Chapter 8

LUCKY

“Thanks for helping out here tonight, mate. You are a natural bartender,” Steel said with a slap to my back. Helping at the Bar and Grill had been a great idea, and I found I really enjoyed the work. It was a lot different than the bike shop, more people to interact with for one. Creed was a great boss, and I was learning a lot from him. He was a master at his craft, a fucking genius with a spray gun, just not a big talker.

“Thanks for thinking of me, VP. I feel a lot better now that I am earning my money from the club. Being overseas and still getting a monthly deposit didn’t sit well with me,” I told Steel honestly. “This way suits me more.” 

“Lucky, you are part of this club, and as a member, you get what we all get. When Deck, Booth, Mannix, Darth, Ford, and I got out, we were ready to leave. More than fucking ready,” Steel said as he gave his leg a rueful glance. “You weren’t ready, so you stayed and paid your dues, served your country, and made us fucking proud. You got fucking shot, for Christ’s sake, Luck, not for your country but because of a lunatic with a grudge against the club. Trust me, you earned it,” Steel said just before he moved off to help one of the waitresses with the closing up routine.

I stood there shocked for a minute. What Steel said about the club being proud of me was the most awesome feeling. Those men, my brothers, meant more to me than anyone in my blood family. They didn’t judge me or look down on me for the choices I made in my life. A niggle of guilt fell over me. There was one decision they had no idea about, the one they should know about, the one I was still keeping secret.

Today, at the meeting in the war room, I screwed everything up. I panicked when Ford started talking about the hallway, and then when I started to remember his hands and lips all over me, my dick got so hard, I couldn’t even look at him without giving away my true feelings. So I did the worst thing I could have done and ignored him. I knew Ford was expecting me to stand up and claim him as mine. Hell, that was what I wanted to do, but I had to sort my life out first. I knew the direction to head involved Ford because he was the one. My man. Being honest with him about my fears was the first step. He had always been openly gay, but me, not so much. I hid it behind closed doors, hid my real self to appease my family. It was time to take control of my life.

My train of thought was interrupted by my phone playing the song “Back in Black.” I changed my ringtone on a regular basis, and this week, I was on an AC/DC kick.

“Yeah?”

“Bryce?” the snooty voice on the other end shrieked. “Please don’t answer the phone in such a manner.”

I hung my head and counted to ten. For a minute, I thought about hanging up. Ava was not the person I wanted to deal with just yet, but if I was going to move forward with Ford, ending things with Ava once and for all should be my first step.

“Ava, we need to talk. Can we meet someplace—”

“Bryce, I’m going to Spain with Mother and Father tomorrow, and I won’t be back until the day before the benefit.”

I sighed loudly. I had forgotten all about the bloody political benefit my parents were hosting for Ava’s father. I was expected to attend, of course, with Ava on my arm looking like the perfect power couple. I couldn’t—wouldn’t do it. My days of pretending were over now, not in two weeks.

“Ava, I’m sorry, but this can’t wait. I don’t want to marry you, I don’t want to be involved in my family’s business, and I don’t want to help your dad make it to the House of Representatives. I want to stay here with the club, become a custom bike painter, and love the person I was meant to love,” I said in a rush, not letting Ava stop me. No way was she going to talk me around with her fake tears and bullshit begging that I was the one for her. She had played that card one time too many, and this time, I was not letting her start.

“What about the ring?”

Huh? The what? “What are you talking about?”

“My engagement ring, Bryce! Do I have to give it back?” 

I shook my head at the absurdity of the woman. Here I was breaking off our upcoming wedding, and she was worried about the fucking ring! I hated the bloody thing. It cost me twenty-five grand after having had it custom-made to Ava’s specifications. She wouldn’t accept anything less than five carats, so when I told her that spending that much money on a ring was out of the question, she threw a hissy fit and ran to Daddy. He and my father ganged up on me, of course, spewing some crap about the good of the family and doing my part. Bullshit, wank, wank.

I caved like I always did, bought the fucking diamond bauble and regretted it the second I placed it on her finger. Fucking coward, that’s what you are, I silently told myself. Well, no more!

“Ava, I don’t give two shits what you do with the bloody ring. Throw it away for all I care,” I said loudly into the phone, drawing the attention of my VP, who had made his way back over to me sometime between my phone ringing and me shouting just then. A smirk crossed his face, and then he gave me a thumbs-up sign.

My brothers had made no secret of their dislike for Ava. The woman just had something about her that rubbed people the wrong way, and all it took was her to open her mouth.

“I am not throwing it away. Honestly, Bryce, do you have any idea what you are giving up? You won’t find a woman better than me,” Ava said with that snotty tone of hers I hated so much.

I snorted a laugh the same time Steel did. Obviously, Ava’s vile, shrieking voice was loud enough for him to hear.

At that moment, as I watched my brother roll his eyes to the heavens, I made my choice. Now was the time to stop hiding.

“Ava, your voice annoys the piss out of me, always has. Do I know what I am giving up? A lifetime of listening to you and your cow of a mother backstab everyone you meet, your father and his pathetic arse-kissing of my old man. That’s what I am giving up. And you wanna know something else?” A smile curved my lips. “There is definitely, absolutely, without a doubt a better woman out there than you, just not for me because I am in love with a man. A fucking sexy, hot, computer nerd, bike-riding, amazing man who loves me for me. So go fuck yourself, Ava.” I took the phone away from my ear and pressed disconnect, cutting off Ava’s shrieking.

“Well, brother, it’s about goddamn time. Mannix and Deck will be disappointed, though,” Steel said with a shake of his head.

“Why?”

“They were fighting over which one of them was going to stand up during the wedding at the part when the priest asked if anyone objected. Poor bastards aren’t going to be happy you took away their fun.”

A loud laugh erupted from deep down in my belly. “Well, they are going to have to get their jollies another way,” I told him. I grabbed my cut and threw it on.

“I gotta go, mate. I have to go back to the compound.”

“Yeah, I know, you got a sexy, hot, computer nerd, bike-riding, amazing man to grovel to,” Steel mimicked me.

“Don’t ever say those things again, Steel. That was just fucking wrong,” I mumbled and pushed past the big bugger, my head shaking.

I feared, though, that Steel was right about grovelling definitely being in my future. It didn’t worry me, though. I would gladly get on my knees and beg for another chance, the last chance I was going to need to make things right. I would do anything to make sure Ford was part of my future, too.

 

***

 

I pushed open the wooden door to the compound with my shoulder, my hands full with bags I’d grabbed from the back of my XC Coupe. I had been living in between a flat my parents bought and the compound, mainly to please my mother. She never liked my living quarters here at the club. She thought the place was uncouth, so she made my dad buy a block of upscale flats. I got to live in a way that made them happy, which seemed to keep them off my back enough for me to spend a few nights in my small room here without them chucking a fit.

After my momentous victory with Ava, I went straight home after leaving the Bar and Grill and packed up all my clothes. I grabbed a few personal items I couldn’t do without, threw them into my car, and then drove here. Tomorrow, I would go back to pick up my bike, and I would ring my parents and tell them what they could do with their spacious three-bedroom rental, then I was done with that life.

“Hey, Luck, you moving in or out?” Mannix yelled from over at the pool table. Did he ever stop playing pool?

“In, brother. I’m here for good,” I answered as I searched the main room for Ford. I noticed when I pulled into the club’s car park that Creed’s car was in his spot, indicating that he and Memphis were back from their date night, which meant Ford was finished with his babysitting duties.

“Ford around?” I asked casually while inside my stomach churned. I had taken so many steps in the right direction tonight. Taking that phone call in front of Steel and saying those things about Ford was huge. My brothers were on my side, and logically, I knew that but was I ready to make out with Ford in front of the club—maybe not.

“He went off to bed about ten minutes ago—on his own,” Mannix replied with a knowing smirk, and that damn eye patch made him look even smugger. Fucking arsehole knew.

I grunted something along the lines of ‘get stuffed’ and turned for the bedroom Ford used. His room wasn’t as big as the other suites, so he turned his computer tech room into a living space. It suited him, and now it was going to have to suit me, as well.

He better be in bed alone, I thought to myself and then stopped my mind from imagining shit like Ford with another man. He was mine, and after I got down on my knees and begged for forgiveness, he was going to get down on his knees and give both of us a night neither of us would forget.

As I made my way down the hall to the room, my heavy boots echoed as they ate up the distance that would take me to my happiness. When I got there, I saw there was a sliver of light coming from the gap at the bottom of the door. He was awake. I took in a deep breath and lifted my hand to knock, but instead, I reached for the handle and turned it. If I gave him the option to let me in or not, I feared he would choose the later.

“Listen, Ford, we gotta talk, mate, about what happened this—” I started to say as I opened the door, but I stopped abruptly. Ford was in his bed, propped up against the headboard with one arm behind his head. His bare chest was covered in colourful tattoos, and one nipple had a piercing—the result of a dare he’d lost with me during our first year in the military. But what had my mouth watering was that the sheet barely covered his magnificent cock, which had his hand wrapped around it, stroking it.

“Fuck me, you are gorgeous,” I exclaimed at the sight in front of me. “I’m yours.”