Chapter 27
Riptide
Iwoke early the next morning, wrapped around Sloane. Burying my face in her soft hair, I let out a sigh. I left our bed, careful not to wake her.
No one was around downstairs, so I went behind the bar and grabbed myself a couple beers.
Popping the top on the first, I took a long pull as I sat down at a nearby table.
I groaned with pleasure as the taste hit my tongue.
I’d fucking missed beer. I didn’t consider myself an alcoholic, but after going a couple months without drinking it, I’d built up a craving.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d been sitting there when Hush took the seat next to me.
“You realize it’s seven a.m., don’t you?” he asked with amusement written all over his face.
“Yup.” I took a swig of the beer then gave him a wicked grin. I offered the second bottle to him.
He shook his head, with a mournful look at the beer. “Seek can’t drink, so I’m also not drinkin’. In solidarity.”
My brows drew together. “Why can’t Seek…” It hit me and I sat forward. “She’s pregnant?”
Hush grinned and nodded. “Found out a few weeks ago.”
“Congratulations you old bastard,” I told him with a laugh.
“We’re drinking?” Butcher asked, walking up. Without waiting for an answer he went behind the bar and came back with a bottle without a label and glasses.
“What’s that?” I asked. With Butcher you always had to be suspicious.
“Moonshine,” Toxic said, sitting down on the other side of me, leaving Butcher to sit across the table. “Got it as payment for a favor.”
Hush narrowed his eyes on the bottle. “You mean someone made that themselves and you’re planning on drinkin’ it?”
“We already drank the other three bottles…and lived,” Butcher replied. His tone suggested he was offended that we thought he’d serve us bad alcohol.
He slid a glass toward me. I shrugged and downed it. The liquid burned my esophagus on the way down and I coughed hard, wondering if I’d have any stomach lining left after this. “Fuck me.”
“Good right?” Toxic asked with a grin.
“Not sure good’s the word,” Hush wheezed. He’d tried to decline the shot, but Butcher and Toxic were persistent about their alcohol.
Butcher refilled our glasses. “Why we down here getting drunk?”
“I was just having a beer,” I said, defending myself. “Had no intention of getting drunk.”
Butcher's expression was blank as he tried to make sense of my words. When he couldn’t, he just took another swig of the moonshine.
“Well, now we are,” Toxic said, saluting me with his glass.
“Why’re you down here instead of upstairs with that pretty wife of yours?” Hush asked, tone sly.
“Just needed to think a bit.”
“‘Bout?” He made a face, then downed his second shot.
I explained how I’d ended up with a wife. They were all watching in rapt fascination, though Butcher had resorted to taking pulls straight from his bottle at this point.
“So what’s the problem?” Hush asked, shooting Butcher a dark look when he lifted the bottle again. “Lockout’s goin’ to fuckin’ kill you. We have church soon.”
Butcher just shrugged. Lockout was used to him and would deal with him like he always did.
“Is it fair of me to tie her to me?” I asked. It was the question that had been rattling around in my brain since last night.
“Has nothing to do with her being that fuck stain’s kid?” Toxic asked, taking the bottle from Butcher so he could pour himself another shot. “You looked like someone nailed you in the balls when you found out.”
“It’s insane to think someone as pure and kind as Sloane came from that warped, evil bastard. But no. I don’t care about that.”
Hush leaned back, folding his arms behind his head as he watched me. “So, you’re thinkin’ you’ll be the hero and set her free now that she’s out of that fucked up place?”
I shrugged. That was what I was considering. “She’s been so sheltered. What if she wants to live life instead of being stuck with a man that her piece of shit father forced her to marry?”
“Somethin’ I’ve learned about women is that it’s best to talk directly to them, before assumin’ you know what they want.”
Butcher snorted. “Like they’re going to tell you what they really want?”
“Most of ‘em want you to know them well enough that you can guess what they want without asking,” Toxic said in agreement with Butcher. “If you’re not a mind reader, then you don’t love her.”
Hush shook his head. “You two shut the fuck up. No one needs to be takin’ your advice on datin’ and women. That’ll be a fuckin’ disaster.”
Both men nodded as though that was a certainty. There weren't any hurt feelings. I wasn’t sure either of them had emotions, so it wasn’t easy to get a rise out of them.
“I remember someone comin’ at me and givin’ me a gash in my cheek when I was being a stubborn dick and tryin’ to stay away from Seek,” Hush continued on after Butcher and Toxic went back to drinking. Something flashed there in his eyes, warning me about what was about to happen.
“Aw fuck, Hush. Don’t-” That was as far as I got before he’d hurtled out of his chair, taking me backward on my own.
We crashed into the ground, the chair breaking apart beneath my back. Buying furniture around here was a constant because we broke so much of it. A fist planted itself in my gut and I huffed out a pained breath.
Hush had about twenty pounds on me, but I was faster than the old man. We rolled, exchanging punches as the other two called out encouragement. They were taking bets on who would win.
My ears rang as Hush’s haymaker landed against the side of my head. “Knock it off, you dick!”
“Nope,” he said with a grunt as I managed a hit to his sternum. “Not until I beat it into your head that you’ve finally found yourself a good woman. It’d be a fuckin’ mistake to walk away now.”
We both knew that this was between friends.
I wasn’t his VP right now and that meant there were no rules.
It was the same as before, when I’d started a fight with him when he’d needed it beaten into him that Seek was his salvation.
He wasn’t going to hold back now that I needed to be taught a lesson.
“Oh, my!”
Sloane’s dismayed voice worked its way into my brain and I glanced over at her. She was standing there next to Jenny, her hands covering her mouth.
“Don’t worry,” Jenny said, patting her on the back. “They do this all the time. They don’t have the vocabulary to talk it out like adults.” She shot us a satisfied smile at her dig.
“Stop,” I growled at Hush, eyes still on my wife. The fear sweeping over her face made me realize how this looked to her.
Tears started rushing down Sloane’s cheeks. Worry filled Jenny’s face as she tried to console her.
“Hush,” I snarled. “Fucking stop.” I managed to bring my knee up from my position beneath him and catch him in the nuts.
It was a cheap shot, but my angel was breaking down and I had to get to her.
I rolled onto my hands and knees, shaking the disorientation away from Hush’s hits. “Sloane, it’s okay.”
“Why-” she started, her voice cracking as she broke the sentence off. “You…you have punishments here?”
My heart broke into a million pieces at the fear and anguish on her face. “No, Baby,” I told her, shoving to my feet. I froze as she backed up a few steps, shaking her head. Fear was written all over her face. It killed me to see it.
Jenny looked back and forth between us, but stayed next to her. She didn’t know what was going on, but the fact that she was choosing to stay nearby and protect Sloane was something I’d thank her for later. Jenny rubbed soothing circles on Sloane’s back, trying to calm her.
“Punishments?” Hush asked, getting to his own feet. He was probably pissed about the ball shot, but he could see that Sloane was terrified, so he didn’t say anything about it.
Even Butcher and Toxic had gotten to their feet, though they were silent.
That was a rare thing for them. No one except for me understood what was going on, but they were all worried about the sweet woman in front of me.
It hadn’t taken long for her to work her magic on them.
They all were falling in love with her. It was her gift.
Anyone who met her—anyone who wasn’t an evil asshole—saw how kind her heart was and wanted everything good for her.
My brothers were no exception. They’d gotten a first-hand look at how she’d been treated in The Order and now they wanted to make sure she didn’t feel a moment of fear again in her lifetime. She’d already endured enough.
“There’s no punishments here, Angel.”
Her eyes darted back and forth between me and Hush.
I could see the disbelief in the blue depths.
She didn’t believe me. Didn’t know if she could trust me.
That twisted the knife in my heart. I wanted to be her safe harbor.
The one she could run to when she was scared. Instead, she was backing away from me.
“What the fuck’s going on?” Lockout boomed, making Sloane jump. She was about to dart away like a frightened bunny.
I held up my hand, making Lockout and Priest come to a stop nearby as they took in the scene before them. “Hush is my friend, Angel. My brother. We beat advice into each other’s heads sometimes, but we’d never really hurt each other.”
Her eyes dipped to where I could feel blood dripping down over my neck, uncertainty flickering over her face.
No one spoke, letting me handle this. They only had a small idea of where her fear was coming from, but I knew exactly why she was so scared. What she’d been through.
“We don’t hand out punishments here. At least not whippings and beatings,” I reassured her.
Jenny gasped, her hands covering her mouth at the horror of the thought of Sloane being whipped. Many of my brothers had been there the day she’d taken a beating for Abigail, so it wasn’t as shocking to them.
“No one here will ever raise a hand to you,” I promised her.
“Not without me killing them for it.” I could assure her of this because none of my brothers would ever dare to hurt one of our women.
Even if it was something they wanted to do—and none of them were that kind of man—they wouldn’t out of respect.
Sloane’s shoulders sagged and she finally took a step toward me. That was all I needed. She was in my arms within seconds, sobbing against my chest.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, burying her face against my cut.
“Never apologize, Angel.”
“I’m the one who should be sayin’ I’m sorry,” Hush said, shoving his hands in pockets, looking contrite. “I was just returnin’ a favor I owed him.” The smile he gave me was more a baring of teeth.
Flipping him off, I chuckled. “He didn’t mean to scare you.”
Sloane’s cheeks pinkened as she looked up at me. “I didn’t mean to cause a scene.”
“It’s going to take time to learn how things work around here,” Lockout told her, approaching slowly.
No one wanted to set her off again, but she seemed fine now.
The panic that had been in her eyes was gone.
I tightened my arms around her, as much for myself as for her.
“These guys get into fights all the time-”
“Like you don’t join in,” Butcher told Lockout with a laugh.
“We fight all the time, but Rip’s right. We don’t hit women. There are no physical punishments here,” Lockout continued, ignoring Butcher. “It’s how we play. We fight each other, but never seriously hurt each other.”
Sloane nodded. It hadn’t taken her long to figure out Lockout was in charge.
Since it was the way she was raised, she fell into taking what he said as truth.
He was our leader, so she trusted him. I didn’t take it personally.
He was my president. It was best if she understood the chain of command.
It would make things easier as she began to understand life here with the club.
I could see there in her eyes that she instinctively trusted Lock.
It made me relax. I wanted her to trust my brothers.
They would protect her with their lives and she needed to understand she could come to any of us if she had a problem.
“We’re going to have church early,” Lockout said, changing the subject. “Just the officers and their old ladies.”
Everyone left Sloane and me there, so I could finish calming her down.
Lockout was including Seek, Jenny, and Sloane, for two reasons.
Seek was the one who began all this and needed the closure.
He also wanted Seek and Jenny to understand what Sloane had been through, so they could help her adjust to life here.
She would need the women as we moved forward.
I’d only given Lock the brief highlights of my time with The Order the night before. The rest I’d tell them all as we sat around our church table.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
She nodded. “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you,” she replied softly, wiping her cheeks.
I gripped her chin in my fingers, forcing her to meet my eyes.
“You didn’t. There wasn’t any way for you to know what was going on when you saw that.
I’m sorry for worrying you. I never want you to be scared of me, or my brothers.
I’ll do my best to explain things like this before they have a chance to worry you. ”
“Now that you’ve explained it, I understand.”
“You can go to any of these men if you have a problem and they’ll help you. They’ll treat you with love and respect. Never doubt that.”
She nodded and rested against my chest again.
There was a long conversation we needed to have, but first we needed to get church over with.
It was going to be difficult for her to hear my account and help explain the way she’d lived.
It was easy for those who didn’t experience it to judge, but I knew my family wouldn’t.
She didn’t know them well enough yet to understand that, though. Tension radiated off her body.
There were a lot of conversations I needed to have today.
First was church. Then I’d have to speak to Lockout and the others—without the women present—about Ricochet.
Hellfire was off getting sewn up, but being well taken care of by a friend of ours.
Not that he’d been thrilled to be taken to Doc, no one ever was, but he was going to be fine.
I didn’t want to leave my talk with Sloane until last, but the others were higher up on the priority list right now.
She was safe here with me and we’d talk as soon as there was time. It was the best I could do.
“Come on. Let’s get this over with.” I wrapped my arm over her shoulders and led her back to our meeting room. We took our seats and I took her hand, lacing our fingers together, offering silent comfort, as we waited for the rest of the officers to settle in.