Page 89 of Raze

“Order up.” Ruckus places another plate on the ledge.

“Mornin’, Prez, ya hungry?” he calls over.

“What is this?” Raze asks under his breath.

“I think this is what you came here for.” I look around me and I don’t see a gang of bikers, I see a family.

“You're doing it, Raze. You're making the change.” I reach up on my toes and kiss his cheek.

“I think you had a lot to do with it too.” Alicia surprises me. “Everyone here refused to go home until they knew you were okay.” She smiles.

I bite my lip as my eyes fill with tears and I wonder how the hell I can feel so happy after all that’s just happened to me.

“Boss.” Wrath comes out of the office holding a piece of paper in his hand. “Grimm sent over a list of all the shit he’s gonna need, he’ll be with us in the mornin’.”

“Ya did good.” Raze slaps him on the arm, not noticing the bandage he’s got tied around the top of it, and making Wrath growl through his teeth. He soon gets over it though

“Come on, Ruckus is cookin’ up a storm in the kitchen and gettin’ everyone fed. I’m not countin’ on his grits being as good as yours though,” Wrath places his arm around Polly and leads her off to one of the tables and when she sees the mess Saint is making of Sasquatch’s head she shakes her head, rolls up her sleeves and snatches the needle from his hand.

“Do you think she’s gonna be okay?” Alicia asks, watching her set to work.

“It’s not gonna be easy but we’ll get her through it. She understands which I guess is the main thing,” I give Alicia some assurance before she busies off to help Ruckus.

“So, how does it feel?” I turn around and look at Raze. I don’t want to think about all the sad things anymore. I want to focus on moving forward, and what’s happening around us is making me real excited for it.

“We got a long way to go,” he reminds me, turning his body into mine and pulling me closer, while he tries to hide his smile.

“But this is a good place to start, right?” I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him, loving the sound of all the chaos around us. It suddenly sounds like home.

1 Week Later

The club seems to have settled since all the drama that unfolded last week. Polly’s grieving hard, but she shows her face here every day and she’s getting the support she needs. I spoke to Grimm before the clean-up and ensured that Polly had a special place she could go to visit her son. He may have betrayed the club, but I blame Cliff for that. The kid spent his whole life wanting a father figure, Cliff exploited that when he decided to give him one.

Griller had himself a proper Dirty Soul send-off yesterday, it was sad, but it brought us all even closer together, and his death taught me an invaluable lesson. I judged him wrong like I’m sure many others in his life did, but I did get to tell his mom that he died a hero.

None of us know where Greaser is, and I was surprised when he didn’t show his face. Perhaps he’s found what he was lookin’ for somewhere else.

Looking around the room I see all the men who are starting to appreciate each other. The atmosphere here is changing, even Dev has agreed that Corey can hang out here as long as it ain’t on a school night.

I smile when the door opens and Peyton breezes through it, she’s got that huge beam on her face that suggests she’s been up to something. And I check that no one else is appreciating the way she looks in the pretty summer dress she’s wearing as she comes toward me.

She’s still refusing to speak to a counselor about what happened, but she did meet with her father and Billy a few days ago and it seemed to go well. So well, that she got me agreeing to go out for dinner with ‘em all tomorrow night.

“Hey, you.” She sits her hot little ass on my lap. I’ve been spending a lot of time helping her erase the memories in her head, and I’ve got no complaints about that at all.

“What’s on your mind, darlin’?” I abandon the financial report Vike asked me to take a look at and focus all of my attention on her.

“Nothing much. I was just wondering if you’d lost anything?” She shrugs and I can tell by the twinkle in her eye that whatever she thinks I’m missing, she’s found.

“Lost somethin’? No.” I shake my head.

“Oh, that’s a shame. I thought this pretty diamond ring was for me.” She raises her hand and wiggles the finger she’s wearing it on.

“I forgot about that,” I admit. I don’t know how, the thing cost a fortune and before all the shit went down, I spent a lotta time thinking of all the ways I could ask her to officially be mine.

“I found it while I was cleaning up the hut and…”

“It is for you, but you're wearin’ it wrong.” I slide my mouth over her finger and grip the ring with my teeth so I can pull it off. Then lifting up her left hand, I take the ring between my thumb and finger and pause.

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