“I’m yours,” she whispered, trembling in my arms.

Her words are still echoing in my head the next day. Last night was… well, fuck. It was incredible. I still can’t quite believe that Jenna’s back in my life, let alone that I want her — or any woman, for that matter — to stay in my life.

But one look at Jenna’s body, full and lush in the candlelight, and it’s not only lust I feel. It’s goddamn reverence. My throat almost closes up with the beauty of her. As she came shuddering in my arms, and I released myself deep inside her, all I could think about was how I couldn’t imagine not having Jenna in my life. I’d never even considered what it would be like to spend my life with a woman before. But last night, as she fell asleep in my arms, my mind was reeling with how much I’d changed in just a short time. Because of her. Because of this. Because of how right it all felt.

I’m still thinking about all of it as I walk out of another tense club meeting with Angel today. Rock brought another proposal to the table for the club to consider. Apparently, Abe Abbott is looking for a loan, to finance his stalled development project on the south side of town, and he came to Rock to find out if the club was willing to front him the cash.

“Why’s he coming to us for this?” Skid barked, his face a mask of suspicion.

“Probably because the bank won’t help him,” I said. “Pretty damn bad news if a bank won’t cough up a loan for the mayor.” Next to me, Gunner snorted.

“How the fuck are we gonna give him a loan when we don’t have enough cash to even pay ourselves?” Brick complained. “Makes no damn sense.”

“We got enough to do this,” Rock cut in. “We can get it, anyway.”

“I dunno,” I said, shaking my head. “There’s been a lot of rival MC activity out there from the Iron Spiders. Seems like we could spend a lot of goddamn time and effort protecting our assets if we get involved in this shit.” I looked around the table to see a few of the brothers nodding.

“We can handle it,” Rock growled. “The fuckin’ Spiders aren’t gonna stop me from doin’ what I want.”

“You mean what the club wants,” Brick corrected him pointedly. “And that’s assuming we want it.”

Rock’s face was dark as he turned to face Brick. “Yeah. What the club wants. But you fuckers have been bellyaching about new ways to make money. Well, this is what I got. And Ghost is right. If Abbott’s coming to us on this, it means the banks won’t touch him. And him coming to us means we can charge him high interest, and demand a cut of the profits from the development. It’d be steady, real money for a long, long time.”

Things started heating up between the brothers who thought this was a good idea and the ones who wanted nothing to do with it, but still wanted money. Eventually, things got so rough that Angel called for a break, so everyone could calm the hell down before we put it to a vote.

The two of us are standing outside in the parking lot now, having a smoke and talking about the deal before we go back into chapel.

“I dunno, man,” Angel’s saying. “Rock’s talked to me about it a lot in the last couple days, and he keeps telling me it’s a sure thing. The way he talks about it, it makes a hell of a lot of sense. But just the fact of how hard he’s pushing makes me think he’s trying to convince himself of that. He’s got dollar signs in his eyes. I’m kind of on the fence.”

“Look, I wanna say something,” I begin. “But I’m not sure if I’m talking to my VP or my friend here. Or to Abe Abbott’s son.”

Angel cocks his head and frowns. “C’mon, Ghost. You know we’re friends first. More than that. We’re brothers. Family.”

Family. Angel doesn’t know the half of it. For a moment, I realize how accurate that actually is, now that I’m with Jenna. But now’s not the time to bring that up, of course.

A kernel of guilt starts to grow inside me, but I push it down quickly. When Jenna’s ready, we’ll tell Angel about us. And I’ll take whatever he needs to say or do to me. But for now, I have no choice but to keep it from him.

“Okay,” I nod. “Look, this whole thing smells bad to me. Most everyone pushing for this deal has some reason for it that’s clouding their minds. Rock wants money. Your dad, well I’m guessing he wants a big something to show the community so he’ll win reelection easily against that Holloway asshole.” I took a drag on my smoke. “If you vote in favor, your dad and Rock are gonna love you. And you’re gonna be taking heat from both sides if you oppose it. Hell, you’re going to be taking heat on this either way.”

“But you think I should,” Angel says, finishing my thought. “Oppose it, I mean.”

“Yeah. I think you should.” I nod slowly. “But it ain’t gonna be easy.”

We finish our cigarettes and head back inside for the vote. When we’re all seated and Rock has called us back to order, we do one final round of discussion. A few of the men take the floor and say they’re in favor of the deal with Abbott. Finally, Angel asks to speak.

“It’s too risky,” he says bluntly. “We’re spread too thin. And like Ghost said, the Spiders’ activity in that area makes me suspicious.” I glance over at Rock while Angel’s talking, and see him staring daggers at my friend.

“Of course you’d say that,” Brick explodes. “You’re a goddamn rich boy. You’re the son of the mayor. You’ve never had to hustle for money.”

“Fuck you, brother,” Angel barks, rounding on him. “This fucking club is my family. My father can go fuck himself.”

“Why the hell would Angel be against this deal if he was loyal to the mayor, Brick?” Gunner challenges him. “You’re talking shit.”

“If you’re so goddamn loyal to this club, then why don’t you make a decision that actually benefits the club?” Hawk shouts, half-rising from his chair.

“It’s not gonna benefit the club if this deal takes us down,” I say quietly.

The argument heats up, to the point that I think it might even come to blows here in the chapel. But before it does, Rock bangs loudly on the table with his gavel.

“Okay, enough,” roars Rock angrily. “Enough. Let’s just put this to a vote and make a decision.”

One by one, we go around the table. In the end, Angel casts the deciding vote.

Nay.

The deal falls through.

“Good luck, brother,” I mutter to him as we leave the chapel, angry silence surrounding us. “Being VP is gonna be a rough road for a while.”

“Yeah,” he says glumly. If I stay VP.”