Page 73 of A Brother At My Back

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Zeb…

A soft knock at my door, but damn it, Tiff had just fallen asleep not long before. I didn’t want to move her so I called out, “Yeah!” and hoped that it wouldn’t wake her.

Dragon opened the door and stepped in, swinging it shut behind him and putting his back up against a jutting corner of the wall. He pressed back into it, wincing, and I couldn’t tell if he was stretching or scratching his back like a bear against a tree.

“I hate your bike,” he said, and I laughed a little, cutting it off and checking on my girl but she was out.

“Keys to your cage are on the dresser, same with the spares for all the club rooms.”

“Ah, shit, got locked out huh?”

“Yeah, Data and Mali to the rescue.”

Dragon nodded and swapped out the rings of keys.

“Boys are out there, lookin’. I don’t reckon it’s going to take long to find one or the other of ‘em.”

“Find one, you find ‘em both,” I agreed.

“No women, no children,” he said softly, and his dark eyes roved over her still form draped over my chest. I felt a spike of jealousy. Knowing that he and she had… Well, it wasn’t easy for me, and despite understanding with your head, sometimes your feelings on the matter had other ideas.

“Didn’t mean nothin’, you know?” he asked and I blinked. I guess my feelings, unlike my thoughts, were being broadcast on my face.

“Ah, nah, yeah, I know that, Bro.”

“You better, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen her half so peaceful as she looks right now.”

“She’s had it rough,” I agreed.

“Just keeps on truckin’ though, don’t she?”

“Starting to realize you might be right, boss.”

“Oh yeah? How’s that?”

“Strength comes in a lot of different forms, power ain’t always about how many blokes you got doing what you say.”

“So you were listening, then?” he said with a grin.

I nodded. “May seem a bit thick, eh?” I looked down at the crown of her head, her tangled, glossy dark hair and sighed. “I may be a bit thick yet.”

“Nah, I think you’re doing fine. Feelings are natural, but you do have to decide. It ain’t easy, and life don’t come with an instruction manual. The system is a lie, but figuring out your own way ain’t easy, either. I think she’s learning that just as much as you, huh?”

“Yeah, too right.”

“Get some sleep, keep your phone charged. We’ll call you with any developments,” he said and pushed up off the wall.

I nodded and he went out, shutting the door behind him. I thought about a lot of things before I tried to join her in some good sleep.

When I’d come here, it’d been in a bit of a state of disgrace, personally. It was kind of amazing that Dragon had even taken me on. He’d looked at me point blank and had told me that I couldn’t bullshit a bullshitter and to not even try. I’d just come from my granddad’s funeral; it was even a miracle my sister had even bargained that for me, my being able to go home to pay my respects.

With Tiffany laying on me now, I didn’t even want to think about what my sister had traded up to make it possible.

I don’t know what had made me do it, sitting across from Dragon then, but I had come clean. Told him everything about betraying my own gang in a bid to get ahead back in New Zealand. About how I’d come by the Sacred Hearts colors less than honest with my previous chapter and how I was as low as I could go and lookin’ for a change.

He should have put me out bad with the club right then and there, but he hadn’t. He’d looked me over impassively and had told me every man deserved a second chance in life. That once upon a time he hadn’t believed that. That it had always been one and done, but then someone had given him one. One he hadn’t deserved, and that not only that but given him more chances after that.

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