CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Forcing Murphy to keep my secret when he’s living under Rock’s roof bothers me. More than that, I can’t stand hiding Charlotte from my brothers any longer.
Friday afternoon when we sit down for church, I decide to come clean.
Who we fuck isn’t the club’s business. Not really. If it gets serious, yeah, we should bring her around. Introduce her to the club, unless we plan to keep her completely citizen.
However, if we know the club might have a legitimate issue with someone we’re getting close with, that’s something that needs to be brought up at the end of church.
Today’s meeting is short.
As Rock takes one last glance around the table, I raise my hand. Next to me, Murphy snickers. Earlier, I gave him a head’s up. He bet me five bucks I wouldn’t have the balls.
Under the table, I kick him and hold my hand out.
“I’m seeing someone and I want to bring her up to the clubhouse.”
It’s not Rock I’m staring at for this, it’s Wrath. Security is his job.
Wrath tilts his head. “And? She got a name?”
“Charlotte Clark.”
Rock either chokes or laughs. Not sure which. I slide my gaze his way. Wrath also focuses his attention on our president. “What?” he asks.
“Nothing. Hope knows her,” Rock says, barely keeping the smile off his face.
At once, Wrath gets it.
“Are you fucking serious?” He glances at Rock, then back to me with a smirk. “Must you copy everything he does, mini-Rock?”
Wrath’s called me Rock’s mini-me for years. Unfortunately for him, I’ve always taken it as a compliment.
“It’s not that,” I protest.
No one else, except Murphy, understands why Wrath’s comment is supposed to be funny.
“Well, at least you didn’t meet her while you were in an orange jumpsuit,” Rock jokes.
The next part won’t be as amusing.
“That’s not why I’m bringing it to the table, Prez.”
Wrath and Rock both wait for me to continue. Amused expressions in place.
“She’s Merlin’s niece.”
All humor drains from Wrath’s face. Rock sits up, setting his elbows on the table.
“Merlin. As in the Wolf Knight’s new President, Merlin?” Wrath asks with deadly calm.
“That’d be the one.”
Rapid-fire questions shoot out of my brothers’ mouths.
“You out of your fucking mind, bro?” Z snaps.
“Give him a chance to explain,” Sparky says. I glance down the table and lift my chin at him.
“How the fuck did you hook up with her?” Dex asks.
This part’s easy to admit, because my brothers don’t give a fuck if Charlotte acted unethically. Hell, it might actually help. “She was the attorney who was appointed to represent Heidi when I fought our grandmother for custody. After we settled the case, we, uh, got together once.”
A lot of people assume Wrath’s big and dumb, but he’s a keen observer. Has to be to have survived as our enforcer for this long. He lifts his chin at Murphy. “She’s the same one helping you with Alexa’s adoption?”
“Yup.”
“You knew about this?” Wrath asks in a grave tone.
Couple years ago, Wrath’s full attention on him would’ve had Murphy squirming in his seat. Now, he braces his elbows on the table and leans forward. “He wasn’t trying to hide it from the club. He’s been waiting for the right time.”
That’s Murphy. Always has my back no matter what.
Wrath glances at Rock and lifts a shoulder. “Heidi contacted her. I don’t see how Wolf Knights coulda arranged that. Or why they’d bother.”
“What if they try using it to their advantage once they find out?” Ravage says from his end of the table.
“Fuck you,” I fire back. “She’s not a rat. She barely has anything to do with the club.”
“Why?” Wrath asks.
“I don’t know. We don’t waste time talking about her uncle or his club.” Not a complete lie.
“You might want to find out.” The might in that sentence isn’t a suggestion.
My fists open and close on the table. “From what I’ve seen and heard, Merlin acts like a dick to her and treats her brother like shit. She keeps her distance.”
Rock seems to be the one to finally take some pity on my situation. “All right. What are you asking of the club today?”
“I want to bring her up here with me. We’re always staying at her apartment.”
“She put you up to this?” Stash asks.
I slap my hands on the table and lean over so I can see him better. “Fuck off.”
“Simmer down. Both of you,” Rock says.
“Stop being a dick, Stash,” Murphy grumbles.
“Where does she live?” Z asks.
“Downtown Empire. Lark Street.”
Z lifts an eyebrow. “Interesting she lives in Empire.”
“I thought so too.”
“I assume she has some class and won’t start shit with any of the girls?”
That almost makes me laugh. “No, I don’t see her doing that, Z.”
Wrath nods at Murphy. “What do you think of her?”
“Why does it matter what I think? I only met her the one time.”
Silence fills the air as Wrath waits for Murphy’s answer.
Murphy sighs and sits up. “She’s nice. Treated both of us with respect. Didn’t look down on Heidi or anything. She was honest with us about the process. Heidi has a real high opinion of her.” He shrugs. “I don’t know what else you want me to say.”
Wrath sits back and crosses his arms over his chest, staring me down. “You’re serious about her.”
He’s not asking.
“Our demons play nice together.” I know he’ll appreciate that answer.
Wrath snorts, but the corner of his mouth turns up slightly. “Fine. Bring her up. Merlin and their crew have been here before, so it’s not like the location’s a big secret.” He jabs a big finger in my direction. “But you’re responsible for her when she’s here. Don’t let her go wandering around.” His gaze shifts down the table. “And for fuck’s sake, keep her away from the basement.”
“We’re not really in the habit of letting anyone outside the club down there, brother,” Sparky mumbles. That might be the first time I’ve heard Sparky give Wrath lip. Great, just what I wanted. To be responsible for driving a wedge between my brothers.
Thankfully Wrath’s not fazed and Sparky settles back down.
“All right.” Rock glances around the table. “Anything else?”
No one speaks up.
“Go on,” Rock says, dismissing everyone.
He points to Z and Wrath. “You two. Meet me next door.”
On his way out, Stash claps me on the shoulder. “Sorry, brother. I wasn’t trying to be a dick.”
“It’s cool.”
Sparky’s a lil’ more enthusiastic. He grabs my shoulders and wraps his arms around my neck from behind, choking the shit out of me. “Happy for you, bro. Your energy’s been so much brighter lately. Now I know why.”
A strangled “Thanks” works out of my throat. As our resident dirty-hippie, I expect Sparky to say stuff like that. He releases me and follows everyone else out of the room.
When everyone except Murphy and I have left, Rock turns and dips his chin. “Stay put.”
“You need me too?” Murphy asks.
Rock gives him a cool look. “No. I’ll talk to you later.”
Shit, I hate that I made things awkward for Murphy.
He pats my shoulder on the way out. When the door closes behind him, Rock and I are alone.
Under the weight of Rock’s stare, I square my shoulders and face him head on. “Talk to me,” he says.
“What do you want me to say?”
“Well,” he says, drawing out the word. “Known you a long time. You’re a bit hot-headed sometimes. Open your mouth without thinking often. But I’ve never known you to be reckless.”
Finished assessing my personality, he sits back. “Tell me why you trust her so much. Why you didn’t tell the club about this sooner. Especially when you know we’re having issues with Merlin right now.”
Before I open my mouth, he holds up his hand. “And at no point should her hot ’lil pussy factor into this discussion.”
My jaw tightens as a blast of anger blows through me. Rock doesn’t miss my reaction either. He chuckles. “Good to know where you’re at.”
I should’ve known better. Rock rarely talks about women that way. By taking the bait, I’ve already flunked his first test. Or passed it, depending on his objective.
Rock’s more than my club president. I owe him a lot. Everything really. But definitely my honesty.
“If it went nowhere, I figured I would’ve wasted everyone’s time for no good reason.”
“I think I’ve met her once or twice. Seemed like a nice girl. Tell me why you think her relation to Merlin won’t be an issue.”
“Shit. I don’t know. It’s a gut feeling, Rock.”
“Convince me.”
I stop and think about how to put my feelings for Charlotte into words. “For one thing, she doesn’t seem to like him all that much. The only family she’s close to is her brother, and he can’t stand Merlin.”
“How old’s the brother?”
“Younger than her.”
“Is he a patch holder?”
“No interest. He doesn’t ride.”
“Continue,” he says, waving his hand at me like he’s trying to pull the information off my tongue.
“I think she usually tries to stay clear of bikers.”
He raises an eyebrow. “And yet she found you?”
“I kind of pursued her.”
He nods in what I think is approval, so I continue. “You remember Hope was real careful to keep any mention of the club out of the custody case.” Rock makes an affirmative sound. “Charlotte didn’t know about my affiliation until my grandmother’s funeral. She freaked out. We ended things badly. And I always felt shitty about it.”
“You’ve had a lot going on the last few years,” he says.
“Yeah, well. When I went with Heidi and Murphy to her office and saw her again.” I drop my gaze, shaking my head. “I was planning to contact her.” I wave my hand over my leg. “Once I got myself sorted out. But then I ran into her at that party—”
“So that’s where you’ve been spending your time lately?”
I shouldn’t be surprised Rock knows I haven’t been around a lot. As much as he pretends to be disinterested in what we’re up to now that he and Hope are in their own house, I don’t doubt he keeps tabs on our whereabouts. Especially me. “You got Murphy spying on me, Prez?”
The corners of his mouth turn up and for the first time today he seems genuinely amused. “Not very well, apparently.”
“I only told him a couple days ago.”
“Ah, okay.” He jerks his thumb toward the door. “Be aware, Wrath’s going to be a dick to her. He’ll probably test her worse than the shit he pulled with Hope.” He drops the smile. “But you understand why.”
“Yeah. Charlotte can hold her own. She also understands the way things work.”
“Well, at least she has that going for her.” He shakes his head. “Goddamn. Sway’s daughter is single, you know. You wanted a biker’s girl, you coulda at least kept it in the family.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Tawny-lite? No, thanks. I’ll pass.”
Murphy slaps my back when I finally leave the war room. “Glad you came clean today.”
“Couldn’t wait anymore.”
“It’ll work out. You wouldn’t go through all this if you weren’t serious.”
“No shit,” I mutter.
“You good? I need to take off.”
“I’m fine.” I scan the room, my gaze landing on Hope.
As usual, she’s waiting for Rock in the living room. Normally Trinity would be right next to her.
“Where’s your sidekick?” I ask, walking over to her. The rest of the clubhouse seems empty although there’s plenty of noise coming from the dining room and outside.
Hope wrinkles her nose. “Baking? I don’t know. I didn’t ask a lot of questions. You know how she gets in the kitchen.”
I snap my fingers. “Wrath’s birthday is coming up.” I glance back at the open war room doors. “No wonder he was such a cranky bastard today.”
She squints. “Isn’t he always cranky?”
“I heard that, Cinderella.”
“Of course you did,” I mutter.
A few seconds later, Wrath slaps me on the back, nearly knocking me over. “Did you run and tell Mommy I was mean to you about your new girlfriend coming to visit?”
“Would you stop that?” Hope protests. “I am not old enough to be his mother.”
Wrath waves a hand at her, which she slaps away. “You know what I mean.”
I can clearly remember these two interacting in a much different, much more hostile way in this very living room the first time Hope attended a party at the clubhouse.
Maybe there’s a chance Charlotte will fit in here after all.
One day.
“Go on. Tell Hope all about how you had to copy Dad.” Wrath snickers. “It would be funny if not for the other thing.”
“You’re a dick.”
“What’s the other thing?” Hope asks instead of the more obvious question.
“She’s related to the president of the Wolf Knights MC,” I explain, sitting next to her.
Her eyes widen. “Really? Well, she’ll probably know how to handle herself better when Wrath harasses her than I did.”
Wrath pats her head, messing up her hair, and she swats at him. “You did fine, Cinderella.”
“Are you harassing my wife?” Rock asks, slapping Wrath on the back.
“Nope.”
Hope shakes her head. “No, we’re talking about Teller’s new girlfriend.”
I find it amusing that Hope’s always willing to defend one of us if she thinks we’re going to get in trouble with Rock.
Rock lifts his chin my way, then squeezes Wrath’s shoulder, probably harder than necessary. “I need you and Z in the office to look at something.”
“Now?”
“Now.”
After they leave, Hope turns her full attention to me.
“So, you must really like this girl,” Hope says.
“It’s Charlotte, by the way.” I figure I should get that out first.
Her mouth curves into a sly smile.
“Why do I get the feeling you knew? Did she say something to you?”
“Not directly.”
I have no idea what to make of that.
“It’s not that she’s a lawyer that’s the problem? You said she’s related to…” she trails off as she seems to search her memory. “Merlin, right? That’s the Wolf Knights’ president? He was at our wedding. So we’re on good terms with their club, right?”
She seems pleased she remembered this nugget of knowledge about our world.
“Yes, but—”
“Kings first?”
“Always.”
She nods. “So you must really like her.”
“I do. She’s funny. She’s got this little shithead of a brother that she’s loyal to and he tries so hard to be protective of her even though he goes about it totally wrong. She’s definitely not impressed with this.” I tap my finger over my Treasurer patch. “Somehow she has a sweet way of telling me when I’m acting like a jerk that just makes me like her even more. She gets me. But…”
Hope waits while I gather my thoughts. I don’t know how to put the rest of it into words. Don’t know if I can put into words. This feeling has been nagging at me ever since I realized I was falling for Charlotte and it has nothing to do with the club. “I don’t have a good track record with women. My mother abandoned me. My grandmother kicked me out. The first girl I thought I was in love with was in love with someone else.” Christ, I sound like a whiny bastard. “Or I fuck up and they get hurt.” I choke on my last words. “I don’t want to hurt her.”
“And you don’t want to fall in love and get hurt?” she asks gently.
“That’s all I’ve ever known.” Not that Hope knows this, but for some reason, I feel like apologizing to her. “It’s why I never totally trusted you. Figured you’d get sick of this and leave. Break his heart.”
“Rock?”
“Yeah. Watched him go through that shit with Carla. She left him when he was inside. They took vows. Meant nothing to her.”
Hope’s unlike any woman I’ve ever known. She doesn’t get pissed when I bring up Rock’s ex-wife. She squeezes my hand and lets me continue.
“And Murphy’s so enamored of you. Figured you’d crush him too if you left. Watched him go through that with his mom for years.”
“I bet. He’s told me a little.”
“See. He trusts you. He’s never talked about that shit with anyone. Except maybe Trinity when his mom died.”
“He told me that too.”
I shake my head. “He never cried or complained. Nothing like that. But I’d see it in his face every time she tried to get clean. The hope that she’d finally be a mother. Then the disappointment when she failed again.”
“That’s rough.” She glances down as if she’s not sure she should voice her thoughts. “You’ve both overcome so much.”
A sharp snort bursts out of me and I shake my head “I should’ve listened to him when he told me how he felt about Heidi. Maybe she wouldn’t have gone through all that hell with Axel. I really fucked that up.”
“Teller. You’re not responsible for everything that happens to her.”
“Yes, I am.” If only she knew how much of the bad shit that’s happened to Heidi was my fault. “Shit, Hope. I can’t…I can’t thank you enough for all the stuff you’ve done for her.”
Pink spreads over her cheeks and she turns her head. “I’m happy to do it.”
“I get that about you now.”
She turns serious. “I hate to break it you, but I’m not going anywhere. Rock, the club, you’re all stuck with me. Sorry-not-sorry.”
I kind of figured that the way she used “we” to describe the relationship between the Lost Kings and Wolf Knights a few minutes ago. “I’m not sure we could survive without you now.”
“So you were worried about Rock?” she asks. “I always assumed you didn’t like me taking his time away from the club.”
“That might’ve been Wrath’s concern. But not mine. He deserves to be happy. You make him happy.”
“Oh, Teller.” She wraps her arms around my shoulders and squeezes me.
“I don’t have any faith that’s in my future,” I mumble against her hair. “I’ve fucked up way too many times.”
Pushing me back, she stares me straight in the eyes. “From what you’ve said, You seem to have a lot in common. That’s a start.”
“You and Rock don’t have a lot in common.”
She chuckles. “Maybe on the surface.” She places her hand over her heart. “At our core though, I think we do.”
I turn that over in my head.
“It’s already causing all kinds of chaos,” I gesture to the war room, “and she hasn’t even been here yet.”
“I can imagine.” Her soft green eyes never stray. “But, love is worth all the chaos, Teller. I promise.” She hesitates for a second. “Maybe you don’t see it, but you’re a good person.”
“I—”
She cuts off my protest. “I know you blame yourself for what happened to Mariella. But it’s not your fault.” Her eyes shine with unshed tears, but her voice is steady. “You made her feel safe and happy for the first time in her life.”
“She trusted me to keep her safe and I didn’t.”
“Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, it’s not up to us, Teller. You deserve to be happy. To be loved.”
Shit, this woman’s going to make me cry.
“I’ll have to get to know her a little better before I decide if she’s worthy of you, though,” she teases, bumping her shoulder against me to lighten up the conversation.
This is Hope. Always guiding and steering us in the right direction when we need it. Sometimes I’ve resented her for it. Like when she helped Murphy figure out how to handle my sister.
Now, I welcome it.
She somehow managed to settle Rock down. Make him happy. While he’s always been like a father—or older brother—to me and a damn good president to this club, he was never happy. Not until her.
So maybe, just maybe, she knows what she’s talking about and I should listen to her.
“You know what?” she asks, squeezing my hand again.
“What?”
“I think you’ve spent your whole life taking care of other people. Maybe it’s time for you to be with someone who can take care of herself. Even better, she understands the club life.”
“She doesn’t need a guy like me in her life.”
“But it sounds like she wants you. Isn’t that better?”