Ricky
I shouldn’t have had so much to drink last night. My head is banging and I don’t know if it’s from the blast or from the drink. The only thing that got me out of bed this morning was the knowledge I was getting back in the fight, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
“Are you sure you’re ready to go out today?” Pope asks, as I hand over the bag of weapons we may need and he packs it in the trunk.
“You’re starting to drone on like your daughter. I’m fine and if you ask again, I’ll go on my own.”
“I don’t fuckin’ drone on about shit and speaking of my daughter, she’s on her way over and you better sort her out before I do.”
Frowning, I turn around and see her walking towards us dressed for work. After the attack, she took the rest of her vacation days so she wouldn’t lose her job after all the old ladies were ordered to stay at the cabin.
“Can you drop me off at work on your way to wherever it is you’re going?” she asks, as if this is a normal day and she isn’t pissing me off, “I don’t want to be late,” she adds, defiantly.
“Fuck work, you’re not going in.”
“Yes, I am. I called in and said I’d be in as normal.”
Beginning to lose patience with her, I grasp onto the little control I have left and quickly look around to see most of my brothers looking our way.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
“Doing what?”
“Embarrassing me,” I hiss, “You know no old ladies are leaving for now and you’re still trying to make a scene.”
She looks around and the fuckers quickly try to look busy. One word from Pope and she would be on her tiptoes, running into the cabin but I can’t have my girl listening to daddy and not me. I’d be a fucking laughing stock.
Her face falls, and clearly, I’ve hurt her. She spins on her heels and storms back inside. Turning around, my brothers carrying on with their business and I climb into the truck ignoring everyone around me.
Pope jumps in behind the wheel and says nothing as he starts the engine and we pull away from the cabin.
The plan is to drive around and round up any Devil’s Bastards we come across, either taking them out there and then or picking them up and bringing them back here to deal with.
I fail focusing on the task at hand, thinking about Kyla. I thought we got over this need to fight me on everything. She knows perfectly well that no one leaves the cabin until Danny has been caught, but she still pushes me. I know she has to keep herself busy, as it helps her keep clean but it’s not like she’s alone there, she has the old ladies to help distract her.
Maybe if I give her something to focus on, she will give me the time to focus on the club without having to worry about her.
“Pope?”
“Yeah?”
“Me and Ky are coming up to a year together now, and you know she means everything to me, and…” I say, tripping over my tongue to finish.
I knew it would be nerve wrecking asking him, but this is worse now it’s happening. I have no doubts about wanting to marry Kyla. As much as she pushes me and winds me up, I want us together forever.
“And what, Rick?” he urges me on with a sly grin. The fucker knows where this is leading and he’s still going to make me say the words. Which I will happily.
“I would like your blessing to marry your daughter.”
There, I’ve said it. No going back.
His thumb taps the wheel as he drives, thinking. Luckily, he doesn’t keep me waiting long before he says, “You’ve been living together for a while and it can feel like you’re already married but marriage is serious and it’s for life. Are you sure this is what you want?”
“I’ve known it for months, I want her in my life until my last breath.”
“Okay, okay, I get it, you don’t need to romance me,” he laughs.
Pope never laughs and I raise my eyebrows, wondering if this good or bad.
“You have my blessing to ask her and if she says yes, I’ll walk her down the aisle and hand my daughter over to you. I just have one condition.”
“Which is?”
This is going smoother than I anticipated, one condition isn’t bad where Pope is concerned.
“Divorce is never an option, you argue, you work it out. She winds you up, you cool off and work it out. If you say I do, it’s for life.”
“What if she wants to divorce me?”
“She wouldn’t,” he says, adamantly.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because she wouldn’t get to a lawyer faster than I would take you out. She wouldn’t need a divorce, she’d be a widow. If you fuck it up and hurt her to the point she wants to end the marriage, you wouldn’t survive.”
He may be smiling but I’m under no illusion he isn’t being serious.
“I don’t plan on divorcing her, or hurting her, so are we good?”
“You’ve heard my condition, we’re good and you have my blessing.”
I relax into the seat and genuinely smile for the first time in days. She drives me crazy but I wouldn’t have her any other way. When she says yes, my life will be complete…once Danny is dead, of course.