When I saw her open her mouth to go at him again, I grasped her hand, telling her softly, “Sweetheart, while I appreciate you defending me, what he did was warranted.”
Her eyes shot wide. Scott seemed surprised too. “But, baby, I—”
“Listen,” I urged her, and she relaxed at my tone. I saw Scott cock an eyebrow. “What he saw out there isn’t something any father wants to witness. Besides, if he was really against us being together, a grazed eye would’ve been the least of it, right?”
“Uh… yeah. I guess.” She huffed, but then agreed, “Fine.”
She got back to fixing up my eye then. When she finished and stepped back, she held a mirror up to my eye for me to take a look. “Is that okay?”
I was glad I’d given in and let her take care of it after all. Damn, she was good. She had some major skill. “Incredible. You’ve done this before?” She hadn’t stitched me up when I’d been recuperating all those months ago. My injuries had been too severe and required an actual doctor.
She nodded, then shot daggers at Scott. “Too many times.”
Regret shone in Scott’s eyes, but he didn’t speak to it. Instead, he pushed off the countertop and told her, “Give us some space now, Ash. We gotta talk business.”
Ashley eyed me. “Finn?”
“He’s right,” I said, shooting her a discreet look that said otherwise. I’d tell her about it all later.
Having her leave when the conversation concerned her as much as any of us, bothered me. However, I knew Scott. He didn’t want her caught up in club business. It pained him enough that she’d been impacted by this already. We needed to have this discussion. The fact that I’d tell her all about it anyway appeased her enough to make her leave of her own accord.
The moment she closed the door, Scott blew out a breath and squeezed his eyes shut, murmuring, “Weren’t supposed to be like this. Getting outta the army was supposed to be the end of fighting, blood, death.” He winced. “War.”
“I know, brother. I know.” Fuck, did I.
When he opened his eyes, urgency played on his features. He had the same look that Ashley did when she was anxious about something, or desperate to get something off her chest. “I gotta end this. He’s tried to kill my guys, turned one of them, and he got way too close to my baby girl. Twice now. The only thing that’s stood in his way through all of this is you.”
“So, you’re on board then? You want to execute my plan?”
“You sure you’re up for it? You told me at the bar that you didn’t wanna get back into all of this.”
“The situation has changed. A lot has, actually.”
Things had been dragging on for far too long now. Not to mention, I’d already had to do things that I’d sworn I’d been done with. I’d stepped back into it all. And now there was Ashley too. Ending this would ensure her safety. She could get back to her life. She didn’t deserve to live like this in hiding and cut off from the world, believing that her plans and dreams would never become a reality. She wasn’t like me. She was full of life, hope, and optimism. I didn’t want that being stripped away from her. The current situation was already getting to her. I couldn’t let it get any worse. I wouldn’t let it go on any longer, not when there was something I could do to fix it.
Yeah, it was time for me to become actively involved.
“I’ve got this,” I assured him.
He studied me for a few moments in that shrewd invasive way of his that had you feeling like he was somehow seeing into the depths of your fucking soul.
“All right,” he said, letting me know I’d passed his test.
“What about you?” I questioned.
He cocked an eyebrow. “What about me?”
“You’re holding back. You have been since this started up again. You’re trying to find peace while the world’s raging with war all around you.”
He snatched up my bottle of whiskey, unscrewed the cap, and took a couple of big gulps, not even flinching from the harsh burn chugging it like that would’ve surely caused. Sidestepping my comment, he went on instead, “You know, it’s been a real long time since you’ve been a part of a brotherhood. You been going it alone since you hooked up with those black ops shitheads. They weren’t never close-knit, like we are in the club. You never trusted them and it went both ways. You were all out for yourselves.” He knocked back more of my whiskey. “You really ready to change that? You gotta know that, if we do this, it’s not gonna be slow and easy. It’s gonna be you diving in headfirst.”
“I get that.”
“Sergeant-at-Arms,” he mused, trying it out. “We’re gonna be working together again, just like old times. You wanna keep Wraith as your road name? Suits you.”
I smiled. “Yeah. Yeah, it does.”
“Wish you’d taken my offer years back. You never would’ve met Hammer and his team and—”
“I wouldn’t be relegated to this off-the-grid existence.”
“You ain’t gotta worry about that if I patch you in as one of us. You can get a real life, no more hiding out and letting everything pass you by. You’re gonna have the whole club watching your back. We protect each other. We got a few of the boys who ain’t exactly model citizens and they got a new start by joining the club. You’ll be safe all the while you’re inside Ridgefield’s borders. That’s a hell of a lot bigger than some safehouse.” His gaze hardened as he added, “I’m guessing you’re gonna want that more than ever now that you made Ashley a part of your life. And, Finn,
