6. Ethan
Ethan
Am I hurt by what Cassie said? Course I am.
I offered to marry her, and she needed time to think about it.
I get it, I do, but it still landed somewhere tender.
I wasn't trying to trap her. I just wanted to kill two birds with one stone: get her brothers off her back and prove to her once and for all that I'm not going anywhere.
We get to my room and I lock the door behind us. She starts unpacking her bag while I lean against the wall and watch her, not saying much of anything.
"What do you want to talk about, Ethan? I can hear you thinking from over here."
She sits on the edge of the bed and looks at me, waiting.
"Don't you want to marry me?" It comes out rougher than I mean it to. "I figured it was pretty much a foregone conclusion, that we'd end up there eventually. I thought you knew how much I love you."
"I do love you, and I want to believe we'll be together forever.
" She pats the bed beside her, and I sit.
"I know why you offered. I appreciate it more than I can say.
But I left home chasing freedom, Ethan, and marrying so fast doesn't feel like freedom.
It feels like another cage but with nicer wallpaper. "
That one lands harder than I want to admit. "You still thinking about Florida? About leaving?"
"I don't know. I was only supposed to pass through here. Then I met you and everything I thought I wanted got rearranged." She takes my hand. "I need to sit with what that means before I go signing my name to anything."
"They won't find you. Not here. My brothers are gonna make damn sure of that." I wrap my arm around her. "I hear you on the freedom thing. I wasn't trying to take that from you, I swear. I was just trying to close a door your brothers can't force open."
"I know that. I do." She leans into my shoulder. "I just don't want you chained to me forever if we don't work out."
"We're gonna work out, babe. We love each other. What else is there?" I kiss the side of her face and pull her in closer.
"What about the fake marriage Abby mentioned? We'd still be free, and we'd have time to figure out if we want the real thing later." She looks up at me and I close the distance, kissing her slowly.
"I'll run it by Prez. It might be the right middle ground. Abby's good enough at what she does that nobody looking from the outside will know the difference."
"Let's go find out now." She stands, and I beat her to the door, holding it open. "I've got you, Cass. All the way."
She smiles and steps past me, and I lock up behind us. In the kitchen, the old ladies have dinner laid out, and we take two seats. Prez drops down across from us before I've even got a bite in.
"So. We got a decision?"
"We're thinking fake married, for now." Cassie sits up straight when she says it, her chin level, like she's daring anybody to tell her it's the wrong call. "Abby says she can make it airtight."
"Alright. I'll loop in Abby, and get it moving." Prez looks at her, all serious now. "Anything you need, you say the word. Your brothers reach out, I hear about it first. Anybody looks at you wrong around here, I hear about that too. You need to leave the compound for any reason at all..."
He glances at me, something almost amused flickering behind the seriousness.
"Guess this settles the other conversation too.
Can't exactly write you up for dating a woman who's about to be your wife, prospect or not.
" It's the closest thing to a joke he's cracked all week, and I feel something in my chest unknot that's been sitting tight there since the night he pulled me aside at the party.
Okay
"You'll be the first to know," she says smiling despite herself.
"Good girl." He stands and heads for Rosie's side of the table, and I watch him drop a kiss on her temple before he sits.
When dinner's cleared, Prez calls, "Church," and every patched brother in the room kisses his woman and heads for the back room. I'm halfway through standing to walk Cassie to the old ladies when Prez catches my eye.
"You too, Ethan. Sit in on this one with us."
Prospects don't get called into Church. Ever. My whole chest goes tight and warm at once. "Yes, Prez."
I kiss Cassie's cheek. "Won't be long. You're in good hands out here."
The old ladies are already pulling her in, nodding at me like they've got this handled, and God only knows what they're going to talk her ear off about, but it's good for her, getting folded into that circle while we're stuck here a while.
I follow the brothers down the hall. There's a box by the door, same as always, and every man drops his phone in it without breaking stride, so I do the same.
Inside, the room is plainer than I expected.
A long table, hard chairs, and a single gavel sitting in front of Prez's seat, which is worn smooth from a couple of decades of hands before mine.
No skulls, no trophies, nothing like what I used to picture as a kid hearing about clubs like this one.
Just a room where men decide things that matter.
Every seat at that table belongs to somebody who's earned it.
I'm not one of them yet. I find a spot along the wall instead, near the door, and stand there with my arms crossed, and if any part of me wants to grab a chair and pull it up like I belong at that table, I bury it.
Brick catches my eye from his seat for half a second, something that might be pride flickering through, gone before I can be sure of it.
Prez raps the gavel once against the table. "Church is open."
The room settles.
"Cassie's brothers," Prez starts. "You all know the reward's out there.
That means anybody we cross paths with could be looking to cash in on her.
Right now the only concern we've got eyes on is the rider who's been circling her place.
Brax, Shadow, work with Abby, pull whatever cameras you can, find out who he is.
If he needs eliminating to keep her safe, that's what happens.
Find out if he's already reported back to her family. "
"Yes, Prez." Brax and Shadow answer together, flat and immediate.
"Now, the marriage." Prez looks around the table.
"Ethan and Cassie are leaning toward fake, for now.
Abby's going to build it out so it holds up if anybody goes digging, her brothers included.
It might buy us some time, but it might not be enough.
" His jaw tightens. "She was originally promised to Pablo Estrada.
He's dead, and they've already got somebody else lined up to take his place, because in that family a woman doesn't get an opinion about who she marries.
We're giving her one. That's the whole point of tonight. "
"They gonna come after her once they know she's here?" Cash asks, leaning back in his chair, but there's nothing lazy in his eyes.
"Count on it." Prez doesn't hesitate. "Family like that doesn't let anything go quietly."
"We're not sending her back." My voice comes out louder than I mean it to from my spot against the wall. "It’s not happening."
"Nobody's arguing that, Ethan." Prez's tone stays even. "We already gave you both our word. The question is whether we're ready for what's coming. Cassie needs to stay inside the gate till further notice. Her brothers could have eyes anywhere."
"I'd marry her for real tomorrow if it was up to me." It slips out before I think better of it.
"We know, Casanova." Ramsay grins across the table, and half the room laughs.
"Fuck off, Ramsay." I'm laughing too, I can't help it. These men are the closest thing to brothers I've got, blood or not.
Prez lets it run a second before he brings the gavel down light, once, just enough to settle the room again.
"Order. The real question on the table is whether we move first or wait.
Hitting first means we control how this plays out.
But if we're wrong about the timing, we start something we can't walk back from. "
"Hit first, hit hard." Knuckles doesn’t wait to be asked. "If we wait too long, then we're the ones playing defense in our own house. I say we go loud, make sure they know exactly who they're dealing with."
"I love a good ambush before breakfast." Cash spreads his hands. "But we're talking about starting a war with a Detroit Famiglia over a woman we've known for five days. No offense, Ethan. Maybe we find out what we're actually up against before we go swinging."
"Recon first," Shadow says. "We don't know their numbers. We don't know their reach. If we move blind, we lose people."
"I say we watch a while longer." Ramsay's voice drops quieter than usual, more thoughtful. "See how they come at us before we show our whole hand."
"Or we don't attack at all." Brax leans into the table. "We request a meet. Come in with open hands, we're less likely to end up in a body bag over a misunderstanding. Give them a chance to hear it from us directly before this turns into something nobody can undo."
Pops waits until the table's quieted before he says his piece, and when he does the whole room leans in a little, the way it always does for him.
"This isn't about who draws blood first. It's about that girl having somewhere safe to land for the first time in her life.
We do this smart. We do it together. Speed's never once beaten patience in this life, and I've buried men who thought otherwise. "
Prez lets the silence sit a beat, weighing all of it.
"We plan the wedding first, get her locked down officially on paper.
Once that's done, we request the meet Brax is talking about, we go in controlled, make sure they hear straight from us that she's not coming home.
If they don't want to listen, we'll already know exactly what we're dealing with by then.
" He looks around the table once more. "She stays with us.
That's not a discussion point. Everything else, we build the plan around. "
Nods travel around the table, and Prez brings the gavel down once, final. "Church dismissed."
"Ethan." Prez catches me before I can slip out. "Go find Abby, get the wedding paperwork moving. We'll work the plan for her brothers from our end."
"Yes, Prez." I head for the door.
I take a minute in the hallway before I walk into the kitchen, just breathing, letting everything that just happened settle.
Then I find her, right in the middle of the old ladies, laughing with her head tipped back, easy in a way I don't think I've seen her be since the night we met.
I stop in the doorway and just watch her for a minute.
She's never had this. Not once in her whole life, not really. She’s not had a table full of people who'd go to war for her without asking what's in it for them.
She wants her freedom because she's spent her whole life caged by people who called it love.
I get that now, all the way down. I understand her better standing in this doorway than I have in the whole four months I've known her.