I glance at Travis, but before I can even say anything, he is stepping forward, shoulders squared, ready to take on even more of Chief if he has to. I love that about him. "I fucked up, Chief. No excuses. I lied to you, I lied to her. Wasn't smart. Wasn't right. I regret it." He pauses, knuckles white. "But it's done now. Whatever you think of me, I'm not going anywhere. She's everything to me and I need you to know that."
"You think that love is enough?" Chief's voice is soft, deadly. "You think love is a fucking song on the radio."
"I know it's more," Travis growls. “I’m not a fuckin’ idiot, Chief. You raised me, which means you know that I know the meaning of the word family.”
Chief goes silent, their eyes locked. "You broke her heart before. You lied. You did everything I taught you not to do.”
"I fucked up, you think I don’t know that?" Travis won't look away. "But I'd die before I did it again."
Jaq rolls her eyes, cigarette bobbing in her lips. "I got a twenty that says he caves in a year."
"Shut the fuck up," Chief says, barely audible.
She leans back, unbothered.
I find my voice. "We came here out of respect. I...welove you, Dad. I don’t want to lose you. I love him, and I don’t want to lose him. It’s just not a choice anymore.”
"It's always your choice, baby girl," Chief murmurs. "But you gotta make your own choices, and there isn’t a lot I can do to stop that. Doesn’t mean I like it.”
Travis reaches for my hand. Chief eyes the movement, expression unreadable.
"What if you catch him slipping? What if he goes dark again? Your mother, I fuckin’ broke her and she was never the same. This world fucks people up.”
“Mom is stronger than you think,” I say, pushing my chin out.
“You didn’t know the girl I knew. Maybe if you did, you would see just how much damage me being in her life created...”
“That’s on you, Dad,” I say, carefully. “You made those choices, but not everyone is you. He isn’t you.”
He flinches, and I know my words hurt. Travis' grip tightens. "I'll never hurt her, Caden."
Hearing him use my dad’s real name makes my chest tighten.
"You will," Chief says. "You won't mean it, but you will. That's life. You fight, you bleed, you fuck up.”
"I've bled before," I whisper. “And I have survived.”
"So have I," Chief murmurs. He finally looks me in the eye, and what I see there is love so big, it could bring him to his knees.
I soften, because I know what it must be like to fear what could happen to me.
Something incredibly powerful and unspoken passes between us. Me realizing how much it hurts him to fear for me, and him realizing how much Travis matters to me.
A beat of silence passes.
"I can’t stop either of you," Chief says, flicking his gaze to Travis. "But so long as you stand by her, you stand under the brotherhood. You act like a man, you get treated like one. Butyou break her, Phoenix, and I'll rip your heart out with my own hands. Clear?"
"As day," Travis says. His voice is steady, unwavering.
Jaq snorts, flicks her smoke. God, I hate her.
“While you’re here, got something else I want to talk to you about.”
“Mom?”
He nods.
Jaq laughs, a sharp little knife. “Don’t waste your energy, baby. That woman brings this shit on herself.”