What? Relaxing wasn’t my thing, too much downtime meant my head had a freehold on my dreams. What I needed was to keep busy, take some shifts at Dad’s shops, and see if Booth wanted to start on that new project at the gun shop, extending the outdoor range. Fuck, digging holes and trenches and going home completely exhausted appealed more than seeing Deke’s lifeless body in my head every night.
A drink was placed on the table in front of me, the cold, frothy, amber liquid making my stomach roll.
“Hello, my sweet, Cole,” Mia crooned affectionately, patting me on my shoulder. Aunt Mia was a kind, softly spoken woman, petite but full of sass and fun. She ran the Bar and Grill along with Steel and did it well. You would never judge by her size that she could kick any drunken uni student out on their arse without one swear word or broken nail. Of course, she never handled the drunks, she didn’t have to with Steel at her back, but it was Mia’s terse reprimands and lectures that had them running for the door.
“Hello, Aunty Mia,” I smirked, accepting her cheek for a kiss, “nice tee-shirt.” My eyebrows quirked at the simple text tee that spoke volumes of who Mia was.
Don’t let the cute fool you … I’m married to a biker.
Mia knew how to handle herself, but more importantly, she knew she didn’t have to; Steel was never far away from her. And let me tell you, Cooper Steel was not a man you wanted to cross, not when it came to his Beauty or his daughters. God saw it fit to give Steel all girls, and my dad liked to joke it was karma for some shit he did in his younger days before he and Mia got together and soon after.
“Thank you, now are you here for food? Because if you are, we have amazing homemade meat-lovers pizza on the menu tonight.”
“Sold! Give us two, please, you choose the toppings, Willow and I aren’t fussy.”
Mia ran her fingers over the top of my head, her smile gentle and full of love. “You never were fussy when it came to your food, Coley,” she murmured affectionately, using the childhood name the Flock gave me. “If only my girls were as easy as you.”
“Mia. Meagan, Annie, Mylee and Christy haven’t ever given you an ounce of trouble in their lives,” I scoffed good naturally. The statement was as true as the sun comes up in the mornings, not even growing up did the Steel girls get into trouble unless Shiloh was leading the way … which was always.
Mia chewed her bottom lip, her hands twisting nervously as she glanced over at Willow then back to me.
“One is about to, I fear,” she muttered, shaking her head, then scurried away back to the bar, leaving me suddenly worried.
“Low?” My sister found her glass of beer very interesting, studying it way too hard.
“Willow!”
“Meagan is seeing Doc, and Steel doesn’t know,” Low replied quickly, slapping her hand over her mouth, her eyes growing wide as she realised she’d blurted out Meagan’s secret.
“You have got to be shitting me?” I mumbled, dropping my face into my hands. Meagan was two years older than me, born within months of Bastian and Gabe. The oldest of the Steel girls, she was also the quietest, never giving her parents a lick of trouble or grief … until now.
“Jesus Christ, Steel is going to lose his shit, then tear Doc apart with his bare hands.” I wasn’t exaggerating, Cooper Steel was fierce when it came to what belonged to him. Meagan was the only one that carried his blond hair and movie star looks, the other three exact replicas of their pretty chocolate-haired mum. Meagan was smart too, she had multiple degrees in early childhood something or other, but the gist was, Meagan loved kids and wanted to be a mum more than anything. Hanging her heart on Doc, I feared was going to get her nothing but heartache. Doc served in the army as a medic, discharging honourably with a sealed file, found a home with the Wounded Souls and opened a tattoo shop under the Club’s name and financial backing. He left the service well before Gabe, Bastian and I signed up, so I wasn’t too familiar with the how and why he left. I knew one thing about him, though, recognised that haunted cloud in his eyes, was familiar with the signs of PTSD enough to know whatever he saw and experienced was going to be with him for a long time to come. Meagan’s kind heart might be in for more than it bargained for if she wasn’t careful.
“She is transferring to Geelong later this year,” Willow shared, shaking her head, sadness passing over her face.
“To follow him when he goes to the new charter.” I didn’t ask if it was why because I knew already. I wasn’t completely indifferent to what went around me when I was home on leave, once catching Doc follow Meagan around the main room at the compound with heated dark eyes, and saw the tick in his jaw when she sat down to talk to a group of invited outsiders. At the time, I never took it seriously, thinking it was Doc wanting what he could never have … obviously, I was wrong.
“Doc is being considered for the president patch, and he can’t be with Meagan if he wants that patch, Low.”
“We don’t have a rule about members going out with other patch’s kids, Cole. Shiloh will be fair and not swayed by Steel or anyone else when she makes her decision,” Low argued with me, as she always did. Her fierce loyalty to our cousins is one of her best qualities and that made her the best kind of friend to have
