I looked up to see Finn smiling widely, happy for me at their positive reactions.
He leaned in and kissed me chastely on my cheek.
Deviant winked at me and Tricks gave me a chin lift, letting me know that they approved, that they felt Finn was good for me, that we were good together. It was an absolute first. Never had that ever happened with any guy before that I’d taken an interest in.
It not only said a great deal about Finn, but also about how well he automatically fitted in with them, with the club.
“So, you’re back for real now, for good?” Deviant asked. “You’re gonna set up your own shop in downtown Ridgefield?”
“Yeah,” I said, grasping Finn’s hand and giving it a squeeze.
“When are you gonna launch it?” Tricks asked.
“When things are… uh… stable.”
A tense silence descended at my words.
Movement over by the bar area a few feet away caught my eye and I saw, Kyle, one of the prospects, stagger from the booth he’d been lounging in for the last couple of hours. He was relatively new to the club. He hadn’t been around last time I was here.
He brushed his straggly dark hair away from his face as he stalked up to us, the chains hanging from his jeans rattling with his every step. His eyes looked wild, like he was on the verge of losing his shit. Finn stepped in front of me, a clear protective move, given the state of Kyle. I wasn’t surprised that he was three sheets to the wind, because he’d been tight with Lou, closer than any of the other boys, so the loss and betrayal ran all the deeper. In fact, Lou had brought him into the club and sponsored him.
He got in Finn’s face, glaring fiercely at him.
“So, you’re the guy Prez has brought in to replace Lou, yeah?”
I tensed. Deviant pushed off the arm of my chair and rose to his feet on high-alert. Tricks clenched his fists, readying himself if things went south.
But Finn remained completely calm as he answered simply, “Yes.”
Kyle looked him up and down. “It true you took down a bunch of those Rogues fuckers?”
Finn shrugged. “Kill, or be killed.”
He was playing it off like it’d been nothing and he was damned good at putting on that act too. But I knew it had taken a lot out of him, that he was having a hard time reconciling it and shaking it from his every waking thought.
Kyle took his words in, his fierce glare unwavering for several moments.
The longer it went on, the more the tension ramped up.
I could barely stand it a second longer.
And then it finally shattered with Kyle stepping back and muttering, “Guess we’ll see if you’re the right guy for the job, huh?”
It was a bitter challenge and it was clear that Kyle didn’t believe it, that he wasn’t on board with Finn, or the fact that Lou had a replacement at all.
With a nasty glare at everyone, he cursed under his breath, then stalked back the way he’d come.
Thankfully, before the awkward uneasiness could settle, my dad’s voice cut through the room. “Let’s do this!” he called to the fully-patched members. “Church, fuckers!”
As the boys jumped into action, Finn leaned in and kissed me. “We’ll catch up in about an hour, okay, sweetheart?”
“Sure,” I said, smiling up at him.
The three of them took off and followed after my dad who had that all-business stride of his going on. He was incredibly stressed out about everything, extremely on edge. He was in mission-mode, big time, his focus on the threat only, shutting out all else, like emotion and the need for pleasantries.
“Where’s Anarchy?” I heard my dad ask the boys.
“Coming,” Tricks answered. “He stopped off to grab a coffee. He’s been awake all night helping me out at Wheels Up.”
“And Wrecker?”
Yeah, he really needed his two top enforcers to be present at Church right now. They were more vital than ever with what was going on at the moment.
“Wreck’s finishing up dealing with that tagging situation down by the post office,” Deviant told him. “He should be up in the next few minutes.”
My dad nodded and led the way to his office.
As I watched them go, the boys all over Finn, chatting away, joking with him, it was clear they were fascinated with him. The guy they’d heard so many legendary stories about, the man my dad always raved about was finally here in the flesh and one of them. When he’d stayed at the clubhouse to recuperate from his wounds a couple of years back, my dad had kept them all away, giving Finn the space and peace he’d needed.
But now he was in the thick of it.
And he was fitting in so well in such a short timeframe.
I’d thought it would be hard being back here again in such a permanent fashion too, let alone having Finn become an integral part of the world I’d fled. But his presence, his involvement, had shifted things in such an incredible way.
There was no pressure bearing down on me anymore.
Of course, I wasn’t fool enough to believe that I was free of it completely. I knew Finn was watching my back, protecting me, but he didn’t do it in anything resembling the heavy-handed way my dad and his other club members always had. In fact, he really was proving himself worthy of his long-time nickname, Wraith. Moving undetected. So incredibly stealthy, like a ghost.
And, sometimes, the illusion of freedom was enough.
For a time.
Once this dark time had passed, it would be a different story.
But that would be then.
I breathed a heavy sigh, then sank back into the armchair and continued sketching in my design notebook, hoping to lose myself in my work.
19
~Wraith~
I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT.
Apparently, once in a while, something could still come along that had the ability to shock me and catch me off guard.
Leaning back at an angle in a booth at the
