Cody was awake when Macy came into the room. She looked like she’d been crying. He smiled at her and she smiled back, but stood near the door, like she was thinking of running. “Come on in, I’m not contagious,” he told her with a grin.

“Are you okay?”

“Sure. I’m better than okay. Dax said they made me part robot. I’m going to be phenomenal as soon as I’m off the juice.”

She shook her head at him. “Everything’s a joke to you.”

He reached for her hand, and she took a step closer and let him take it. “Not everything, Mace. But sometimes you have to find the humor in things or you’ll lose your mind. Sit down. Visit with me for a while.”

She sat down and squeezed his hand. “I’m really glad you’re okay. Dax is so proud of you. He said you saved that girl’s life. I’m proud of you too.”

Cody suddenly remembered the watering hole. “Even after what you saw us…?”

“Yes Cody, even after that. I’ll admit, that wasn’t easy for me to see. But who am I to judge you? I told you that you and I weren’t going to work. You’re single and free to do what…or who you want.” Her words were strong but her voice was shaky.

“I’m sorry you had to see us like that anyways. You know I love you, Macy, right?”

“That’s the morphine talking.”

He chuckled. “Nah, it’s helping me talk, but the words are all mine. I love you. I will always love you. Maybe you and I weren’t meant to be together, but you’ll always be in my heart…my first love.”

She smiled sadly. “You’ll always be mine too. I love you too, Cody. I think that’s what made things so hard when you came back. When we were kids, I imagined being with you in every way, forever. But so much happened between the time you left and the time you came home. I was a different person, and so were you. I felt like I didn’t even know you, and it was like losing my best friend all over again, you know?” He nodded. “I’m sorry about the baby, Cody. I was scared and alone and I didn’t know what to do. That’s not an excuse, I know, but it’s the only explanation I have for you.”

He nodded. “I know. I’m sorry you were alone. I never should have gone after those guys alone. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I tend to do things impulsively.”

She giggled. “You don’t say?”

He nodded. “I know, hard to believe, but true.”

“Maybe we can start over at being friends and getting to know each other again?”

“Of course we can. We’ve never stopped being friends.”

“That girl…”

“She’s someone I knew a long time ago, like you. She’s also Kyle Brady’s girlfriend.”

She nodded. “I figured that out while we were waiting downstairs. Be careful, Cody. You don’t want a cop that has it in for the MC as an enemy.”

“No, I don’t. I’m not sure what Harley and I are doing…but I’ll be careful, I promise.”

“Harley? Is she that ugly little red-headed girl that used to live next door to the ranch?” Cody laughed and Macy realized what she’d said. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said ugly. She’s definitely not ugly now. She’s gorgeous. She looks like a model, and she’s in law school so she has to be smart…”

“It’s okay, Mace. Harley was not a pretty little girl, it’s just a fact.”

“I used to be so jealous of her.”

“You were jealous of her? Before yesterday?” That was hard for him to imagine. Macy had always been beautiful and poor little Harley was…well, when she was a kid, she just wasn’t.

“Yeah, when we were kids. It was before you and I ever really talked. I never talked to her, but I already had a huge crush on you. She was always around and she was so…uninhibited, I guess is the word I’m looking for. I spent so much time trying not to be my mother that I became dull. That girl walks into a room and it’s so bright that it almost makes your eyes hurt.”

Cody smiled. “Believe me, you have a way of taking over a room yourself. You’re just different, the two of you. That’s not to say that how she is, is better than how you are. You just have different personalities. A lot of yours came from how you had to grow up…hers did too. Your mom and dad were both these big presences. It made you want to fade into the background, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s sad. You’re an incredible person and I hate the thought of you fading into anyone’s background. Harley was suffocated at home so it made her want to do just the opposite. We’re all products of how we were raised.”

“Thank you for saying that.”

“I mean it.”

“I’m going to go so you can get some rest.” She stood up and leaned over the bed. She gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Jimmy’s here. Do you want to see him?”

“Sure. I’m a lot more popular here in the hospital than I ever was in prison, that’s for sure.”

She looked sad. “I’m sorry about all of that.”

He smiled at her. “I know. I was just making another stupid joke. It’s all in the past now and we’re all still family. All we can do now is move forward.”

Cody watched Macy go. He still wasn’t sure that he wanted to move forward without her. Being with Harley had been fun and exciting and he did care about her a lot. But she wasn’t Macy and he wasn’t in love with her the way he was in love with Macy. Maybe Macy was right and that was just a first love kind of feeling. He supposed only time would tell. He glanced down at the bulky bandage on his shoulder and reminded himself that he should be grateful he still had time to figure it all out.

* * *

After Jimmy visited, the head nurse told the rest of the brothers waiting downstairs that Cody needed to rest. He had a shitty night’s sleep, and he was in pain and waiting for his pain meds the next morning when Detective Brady walked into the room. He said the first thing that came to his mind:

“Fuck.”

Kyle Brady actually laughed. “Happy to see you too, Miller.”

“I was the victim this time.”

Kyle pulled a chair up to the side of Cody’s bed. “Yeah, I heard. I’m not here to arrest you or give you a hard time.”

“Really?”

“Really. I’m here to say thank you, for what you did for Hannah.”

Cody felt the slightest stirrings of guilt. “Oh, well, you don’t have to thank me for that. I’m not even sure if I made things better or worse.”

“Hannah tells me you saved her life and I believe her. So, thank you. I also wanted to tell you that it pays to save the life of the DA’s daughter. Her father told us this morning to drop the investigation against you in that other biker’s death. He says it’s because we don’t have enough evidence, but I suspect it has more to do with the fact that Hannah told him you saved her life.”

“I bet he’s not happy about her spending any time on the ranch at all.”

“I don’t think he is, but I think he’s afraid that the more he disapproves of something out loud, the more it’ll make Hannah want to do it.”

Cody tried to keep a straight face but the smile won out. “Well, it took him long enough to figure that out.”

“She likes you. I’m not sure why.” Cody laughed out loud at that. “I love her,” Kyle continued. “I’m thirty-five years old and I’ve been with a lot of women but I’ve never met one like Hannah. We haven’t been dating that long, but I can see a future with her and now thanks to you, that’s a possibility.” The guilty stirrings turned into a full-on rush of hot shame. Cody didn’t understand it. He didn’t owe anything to Kyle Brady…not even loyalty. The day before, when Jimmy had come to visit him they had a conversation about loyalty. Between them it was different; they were “brothers.” But Kyle was an outsider and always would be. Cody wasn’t sure he liked his own newfound conscience.

“We spent a lot of time getting into trouble together as kids. It forms a bond.”

Kyle smiled and stood up. “Her father tells me she was pretty rebellious.” That was putting it mildly, but Cody wasn’t going to be the one to tell Kyle that. “Listen, Miller, my job is to make sure everyone in my community is safe. I’m willing to make the same deal with you that I did Dax when he started dating my sister. If you stay out of trouble, I’ll stay out of your business.”

“That doesn’t really sound like a deal,” Cody said with a smile. “A real deal would be, if you get into trouble, call me and I’ll get you out of it.”

Kyle rolled his eyes. “Yeah, call me…see how that works out for you. I’m grateful, but not stupid.”

* * *

For Cody, the next few weeks were about healing. He was taken care of by the club girls. A few of them offered to fuck him and do all the work, but he never let any of them go any further than a blow job. He missed Harley, who hadn’t been around at all since he’d been back at the ranch; and since his talk with Macy, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind either.

He spent a lot of time in the clubhouse and he knew that something was brewing there. Everyone that came out of the meeting room was tight-lipped about it though, even Jimmy, whom Cody had been spending a lot more time with. Dax hadn’t been around much at all and when he was, he was dark and moody and Cody tried to avoid him.

By the fourth week after he got out of the hospital, his life was returning to the life of a prospect. He spent his days taking care of whatever the guys in the club needed. He washed bikes and polished chrome, all one-handed, since his left arm hadn’t fully recovered. He swept up the messes after they ate or partied and he poured a lot of beer. He learned how to roll a blunt one-handed and Tank was even teaching him how to cook. Things were comfortable, but boring. That all changed one evening while he was cleaning in the kitchen and Dax and Handsome walked into the great room. The lights were all out except for the small one over the sink, so they didn’t know he was there.

“Jimmy will be outside the back door and Pablo will take the front…here,” Handsome was telling him. “There’s a basement, but no outside outlet.”

“So are those the only two doors?”

“No, there’s one that leads from the kitchen into a back alley. I’m going to put Nolan on that one. I figure we can take a prospect or two to help him out. Beezy, Tig, Drill, and Munster will cover the north end of the street and Sam, Ghost, and Prince will cover the south.”

“And we know for sure that the Appraiser will be back on Friday morning?”

“According to the ears we have in there, Friday is the day. They’re going to make the exchange at eight in the morning.”

“I hate morning shit,” Dax said. He sighed. “I hate all of this shit. I want things back to normal around here.”

“They will be soon.”

“And then, there’s Johnny.” Cody wondered if he was talking about Johnny O’Toole. His question was answered when Handsome said:

“You know I don’t mean any disrespect by questioning you, but do you think getting O’Toole’s feathers ruffled is a good idea? I mean, he’s left Cody alone…”

“O’Toole has a long memory. He couldn’t get to Cody in prison and he can’t get to him here on the ranch, but eventually the kid will be riding with us out in the real world, and I wouldn’t put it past O’Toole to hit him as soon as we let our guard down. He can’t just let it go. If he did that, he’d lose his asshole reputation, and he likes that too much. He likes pretending to be the good guy, donating to the community and to charity, but he also thrives on everyone being scared to death of him. He accomplishes that by never letting anything go. Sometimes it takes him a while, but he never forgets what he counts as disrespect. Fucker thinks he’s going to be king of New Jersey one of these days. He needs to be put in his place, and I’ve just been biding my time because I don’t want anyone else’s blood on my hands when I make that happen.”

“So this is about keeping everybody safe, not about retaliation?”

“Hell yes, it’s about retaliation!” Dax said. “Keller wasn’t a patched member of this club, but he was part of this family. It’s taken me a long time to build this club back up to having enough men so that we are once again a force to be reckoned with, and it’s about time that Johnny O’Toole’s day of reckoning arrived. Once we take care of the Irish Mayhem and O’Toole, we can get back to business as usual.” Handsome chuckled and Dax said, “What’s funny?”

“Nothing.”

“What?”

“This business that we’re talking about right now is business as usual for most clubs. I think it’s great that you want to make this ranch somewhere that our guys can raise their families without SWAT busting down their doors on a regular basis. But I’m also happy as hell that you haven’t forgotten how to deal with the real shit either. It was one of the biggest fears the brothers had, about you being with Angel.”

“The brothers were worried? You weren’t worried?”

“No, of course not,” Handsome said with a grin. “I trust you implicitly.”

“Angel and I have an unspoken agreement that if we’re involved in something that she won’t approve of, I just don’t tell her about it. That way I don’t have to feel like I’m sneaking around behind her back. I can put my energy elsewhere. Look, Handsome, Angel knows who she married. She’s a smart girl, one of the smartest I’ve ever met. She told me straight up that she knew Cody killed Stitch. But you know what the greatest part is?”

“What’s that?”

“She would never say that, to anyone but me. Angel still has those cop instincts, but she’s one of us. She’s loyal to a fault and this club…this family…comes first. As long as we’re not dealing drugs or dabbling in prostitution or human trafficking, she’s on our side.”

“Good, because if things don’t go smoothly in West Virginia, we’re going to need a cop or two on our side.”

“Things will go fine, as long as everyone sticks to the plan,” Dax said.