“I agree.”
“You’re way overqualified, more hardcore than all of my guys combined. But with the way shit is right now, it’s exactly what we fucking well need.”
“What about club protocol?”
“We fought together, Finn. Know you real well and there ain’t no question you got the values we live by at the club. Respect, honor, loyalty. Know you got a shitload of self-discipline and can commit hardcore to things. You wouda never joined the army if you didn’t have that in you. It’s gonna be unconventional, but we’ll consider you running protection detail on Ashley as your prospecting period. Shortest ever. I’ll sponsor you, kinda like you’re a probate, cuz I still gotta get you up to speed on the workings of the club you don’t know about and can’t know of until you’re one of us.”
“You think that’ll fly with your boys?”
“Yeah, I do. Things right now ain’t normal. We’re at war. Sometimes, as you know, it means we gotta think outside the box and adapt to the normal way we do shit. They all know you, know about your work, your skills and all that, know you’ve had my back many times. There ain’t no question you’re gonna be an asset to the club, big time. And there ain’t no risk to bringing you in. Works for everybody.”
“Your current Sergeant-at-Arms is gone, a massive whole in club security, a danger even without the Rogues coming at you. As long as that’s true, Ashley will remain at risk. Putting me in the role will fix that. With my know-how and skillset, no one will get close to you again. My intention, if Ashley agrees, is for the two of us to move to Ridgefield. I’ll safeguard the club and her, by extension. Ashley will set up her own tattoo parlor, like she’s always wanted, but has been unable to do because of all the security threats against your club. But if we do that, you back off and let her live her life, explore what she wants to. You know she’ll be safe with me, so you can take comfort in that. If you want to be a normal father to her again, that’s fine, but you won’t suffocate her.” I folded my arms across my chest. “So, do we have a deal?”
He grinned. “I knew it.”
“What?”
“Knew you were into her. I saw it when you were laid up recuperating at the clubhouse a little ways back. And she was a dead giveaway too. My baby girl’s never been good at hiding her feelings.”
I started in surprise. “You’re saying you engineered this, that you were pushing for us to get together?”
“Can’t think of nobody better for her.”
“You know my history and you’re comfortable saying that?”
He shrugged. “Past is the past, ain’t it? No matter what happened after we left the army, you’ve always been a good guy.”
“I’m also a dangerous man.”
“Not to her, you ain’t. You being a dangerous fucker to others is what’s kept her safe. It’s what’s always gonna. I ain’t gotta worry about her if she’s with you. Know you’ll look after her. You’re bringing her back into my life and I never thought nothing would do that after she had to leave her last place of work cuz of me and my club shit. You’re making her real happy. Noticed a spark in her now that I ain’t seen for a long while. You bring out that fire in her too. You’re good for her. She’s good for you. You ain’t so miserable now.”
“So, this?” I said, gesturing to the stitches beside my eye. “What was this for, if you’re apparently on board with us?”
“Hands off the President’s daughter and all that.”
“Fine,” I muttered.
“So we doing this?”
I held out my hand. “Count me in, Prez.”
He smiled and we shook hard. “Fucking right.”
18
~Ashley~
“RIGHT HERE.”
Luke “Deviant” Reilly knelt down beside my chair and pointed to his eagle wings tattoo on his right shoulder. “To join with the wings.”
He flexed his arm for all it was worth and gave a devilish grin.
It was clear his flirty ways hadn’t calmed at all in the couple of years that I’d been gone. At thirty-two years old, he’d joined the club right out of his teen years and been with my dad and the Iron Kings MC since its founding. He was as loyal as they came, the club being everything to him. He’d actually whisked me away to safety that awful day twelve years back when the Rogues had waged war and killed my mom. My dad rewarded loyalty big time and he’d personally mentored Deviant for the VP role.
“So, a full sleeve?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he confirmed, easing himself onto the arm of the leather armchair that I was curled up on, his leather pants creaking as he did. He flashed that infamous panty-dropping grin of his, his amber eyes burning into mine, as he asked, “You up for it?”
I burst out laughing. “Not your best stuff.”
“Dumbass,” someone called out and I looked to see another familiar club member striding through the lounge toward us. Aaron “Tricks” Marshall, the Road Captain, who’d been with the club as long as Deviant. He slapped Deviant around the back of the head. “Her man’s ex-SF, black ops. Real hardcore.”
Deviant rolled his eyes. “I’m just playing.” He beamed at me. “Missed you, Little A.”
“I missed you all too.” I hadn’t realized just how much until I’d walked back into the Iron Kings clubhouse a few days ago with Finn and my dad.
The safehouse and all the hiding was over thanks to a plan that Finn had engineered.
He was going to join the club and become the Sergeant-at-Arms. It was a bold move and it certainly wasn’t what I’d expected when he’d told me the other night about a plan that he’d floated my dad’s way. But he seemed really into it. He seemed… happy.
It
