Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 382(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“You never told me that before,” he said, his fingers moving up and down my spine.
“I don’t like to talk about my mom. She’s not really my mom. My grandmother was my mom.”
“Did you ever see her again?”
“She dropped into town on occasion, broke and needing to crash for a while. Something was always missing after she left. Money, family heirlooms, my laptop once.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, pressing a kiss to my head. “She never grew up?”
“Not the last time I saw her.”
“When was that?”
“At my grandmother’s funeral,” I said, sucking in a deep breath, and then releasing it slowly, finding there was a lot of anger inside me still about that. “She showed up late and drunk, making a scene. And then at the house after, while we were all just trying to share fond memories of my grandma, she was ranting and raving about how she never tried to help her get on her feet. It was embarrassing and frustrating.”
“I’m sorry, darlin’. You shouldn’t have needed to deal with that while you were grieving.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “I know this probably makes me sound awful, but I told her that night that I never wanted to see her again.”
“I get that. You had to protect your peace. She doesn’t deserve to be in your life if all she did was bring you frustration and anger.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“We went no-contact with our old man too. So, I’m never gonna judge you for that.”
“Does anyone here have a family?” I asked. “No one really talks about them.”
“Detroit has a father and brother. Coach has some family. And Colter had some but they didn’t stay in touch when he went to prison. And Rook, obviously, has his mom. As a whole, though, I think the kind of people drawn to an outlaw biker club are ones who don’t have anyone else.”
“People looking for found family.”
“Exactly,” I agreed.
“Are all of the clubs like this one?”
“Golden Glades is. I think the mother chapter has a lot more actual family now too, but, yeah, it is still a place for people who are looking for family and connection, not just a job.”
“I like that,” I told him. “I think it’s why I feel so at home here. Because that’s how everyone else felt when they came, so they just embrace all the new strays that happen in.”
“This is your home,” he assured me, pressing a kiss to my head.
It felt like it.
Home.
Not just the clubhouse.
But right here in Riff’s arms.
Nothing, I was sure, could ever come between us.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Riff
“Looking for new prospects again?” I asked when I came down early one morning to find Slash, Rook, and Colter looking over a pile of paperwork on the kitchen island.
Normally, decisions on prospects went mostly through Slash, Crow, Sway, and Detroit, since they were the more senior members of the club. But I guess it made a certain kind of sense for Colter and Rook to do a second round of elimination using the more recent ex-cons, since they might know the men personally. Or at least know of them by reputation.
“I got a feeling we are going to need more men soon,” Slash said, a knowing look in his eyes as he looked at me.
So, he had already seen the signs in me.
I still had to be a man and have an actual talk with him. But at least, this way, he wouldn’t feel blindsided by it.
“This fuck,” Colter said, snatching up a paper with a square-faced guy with a buzzed head, “is out.”
“Why?” Slash asked, looking at the information under the picture, mostly their criminal history.
“Major white supremacist,” he said.
“Why isn’t that in his paperwork?” Slash asked, already reaching to crumple up the paper.
“I don’t think he had any connections when he came in. That’s when they mark down any gang tattoos and affiliations. But the longer he was inside, the more he fell in with that crew. Has giant fucking SS Bolts on his back now.”
“Anyone else with affiliations I need to know about?” he asked, waving at the scattered papers.
“This one can go too,” Rook said, grabbing a paper with a Hulk of a man. “He beats his girlfriend.”
“Why isn’t that in his file?”
“I imagine, man that big, he intimidated her not to report him. I only know because I heard him bragging about it while he was playing cards one day.”
Slash grabbed that paper, balling it up, then tossing it in the trash with the other page.
“This one can go,” Colter said as he grabbed another page. “Not because of anything bad. But I know he’s got four kids, one of them kind of sickly, back in his hometown. He’s not staying here.”
It went like that for the next ten or so minutes while I brewed a pot of coffee until they were down to five possibilities.