“Clearly I told you too much the other night,” he gripes.
“We don’t have secrets,” I remind him.
“I don’t know, Princess. I don’t like it.”
“I’ll be fine,” I say, trying to sound reassuring. “Please let me do this, or at least volunteer. I’m part of the club by association, and I want to do what I can to help.”
“What if…”
I pique a brow. “I’m listening?”
“What if I could get someone else to come with you, so both of you could play the part? Stella? Or Luna maybe, she’d be up for it. I know Deanna would be willing, but there’s a chance she could be easily recognized as Cash’s ol’ lady.”
I brighten. “That’s a great idea. I’m sure Luna would be up for it, or Payden. Stella would be too recognizable because of Cale.”
Cale Callaghan, once a cop who worked with Willow and a thorn in the MC’s side, is now the mayor and an ally. He’s also Stella’s man, and Cash’s son.
“Let’s run it by Cash first, but note that I’m not happy with it, and I can change my mind at any time.” He really looks conflicted, and I try to hold back my glee.
I want to help. I don’t want to just sit here while the boys get their hands dirty. This is the only way I know how.
I clap my hands together. “I’m in.”
“I said I’ll run it by Cash first, and then there are your cousins to deal with. That’s gonna be fun. Imagine what they’re gonna think of me.”
“So we’ll go together and I’ll tell them it’s my idea,” I say.
He gives me a pointed look. “I don’t need you to vouch for me, but that is cute.”
“I don’t want to be cute, I want to be sassy. I want to do whatever I can, Saw, this whole thing is killing me inside.”
He sobers, his fingers lacing through mine. “I know that, which is why I don’t want you anywhere near it, but I also know how stubborn you are. You shouldn’t be volunteerin’ to put yourself in the firin’ line.”
“I won’t be, not with you and the brothers there.”
“You really think Logan, Brew and Haze are gonna agree to this?” he laughs. “Good luck with that. They’re not.”
“Well, you’re all a bunch of stupid asses. I’ll go over all your heads if I have to.”
He looks up at me again, his laughter subsiding. “What kind of ol’ lady are you gonna make? Not agreeing with my wishes?”
I open my mouth, but no sound comes out. “Ol’ lady?”
“You know when you hang at the clubhouse you’re fair game, the only reason nobody hits on you is because of your cousins.”
My eyebrows feel like they just hit the sky. “What in the actual fuck?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t know. It’s like the bro code. You’re a club sister, for all intents and purposes, so they leave you alone, even when they don’t want to.”
I ignore that last comment. I know some of the guys look at me, but they’d never dare try their luck. “Is that what you want?”
“I don’t know. Is that whatyouwant?” he repeats.
I hug myself without even realizing I’m doing it. “We just went from zero to a hundred.”
“You know I want to be with you, and this way it’ll show the brothers we’re serious. I don’t give a fuck what they think, or if they fire me. I’ll do my thing if I have to. But I can’t be without you. If you’re my ol’ lady at the clubhouse, it sends a message: that you belong to me.”
I listen to his words and repeat them in my head:you belong to me.