” He used air quotes as he mimicked Kenna’s voice. “And you’re better than the one she almost married. So, there’s that.”
I slipped my cut over my shoulders. “Thanks for the glowing review. Better than Luca. The bar was pretty low. But speaking of married …” I trailed off.
Merrick raised a brow. “You? You want to get married? To my sister?”
I ran my hand over my beard. “If she’ll have me, yeah. I don’t think you understand how much I love her.”
Merrick’s gaze shifted through the window, where Merci laughed at something Kenna said, one hand over her stitches. “You’re wrong. I get it. When it’s the right woman, you know.” Merrick’s eyes flicked to mine. “Don’t hurt her. If you do—”
“I won’t,” I promised. “I saw what she did to the last guy. Nothing’s left standing when Hurricane Merci moves through. Do you want to stay for dinner?”
Merrick hesitated, glancing back through the window. His shoulders loosened a fraction.
“Yeah,” he said finally. “Yeah, we’ll stay.”
We stepped back inside, and Merci’s eyes locked on the leather immediately. Her gaze flicked from the patches to Merrick, then back to me, a soft happiness breaking through the pain.
“You gave it back,” she said to her brother, voice thick.
Merrick shrugged. “Don’t make me regret it.”
She reached out a hand toward him, and he crossed the room to take it. “Love you, bro,” she said, squeezing his fingers. “Even if you’re still a controlling alpha-hole.”
Merrick huffed a laugh, squeezing back before letting go.
Dinner felt almost normal. For the first time since I’d fallen for Merci, it didn’t feel like I was waiting for the other shoe—or a fist—to drop.
Kenna helped Jessa set the table while I made a plate for Merci. She shuffled to the table with my arm around her waist, cursing under her breath with every step.
I sat beside her. “Keep your hands to yourself,” I whispered in her ear.
Her eyes sparkled with amusement. “Only for tonight.”
Merrick sat across from me, fork in hand, watching his sister more than his plate. He’d lost too many people over the years. I didn’t understand how he’d held it together when Merci was missing.
After Merrick and Kenna left and Jessa headed to bed, Merci and I sat together on the front porch swing. Fireflies blinked in the yard, and a sense of peace washed over me.
But there was one thing missing.
I couldn’t wait another day.
“I’ll be right back.”
I rustled through my dresser and pulled out the small velvet box. I opened it, eyeing the jewel as I considered how to pop the question.
When word came that they were discharging Merci, I’d wandered into a jewelry store on impulse.
I’d eyed the diamonds at first. But they were too flashy.
Too traditional. They didn’t fit her. Then I saw it.
A gem that reminded me of the lethal but sweet and sharp woman I’d fallen in love with the second she’d thrown crystal wine glasses against her ex’s wall.
I slipped the box into my pocket and picked up the cut with my property patch.
The swing creaked gently as I sat. “Got something for you,” I said, holding out the folded leather first.
Her eyes told me she knew exactly what it was. She held it up, light from inside the house highlighting my patch. Her eyes lifted to mine, loving, thrilled, and a little defiant.
“So you think I’m your property?” she sassed.
I leveled a gaze at her. She knew what this meant. She’d grown up in the club. “I want to make you mine in every way, Hellcat.”
Before she could quip back, I reached into my pocket and snapped open the velvet box.
Merci gasped as the marquis-cut bloodred ruby inside caught the light. I took her left hand and slid the ring slowly over her knuckle.
“This ring is you. Sharp edges. Tough as hell. The color is what drew me in. It reminds me that you’re a fighter. That you’re not afraid of drawing blood. That if anyone ever hurts you again, we’ll make them bleed together. Marry me, Hellcat.”
She stared at the ring, her breath hitching, and then lifted her fierce eyes to mine.
“Yes,” she whispered.
* * *
The next day, I floated through the clubhouse in a strange haze of happiness and contentment. I never thought I’d be engaged, raising a kid and a dog. But, here I was, all domesticated and shit.
Thane called Church early that morning after an ominous package showed up at the gates.
When the meeting was called to order, he set a small cedar box on the table. The soft click of the latch echoed through the room as he opened it. Inside lay an envelope stamped with Luca’s family insignia with a single black rose atop it.
The Mafia.
“What’s in the envelope?” Merrick asked, his voice tight with dread.
“Haven’t opened it yet,” Thane said. “Want to do the honors?”
Merrick reached in and set the rose aside. He lifted the envelope and broke the wax seal before pulling out a card.
He held it in the air before us. On the front was St. Jude—the patron saint of lost causes, with a verse on the back. But the card had been half-burned, the feet of the intercessor having been licked by a flame and turned to ash.
“Mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.” — Jude 1:2
“What does it mean?” I asked quietly.
Fuse’s voice was deadly calm. “It means mercy and peace are behind us. They’re telling us that they’ll hold our feet to the fire.”
Reaper leaned forward, elbows on the table. “We knew this was a possibility. The question is, how much do they know?”
Merrick’s jaw tightened. “If they’ve got someone even half as good as Linc, they’ve probably figured out what happened to Merci—and that Luca never made it to Italy. They’re reading between the lines.”
“So, what do we do now?”
“Nothing yet,” Thane growled. His glare cut through me, and I snapped my mouth shut. While Merrick had settled into the new reality that Merci and I were together, clearly my president needed a bit more time.
“We wait,” Merrick said. “They made the first move. They want us to react. We keep this quiet. We tighten security. We keep eyes on our women at all times.”
My stomach clenched. Women and children were off limits as pawns in wars between MCs, but the Mafia didn’t play by the same rules. They used them to send messages. To hurt their enemies.
“Eva’s going to be pissed to be on lockdown again,” Reaper mused. “She’ll lead an old lady revolution.”
“It’s for their own damn good,” Thane rumbled. “If the Mafia wants a war, then we’ll give them one. On our terms.”
As I stared at the wilting rose, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t the only thing that would die before the dust settled.
After Thane slammed the gavel to end the meeting, I joined Fuse for a drink in the quiet of the clubhouse bar. The music was low, and most of the guys were gone for the night.
“Thane’s still pissed,” I observed, dropping onto a stool.
Fuse poured himself a scotch. “There was a vote. Thane wanted to put you ‘out bad.’”
I cracked a beer. “Really? Why’d I get my cut back?” Thane had veto power. He could have overruled the vote.
“Merrick, mostly. And Reaper. They advocated to let you stay.”
“Who voted against me?”
His large, tattooed hand wrapped around my shoulder. “You know I can’t tell you that. But it doesn’t matter.” He gave me a look. “The majority ruled in your favor once Merrick made his case. He said Merci confided that she’d made the first move.”
I huffed out a rough laugh. “Of course she did. You think I’m dumb?”
Fuse shook his head. “You were playing with fire long before that. You looked at her just like Thane looked at Rhetta the first time they met.”
“Like I wanted to murder her?”
“Like you’d burn the world down for her, if she asked.”
And he wasn’t wrong. A part of me had been drawn to Merci before our first kiss.
Merrick slid onto the barstool beside me. He set a thick stack of papers in front of me.
“What’s this?”
“Business plan. Everest sent it over for us to look at.”
I flipped through a few pages—charts, projections, shit that made my eyes blur. “I guess I don’t really know what I’m looking at.”
I slid the stack of papers to Fuse. He scanned the documents, occasionally circling a line or jotting something in the margin.
“This is pretty good,” he said after a minute. “I’d tweak the budget. You can tell Everest’s experience is in finance and consulting. He’s over-indexing on equipment and undershooting marketing and staffing.”
Merrick nodded slowly. “Good catch. We’ll flag that for him. You still willing to teach a Krav Maga class?”
“Absolutely,” Fuse said.
I stood, grinning at Merrick and Fuse. My Maverick family. But I had someone else now, too.
“I’d better get home before Merci talks Jessa into letting her go for a hike or do some sort of stupid bullshit she’s not ready for.”
Merrick scoffed. “Good luck with that. I remember when she broke her leg when she was ten. We found her hobbling around in the backyard, trying to catch a stray kitten.”
Fuse barked a laugh. “Enjoy domestic bliss, brother. Whipped suits you.”
I flipped them both off as I headed for the door, the weight of my cut on my back.