Chapter 31
Riptide
“Idon’t know about this one,” Sloane said, stepping out of a dressing room.
She tugged on the short sleeves of the t-shirt, trying to cover a large scar on her bicep.
It was old and white, but still visible.
Smaller scars crisscrossed her arms down to her wrists, where thick raised skin encircled both.
Standing, I went to her and rubbed my thumbs over both of her wrists. One day I was going to have her explain why she’d received each mark. When she was ready. “It’s up to you, but I think it looks great on you.”
It was a plain maroon shirt that fell just below the waist of the jeans she had on.
Nothing flashy or ostentatious—that’s not something my angel would choose—but it made her eyes pop and complemented her skin tone.
When I’d started to go toward the dresses she’d stopped me and marched over to this area.
This was how the other old ladies tended to dress on any given day, though they’d occasionally wear dresses as well.
I smiled at her desire to fit in with the others. She had no idea she was already wrapping them around her finger. I was pretty sure Butcher was half in love with her already. Not that I was worried he’d try anything. It was more of the kind of love I’d seen him show his sisters.
No one would expect the crazy bastard to have a soft spot for anyone, but once you saw him with his sisters you knew there was a heart buried somewhere in that demented chest of his.
Despite the trouble he liked to dig up, he was fucking loyal to the core to his family.
We were his family so he treated us as such.
He was a damn fine brother to have. Not to mention a fucking menace on the battlefield.
It eased the worry inside of me that she had him—and by default, Toxic—looking out for her when I wasn’t able to.
“Once you’re done, I have a surprise for you,” I told her.
She looked up at me, surprise and pleasure flashing over her face.
“I’m done,” she insisted. She returned to the dressing room and held out two pairs of jeans, four t-shirts, and a pair of sneakers.
We’d already gone lingerie shopping—pulling her into the dressing room and fucking her against the mirror had been an enjoyable part of the experience—so she was set there.
My eyes narrowed on her items. “Sloane.” I softened my voice for the next part because worry flashed over her face.
“You need more than this. I’ll bring you back another day and we’ll keep adding to your collection,” I promised her.
“I’d stay longer today and have you get more, but then we’ll be late. ”
“I don’t need more,” she insisted.
“Soon enough you’ll learn that needing more and wanting more are basically the same,” I told her with a chuckle. “The other women will help you spend some of your money, too.”
I led her to the checkout counter and handed over my credit card. She watched with a frown on her face as it was swiped and I signed the sales slip.
As we walked away with her items in a bag, except the jeans and maroon shirt she was still wearing, she asked, “That’s all it takes to buy things here?”
I explained credit and debit cards as we drove across the city. Pulling into a driveway, I shut off the engine.
“It feels like there’s so much to learn.”
“You’ll get there,” I told her.
She looked through the windshield up at the house. “Where are we?”
“You’ll see.” I was a bit nervous at what her reaction was going to be, but I didn’t want to ruin the surprise either. If I knew my angel, I had a feeling this was about to go really well.
We got out of the car and I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. I shoved open the door to the house and called out, “Anyone home?”
It only took a few seconds before the horde descended. I stepped backward, leaving Sloane to fend off my family on her own.
“Derek! You’re home!” My mother froze in the doorway that led to the kitchen as she spotted us. Her hands came together at her chest. “Oh my God, is this Sloane?”
My wife cast a wide-eyed worried look at me over her shoulder.
I nodded encouragingly to her. “It is. Sloane, this is my mom, Peggy. My father, Dirk, and my sisters, Sally, Stacy, and Stephanie. I’ll let them introduce their husbands and minions.
” Between the three of them my sisters had seven kids.
One of Stephanie’s triplets flung himself into my arms. I picked him up and scowled into his face. “How have you gotten bigger in only a few months, Seth?”
He giggled and shook his head at me like I was the biggest disappointment. “I’m not Seth, Uncle Rip. I’m Sawyer.”
I frowned at him. “Are you sure? I’m pretty sure that’s Sawyer.” I pointed at one of his brothers.
He giggled again. “That’s Sam. You’re really bad at this, Uncle Rip.”
Tickling him mercilessly, I cast a glance over and grinned when I saw my mother hugging Sloane close.
They were talking together as they embraced.
My family had been shocked when I’d called and told them that I was home and had come back with a wife.
It’d pacified my mom when I told her we were getting remarried and she’d be invited to that ceremony.
Both Dad and Mom had known that I was going to infiltrate the cult. I’d cleared it with Lockout prior to going undercover within The Order. If I’d been killed I hadn’t wanted them not knowing why. But we’d kept it from my sisters. They’d only known that I was off on club business.
Mom came over and hugged me close as my sisters took their turns welcoming Sloane to the family. “She’s wonderful, Derek.”
“Thanks, Mom. I knew you’d love her.”
“How did you manage to get a woman so pretty and sweet?” Dad asked with a shit-eating grin on his face.
I chuckled and responded, “It was an arranged marriage.”
Dad crowed and slapped his leg as he laughed. “That’s the only way a sorry shit like you would manage it.”
“Fuck off,” I said, joining in his laughter.
He grabbed onto me as soon as Mom let go and put me into a headlock.
“You’re asking for it,” I growled, fighting back against him. I struggled hard enough not to hurt Dad’s ego, but not so much I injured him. The last thing I needed was his back flaring up on him. Mom would ream both our asses if we allowed that to happen.
“You’re not strong enough to whip your old man,” Dad said laughing, rubbing his knuckles painfully against my scalp.
“No horseplay in the house,” Mom called out.
It was too late. Dad dragged me out the back door to the backyard, followed by my three brothers-in-law, and six nephews as everyone started up play fights with each other.
Sloane’s mouth was hanging open as she, my mother, sisters, and single niece watched from the sliding glass door. “Do they do this a lot?” she asked.
“Yes,” was the resounding response. “Come on,” Mom told her. “Let’s let the men ‘bond’ while we go catch up with some drinks in the kitchen.
Dad still had his arm slung around my shoulders, but we weren’t struggling against each other anymore. “Good to have you home, Son.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“Everything go okay undercover?” His worried blue eyes met mine.
“There were a few hiccups, but nothing I didn’t handle.” At some point I’d have to tell him and Mom about my new scars. I didn’t want them to be surprised by them like my brothers had been. But that was a conversation for another day.
“The scars on your wife-”
“She’s sensitive about them,” I told Dad, giving him a pointed look.
“Wouldn’t dream of saying a thing about them…to her. They do that to her in there?”
“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “Her own fucking father gave her most of them. He was the cult leader.”
“That’s fucked up.”
“Agreed.”
“She must be pretty wary of men.”
“Believe it or not, she isn’t.” I smiled with pride. “She’s got a hell of an instinct about people and she trusts her gut. Took to my brothers instantly.”
“Good. We’ll do our best to help heal any internal scars. She’s a part of our family now.”
I tossed my arm over his shoulders. My dad was all about family. Coming from an MC background himself had made him loyal to a fault. “Damn right she is.” We walked back inside and paused in the doorway to the kitchen.
Sloane was smiling and talking with the others, her arms behind her back, fingers laced together to keep them in position. Her laughter floated through the air and I couldn’t help but smile.
I just wished I could make her understand that no one was judging her for those scars on her arms. Even if my family didn’t know why she had them—each one had been earned protecting others—they still wouldn’t hold them against her.
Soon enough everyone had piled into the kitchen.
We were standing around talking, eating lunch, and enjoying each other’s company.
I’d considered having Sloane meet only my parents at first, but this way my sisters and their families could take some of the pressure off her.
She was chatting easily with everyone around her and it made the knot of nervousness in my gut loosen with each hour.
“Before you go,” Dad said, a few hours later. “I just wanted to officially welcome you to our family.” He stepped forward and placed a kiss on Sloane’s cheek.
“What the hell?” Nick asked. “We never got a kiss for joining the family.” My other brothers-in-law nodded in agreement, mock disappointment written all over their faces.
“None of you are as pretty as she is,” Dad replied with a laugh. That got everyone going.
Mom stepped forward and hugged Sloane. “I hope that you’ll consider our family yours. We’re here for you, no matter what. Even when our son is being a dipshit.”
Sloane barked out a laugh, then covered her mouth looking horrified.
“Don’t worry, Angel,” I told her, “that’s part of being in this family, learning to take insults.”
“You give as good as you get,” Stephanie told me, hands on her hips.
“True.”
Sloane smiled at Mom. “Thank you so much for including me. I’m thrilled to be joining your family.”
We said our goodbyes and headed back to the clubhouse. Glancing over at her, I frowned when I saw the sadness on her face. “What’s wrong, Sloane?”
She gave me a soft smile. “Nothing. Really. It’s just…that’s what a family should be like.”
“It is.”
“What I had wasn’t anything close to that. Maybe if my mom had lived…”
Reaching over, I squeezed her hand. “Well, now you have it. Whether you want it or not,” I joked.
She held my hand the entire way back, and stared quietly out the window. I didn’t force her to talk. There were a lot of things she was going to have to work through. I knew enough to give her space to do that.