“Also not true. Do you realize how many kids are abducted from places like school, the mall, parking lots, or even their own yards!” His voice raises several octaves. I know my brother loves me, but I don’t like seeing him get this fired up. “Nowhere is safe anymore.”
“You’re right. I know it wasn’t my fault, and I didn’t ask for that. But I do hold some blame for takin’ money and dealin’ drugs, that wasn’t right. Even at a young age, I knew it wasn’t. Did that give them the right to take me and do what they did? No, obviously not, but I can’t change it,” I say. “I wish I could, but as I told Nova, some parts of me are broken, and that’s just how it is.”
“I wish more than anything that hadn’t happened to you. If I could make it go away, I would.”
I cup the back of his head, knowing he’s getting emotional. I know how much he loves me, and I him, and that we had a bond that couldn’t be broken. We have slowly repaired that bond since we were reunited, but we lost so many years because of this.
“I know that. This isn’t your burden, and I’m doin’ okay. Look at me; I have an amazing job and work with people I actually like. I have a cool apartment that’s mine. I have the club. You. Mom. Chris. Nova.” My beautiful, beautiful Nova. “I have everything I could possibly want.”
His frown lessons when our eyes meet. “You deserve happiness, and I want you to have all of it.”
“I do,” I reassure him. “I’ve never been happier since I moved here and found you again. That was the happiest day of my life.”
“The day I got shot?”
I laugh out loud. Yeah, that was how it happened. “Well, fate had a way of bringin’ us back together, bro. We’re like peas in a pod, we can’t be apart.”
He swallows hard; I see the fight in his eyes, and I wish I could take the pain away from him. I knew how much I broke his little heart as a kid, and for years they assumed I’d run away. Of course my mom went to the police, put billboards up and a missing person ad, but they didn’t know what really happened. I don’t blame them; they were innocent, too.
“Just don’t go away again.”
I smirk. “Where am I gonna go?”
“I don’t know, what if Nova wants to go back home?”
“She doesn’t. Her life is here now. This is home. She just got a promotion, too, so she ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
“Right, and you’ve got nothin’ to do with that?” He gives me a lopsided look.
“Okay, maybe a little.”
“Or a lot,” he mutters. “You know every time we get together, you end up makin’ me almost fuckin’ cry.”
“Aww, it’s nice to know you still care.”
“Shut the fuck up. If you tell anyone, you’re dead.”
I wave my hands at him. “Ooh, I’m so scared. You think you can take me?”
“I know I can.”
I chuckle again. “You keep me young, little brother. No matter what happens, we’ll always have each other’s backs. I’ve got yours, and you’ve got mine, and that’s what matters.”
“And I have your back in claimin’ Nova. Don’t sleep on it, not with a woman like that.”
“Glad I’ve got your approval, I just have to get Brew and Haze’s. Logan was fine with it, in fact, he sniffed me out.”
“Logan is a dark horse, what’s his story, anyway?” Pipes asks.
Nobody knows too much about the eldest Nomad brother, but now he’s about to join the MC, I guess he’s gonna have to open up about some stuff.
“You know, I really don’t know. He’s chums with Hustler, but I don’t know much about his past. He’s run the bar forever, but aside from that?” I scratch my chin. “I’ve no fucking clue.”
Now it’s Pipe’s turn to laugh. “I guess if Cash thinks he’s good enough to be a Rebel, then so be it.”
“Oh, he’s good enough, he’s just always battled with authority, I’m sure that’s what’s held him back all these years, he likes his freedom.” Something also tells me that Logan won’t be controlled by anyone. I know he respects Cash, but they haven’t always seen eye to eye.
I think in the beginning he thought they were just another 1% club with a bunch of heathens running around town. But slowly over the years, the citizens in New Orleans have come to understand that the NOLA Rebels aren’t the bad guys. Cash and Jett set up BADVA years ago; Bikers Against Domestic Violence Association for women and children who have to testify against their abusers in court. It’s something all the club members have a hand in from time to time to protect innocent families. It’s stuff like that, and their work against criminals and crime in the city, that has made them respected. But that has taken a long time. It probably helped that a few years back Willow commended them in a speech, and Cash even received an award for his and the club’s help in bringing down one of the worst trafficking rings in New Orleans. But like anything these days where people are commodities, another branch pops up just as fast.