8. Ethan
Ethan
The whole clubhouse erupts the second we walk back in, and I'm still catching up to what just happened in Church an hour ago. Prez climbs up on a chair so the room can see him.
"Listen up. Tonight we're patching in Ethan.
" A cheer goes up before he can even finish, and he waves it down, grinning.
"Man's put in over a year, never once complained about a job that was beneath him, and somewhere along the way he found himself a hell of a woman.
We weren't about to let him walk down an aisle Saturday still wearing a prospect patch. Tonight he walks in as a brother."
He hands me the cut, folded over so I can't see the patch yet, and my hands aren't quite steady when I take it. I unfold it and read the word stitched across the back and I laugh out loud before I can stop myself. SHOTGUN.
"Shotgun wedding." Prez is grinning ear to ear, waiting on my reaction.
"I get it, Prez. I love it." I hold it up so Cassie can see, and she's laughing too, hand pressed over her mouth.
That's when Brick moves.
He's across the room before I even register him standing, and he doesn't wait for Prez to finish the toast, doesn't wait for anybody's permission.
He takes the cut out of my hands himself and holds it up behind my shoulders, and I feel his hands settle it onto me, steady despite how hard my own are shaking.
When I turn around to face him, my father's eyes are wet, and I have never once seen that in my life, not at my mother's funeral, not any of the hard years before this club, never.
"Proud of you, son." His voice comes out rough, loud enough that half the room hears it, and he doesn't seem to care one bit who does.
He pulls me into a hug that nearly cracks a rib, both arms locked around me, and over his shoulder I catch Pops grinning like he's watching something he's been waiting years to see.
"Never seen Brick hug anybody that hard who wasn't bleeding out," Cash says from somewhere behind us, and the room breaks up laughing, Brick included, even with his eyes still shining when he finally lets me go.
"Watch it," Brick says, but there's no heat in it, none at all.
He claps a hand on my shoulder, heavy and warm, and doesn't move it for a long moment.
"You earned this. Every damn bit of it, on your own.
I never once wanted you thinking you got handed anything because of me.
" His jaw works, and for once he doesn't stop the words before they come out.
"Watching you do it anyway, that's the proudest I've ever been of anything in my life. "
I don't trust my own voice right then, so I just grip his forearm and nod, and that's enough. It's always been enough between us, except tonight the silence between us is finally full instead of empty.
"So." Prez raises his beer, breaking the moment before either of us can drown in it. "From here on, Ethan answers to Shotgun. Get used to saying it. This brother's going places." He holds his bottle high. "To Shotgun."
The whole room lifts their drinks, shouting it back at him, and then the music kicks up and it's a party, and somewhere in the middle of it my father's hand never quite leaves my shoulder for the better part of an hour.
It's Saturday morning and I already miss her, which is ridiculous considering she's two buildings over.
The old ladies wouldn't let her anywhere near my bed last night, something about bad luck seeing the bride before the ceremony, and I lay awake half the night anyway, so I text her the second I'm up.
ETHAN:
Hey babe, how you feeling? Excited?
She answers fast.
CASSIE:
Morning. Missed you last night. I'm excited. Today's gonna be a good one.
ETHAN:
Missed you too. Got used to having you in my bed every night. That's not stopping just because a bunch of superstitious old ladies say so.
CASSIE:
Stop, you're gonna make me cry before I even get down the aisle.
ETHAN:
See you soon. Can't wait.
CASSIE:
Love you x
ETHAN:
Love you too x
She's got no idea how fast she got under my skin, or maybe she does, maybe that's exactly why she's still hesitating on the parts of this that are supposed to be real.
Yesterday my brothers and I spent the whole afternoon turning the backyard into something that doesn't look like it belongs behind an MC clubhouse, there are chairs in rows, a table at the front, and the old ladies have been fussing over flowers and ribbon and every detail I wouldn't have thought twice about.
Anybody walking in cold would swear this was the real thing. I wish to God it was.
In the kitchen my brothers are all standing around with coffee, and it's strange not seeing a single old lady in the room, all of them banished to one of the houses out back with Cassie for the morning. "What's with the long faces? Today's a celebration," I say, pouring my own cup.
"They're keeping the women from us too, till the wedding." Prez is sulking into his coffee like a man personally wronged. "Can we move this thing up a couple hours?"
"Two hours, Prez. You'll survive." I laugh.
"Not sure I will." Cash shakes his head, dead serious. "If a man goes more than a few hours without Meg, he starts getting real philosophical about it. Ramsay'll back me up."
"He's not wrong." Ramsay doesn't even look up from his coffee, but there's a ghost of a smile on him.
Knuckles doesn't laugh with the rest of them. It must be hard hearing about his sister like that "Gate's getting extra eyes today. Wedding like this pulls attention we don't usually want, so nobody wanders off the property till I say different." Nobody argues with him. Nobody ever does.
"Who's riding with me to grab the officiant?" I ask, setting my cup down.
"I will." Spook's already grabbing his keys.
"Let's go, we'll swing by the diner, grab something sweet before these grown men start fainting from missing their women." I head out with Spook behind me. We prospected together, him and me, though he patched in a couple months back at Halloween and I got left holding the bag a while longer.
"They're gonna need new prospects now that we're all patched," I say on the drive.
"Prez and Knuckles are already on it. Probably come asking us if we know anybody worth bringing in.
" Spook shakes his head. "It wasn't easy, that year.
Felt like we were slaves half the time, doing every job nobody else wanted.
But it was worth every bit of it. This club would go to war for any one of us, even back when we were just grunts fetching kegs. "
"Yeah. They’re the only family I've got that actually chose me." I mean it more than the words let on.
We pull up outside the officiant's place and I knock. The door swings open on its own. There’s nobody behind it, and something cold drops through my stomach before my brain even catches up to why.
"Something's wrong." I draw my gun. Spook's a half step behind me, silent now, all business.
"Got your back, Shotgun," he murmurs against my ear.
I clear the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom. There’s nothing, until I spot legs on the floor past the hallway. The officiant's down, blood pooling out from somewhere I can't immediately place. "Hey. Hey, stay with me, what happened?"
"They know." His voice barely makes it out, his eyes struggling to focus on mine. "They know she's getting married today." His head drops, and he goes still under my hands.
"Fuck. Spook, her brothers know. We didn't move fast enough." My hands are shaking around the phone I'm already dialing.
"Calling Prez." Spook's already outside, phone to his ear, voice gone flat and fast. "We need a brother standing in as officiant, and we need this wedding done inside the hour. If they know where she is, we don't have the luxury of a real ceremony."
I find a pulse, it’s thready but there. I grab the guy's own phone off the floor and call 911, giving the address before I hang up and leave the door open behind me for the paramedics.
"Prez wants us back now," Spook says as I climb into the cage.
"Nowhere else I need to be today except at that clubhouse with my girl." I pull out fast. "Get Abby on the phone, tell her to move the wedding up. Now, not in an hour."
I drive like the devil's behind me the whole way back, because for all I know, he is.
I catch pieces of Spook's call the whole ride. "Abs, stay calm, grab the old ladies together. We're moving the wedding up, happening in half an hour. Tell them whatever keeps them calm, I don't care, just get it done. Somebody leaked this, we'll figure out who later. Love you, gotta go."
We're back inside five minutes, and Prez is already waiting in the yard. "Pops is standing in as officiant. Let's get this done, we'll sort the rest after she's safe on paper."
I run upstairs, throw on a clean white tee under my cut, same jeans and boots I always wear.
She knows I don't own a suit, wouldn't wear one even to my own funeral.
When I hit the bottom of the stairs my brothers are all watching, and Prez pulls me into a hard, quick hug. "Clean up well, for a biker."
"Let's do this." I head out back to a yard that doesn't look like the same patch of dirt we drink, fight and bleed on every other day of the year. "The old ladies missed their calling. This could be a business."
"Bit fancy for us." Pops brushes past me toward the makeshift altar, deadpan. "But I'll allow it, just this once."
I take my spot beside Prez, Spook, and Nerd, our newest patched brother, and then the music starts and I turn toward the door and every other thought in my head goes completely silent.
Cassie's standing there in white, nothing poofy or overdone about it, just a dress that makes it hard to remember my own name, and she's looking at me like I'm the only steady thing left in a day that's already gone sideways twice.
She walks the aisle slow, eyes locked on mine the whole way, and I hold my hand out the second she reaches me.
"You look beautiful, babe." I kiss the back of her hand.
"You clean up alright yourself." She's already blushing.
"Would it be a problem if I want to drag you out of this dress the second we're done here?" I lean in close enough that it's meant for her ears only. "You look like sin dressed up as innocence."
Her whole face goes pink.
"We can hear you, Ethan." Prez says, not even bothering to hide his grin. "Man's never once learned how to whisper in his life."
Spook and Nerd both crack up behind me. "Sorry, sorry." I look at Cassie, who's somewhere between laughing and the color of a stop sign.
"Anybody mind if we get started?" Pops asks, dry as ever. "Given the circumstances."
We both nod.
"Bikers and old ladies." Pops opens his arms to the yard full of leather and flowers. "We're gathered here today to witness the union between Cassie and Ethan."