Ayda winced more than I did during the whole second tattoo process. Her eyes would narrow the more Stinger got lost in concentration, but I was completely relaxed. I could never explain to her how much comfort I found in pain. Getting a tattoo felt like therapy. The only reason I’d never gotten more was because I only put things on my skin that mattered.

She officially mattered.

When Stinger raised his head and leaned away from my bicep, Ayda’s eyes widened. Stinger wiped down the skull of our patch, clearing away the residue until the word ‘President’ was clear for him, her, and everyone in The Hut to see. There was a quiet, collective gasp before my brothers started cheering and clapping with approval. I looked up to find Jedd standing beside me, his arms folded across his chest and that satisfied smirk hiding somewhere beneath his ridiculously long beard. Next to him was Slater, who may as well have had his balls licked, he looked so happy with what he was seeing. Deeks was behind Ayda, giving his approval to Stinger. Then there was Harry who was standing behind the bar, pretending to cough when really I knew the old fucker was swallowing down the emotion he was feeling. Kenny rocked up next, standing on the side of my freshly tattooed arm before he leaned in to inspect it closer.

“Nice work, boss,” Kenny muttered through a half smile.

I was just about to answer him when I saw someone familiar behind him, leaning over. Sloane Sutton had her hands pressed on Kenny’s shoulders and was wearing a curious smile. Kenny quickly cleared his throat and pushed her away carefully, whispering something I couldn’t hear over his shoulder at her. She danced away, telling him she was heading out for the day anyway. What I didn’t expect to see was the sheepish look on Kenny’s face when he turned back to face me.

Raising a brow, I stared at him and remained silent.

“She’s a good kid,” he eventually said, scratching that zigzag eyebrow of his and pretending to concentrate on my new skull tattoo.

“She is.”

“Yeah.”

“Just don’t forget how young she is. And that her father knows how to shoot long range,” I whispered.

“It’s not like that.” With that, he stood straight, pushed his hands into his loose jeans and sauntered over to the bar where Harry was waiting for him with a bottle.

I turned to Ayda whose eyes were fixed on my chest.

“I can’t stop looking at my name… on your chest. It’s just…” She tore her gaze from the letters and her eyes met mine. “I love you, too.”

I did my pec dance once, just for her, my smile breaking free as I shrugged a shoulder and leaned over the back of the chair.

“I guess if you ever leave me, I’ll just put an M at the front and a Y at the back and cry Mayday for my broken heart. No pressure to stick around if I’m an asshole. Which… I will be.” I smirked.

“Just like I’ll be a paranoid idiot sometimes. You take the good with the bad when you love someone.” Leaning forward, she brushed her lips against mine. There was heat there, but she slowly broke away and smiled again. “Everyone is gonna know you’re mine now, Tucker.”

“Like they didn’t know that already. Haven’t I shown you the pussy whipped tattoo Stinger stamped across my forehead?” I raised the overgrown hair above my brows and widened my eyes. “Only a fool can’t see it.”

Pushing her index finger into the middle of my forehead, Ayda smiled. It was the smile that I normally only got to see when I was balls deep inside her. “You’re not pussy whipped, baby. You’re just taken.”

“Dress it up all you want, Hanagan. I ain’t afraid to acknowledge my truths anymore.” Rising up, I leaned over and placed a kiss on her forehead before I swung my leg over the chair and examined my arm. Stinger may have had bad hair, but he had immense talent. Now the honor of my life sat proudly on my bicep for the world to see for the rest of my life. No more running away to prison for five years. No more denying my brothers. No more doubting my path. No more making them feel like I didn’t fucking love them for being the loyal to the death family that they were.

I ran my thumb over the raised edges of it, feeling my half-smile breaking free before I glanced up at Stinger and gave him a nod.

“Anyone else want inking while I’m here?” Stinger cried out.

The men jumped on him at once. The laughter all around us was infectious. I struggled to remember a time when the whole club had felt so relaxed and carefree.

Just as I reached for my white T-shirt and began to pull it over my head, Sutton walked in through the door. No longer needing an invitation, he tended to stop by whenever the hell he wanted now, staying here some nights, too, and choosing to go home others.

I helped Ayda to her feet while keeping my eyes on the chief of police.

“Howard,” I acknowledged him.

“Is it safe to be around you yet, Tucker? Or am I going to find myself slammed up against a wall for crimes that were forced upon me by pretty young blondes?” Sutton’s accusing eyes found Ayda as he came to a stop, wearing his full uniform and standing in his usual Western pose.

Ayda looked sheepish, but her shoulders were back and her chin was up. Her posture said she was sorry, but she wasn’t going to take any shit about the situation. “I should have told Drew right off, just like you told me to. That’s on me, and I’m sorry, Chief, I really am. It’s never gonna happen again, and on the bright side, you’re off the hook now. Drew said he will teach me.”

“The right way,” I added smugly.

Ayda squeezed my arm and tried to hide her smile, but it broke free as Sutton scowled at us both.

“Right way, my ass,” he grumbled, resting his hand on the butt of his gun that was sitting on his hip.

I raised a hand and cocked my fingers, narrowing one eye and aiming my fake gun at the chief’s chest. “Pistols at dawn. That’s how you shoot, Chief.”

Howard didn’t bite like he once would have done. Instead, he copied my previously smug expression and raised a brow. “Saved your sorry life, didn’t it?”

“Ouch,” I hissed, turning the finger gun on myself and aiming it at my own chest. “Kill me now. Sutton is forever going to have a hold on my life. End it. Pull the trigger, Ayda. Pull it.”

Ayda rolled her eyes and shook her head playfully. “Never. I love you too much, asshole.”

I rested my hand over my heart and sighed with relief. “Thank God for that. I’m not ready to leave yet.”

“When you two have finished…” Sutton interrupted, glancing between us both. “I could do with a word in private.”

“With Ayda?” I stood straighter, losing the happy grin.

“Nope. You. If Ayda doesn’t mind me taking you away from her for a full minute.” Sutton eyed Ayda, and something about the tone of his voice had that strange swirling feeling hitting the very center of my stomach.

“I’ll make brunch of the none-liquid variety.” Ayda nodded and pushed up on her toes to kiss me on the cheek.

She bent to pick up her sweater, made a comment back to one of the guys and drifted toward the kitchen, smiling at Deeks as he sidled up next to her.

I walked Howard to the bar, pulling out a stool for him while I sat on another. Since becoming friends with the club, he had days where he seemed more unsure than others. I guessed that was down to old habits dying hard. We were once the enemy. Now he was seeking protection and, I assumed, a place isolated from the majority of Babylon. For someone as proud as him, that had to mess with the wiring in his head a little.

“Everything okay?” I asked, folding my arms over my chest as I gave him my full attention.

Howard stared at the bar and blew out all the air from his cheeks before he reached up to scratch his mustache.

“Howard…”

He looked up and gave me a slow, purposeful nod. “There are a thousand other people I could talk to about this, FYI,” he started, staring deep into my eyes with a worried look on his face.

“Okay.”

“It’s just you and I have, umm, you know… we’ve shared some things these last few weeks, months, and I’ve come to learn that you’re a straight shooter.”

I pressed my lips together to stop myself from smiling.

Howard rolled his eyes. “I mean that you cut the shit out of every conversation. That wasn’t a compliment on your shooting skills.”

“Noted.”

“So…”

“Spit it out, Sutton, for fuck’s sake.”

He took a moment’s pause before he looked up at me through his knitted brows. “Do you think I’m doing the right thing by letting Sloane spend so much time here? In The Hut? Around you men. Outlaw men. Men who think differently to the rest of society.”

I widened my eyes. “You’re asking me for fatherly advice?”

“I guess so.”

“Shit.” I dropped a hand to my knee while the other scratched the back of my head awkwardly. “Shit.”

“That’s the stuff I wanted you to cut out of the conversation, Drew.”

“Right.” I flared my nostrils and looked up at him. “I’m no father. I struggle to advise Ayda on what to do with Tate. I struggle to keep Tate on the right tracks when my instincts sometimes tell me to take him to a strip bar, introduce him to some questionable soft drugs, and let him loose like my brothers did with me.”

“Not what I want to hear.” Sutton winced, dropping his head to his hand as he rested his arm on the bar.

“But…” I drew out. “All I can tell you is that while she’s here, she’s safe enough—probably safer than she is out there in the big, bad world. She enjoys being around Ayda, and their bond is special. She also loves Tate’s company.” I didn’t add and Kenny’s, by the looks of it. “My men will always protect her, as well as the twins, you—”

“I know all that,” he snapped quietly, cutting me off, rubbing the top of his head in frustration. “But she’s a girl. She’s my daughter, and I feel like she’s a thousand miles south of where she’s currently residing in her head. I’m scared she’s slipping away. I still see her skipping down the street, wearing pigtails, and singing songs about how much she loves her daddy. She’s still a four-year-old little princess to me, Tucker, and that’s wrong because the reality is that she’s a woman now. One who doesn’t have a mother figure to guide her down paths I can’t even see. All she’s got is me, and I’m—”

“A good man,” I reminded him. “With questionable facial hair and an awful as shit walk, yeah, but you’re a good man.”

Howard glanced up at me and shook his head, rolling his eyes. “I knew I should have gone to Ayda.”

“Probably.” I smirked, sighing quietly and slapping a hand on his shoulder. “But every day she asks me the same questions you’re asking me now. Am I doing right by Tate? Are we all safe? What can I do to improve the kid’s life? How has all this shit been dumped on my fucking shoulders? And I tell her the same thing I’m going to tell you—the same thing my brothers always told me: because you can fucking handle it. Both the Lord and Lucifer only dish out what they know we can handle.”

Sutton swallowed the lump in his throat. Whether that was emotion, fear, or him trying to cover up the sarcastic fuck off that was trying to break free, I didn’t know, but his eyes searched mine for any sign of a lie.

“I hate what Maisey did,” he eventually confessed.

“I do, too.”

“I have no right to still wish she was around.”

“But you miss that woman in Sloane’s life?”

“I do.”

“There’s always Ayda.”

“She’s just one woman, Drew. One woman who already has enough shit on her shoulders. She takes care of everyone in this place, including you.”

“That’s because she loves it. She may be one woman, but she’s one who never turns a person in need away. Don’t underestimate her. I’ve done that one too many times before and she’s had my balls in a vise for my troubles.”

“Now that I’d like to have seen.” Sutton huffed out a humorless laugh.

“Always thinking about my balls,” I joked through a sigh before I offered him a laugh in return. “Seriously, Chief. We’ve got her back. The other stuff… the teenage stuff… the hormones, the growing into a woman, the curiosity she’s no doubt feeling, well… we can’t do shit about that. Neither can you. All any of us can do is be there for her when she needs us.”

“I never thought I’d see the day when I would be grateful for a bunch of crooks keeping their eye on my baby girl.”

I shrugged a shoulder and looked around the club. “We ain’t all that bad.”

Sutton’s gaze followed mine. “Can’t argue with that.” He smiled at one of the Hound Whores who walked past before he turned back to look at me. “Any news on any backlash after… you know…?”

The warehouse incident. I knew. Sutton never really liked to say it out loud.

“Nothing. You?”

“I keep my eyes open and my ears to the ground, but Babylon is eerily quiet these days.”

I nodded slowly, pressing my lips together to collect my thoughts. “Never really a good thing that, is it?”

“It isn’t?”

“You never heard of the snakes that silently climb into your bed at night?” I asked, raising a brow.

“You bikers wouldn’t know how to be quiet if your life depended on it. Loud pipes showcase a big dick, right?” He smirked.

“Maybe,” I answered through a fake smile. “Yeah. Maybe.”

“There’s enough of us about the place to catch those snakes before they sneak through, Tucker. Don’t you worry about that.”

“I like your optimism.”

“Surprisingly, it’s something I’ve learned from you lot.”