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“Okay.”

“With your family.” Her mouth dropped open but I wasn’t finished. “Before you even think of backing out, I should let you know that I will be there and it will give you the perfect opportunity to break down some of those walls you have built up against them before your birthday tomorrow.” Now I had somewhat higher ground on her.

I saw her expression. Did she really think I had forgotten about her birthday?

“You know you are having a party.” I grinned at her displeased expression. “A full charter party and, like, the whole school is crashing the club. Even the Deadly Dozen are coming.” It had been the subject of talk since Eve put up the event on Facebook. “So, you ready to make your one o’clock appointment?”

I had never seen Hannah more pissed off. “Fine,” she gritted out and picked up her purse and phone. “But there is nothing you can blackmail me with to get me at that party.”

“God, Hannah, I’m cruel but I’m not the devil,” I joked with her while I pushed her slightly out of the door, seeing as she suddenly had become a granny and couldn’t move.

She was standing at the top of the stairs and it looked like I had to go first. I rolled my eyes and started to head down. She was three steps behind me. When I hit the foyer, I saw all the Wilsons’ faces masked with shock when Hannah stood next to me.

“Hannah’s feeling better,” I smiled at them. Literally, all their eyes were on Hannah. “In fact, the whole gastro and no eating thing has made her starving, so we were thinking of having a feast?”

It was now that I needed one of them to switch out of shock. I looked at Abby, Tyson, Eve, and then Reaper. Had they not heard one word I had said?

“So, a feast tonight?” I questioned them, hoping one of them would snap out of their zombie-all-eyes-on-Hannah mode.

“Um, sure.” Tyson surprisingly was the one to answer and his eyes were off me and onto Hannah. “What should we get? Like anything you particularly want?”

I wanted to smile because he sounded so nervous, like I had just handed him a loaded gun with no safety on it.

“Um, I think the birthday girls can decide what we eat.” My eyes went to Hannah. “In fact, Hannah, why don’t you go and do a list with your mum and sister for tonight while I talk to your dad and brother.”

She knew right now I was doing what she wanted. Giving her dad a heads up on a problem he wasn’t aware of right now. It went against my loyalty to the club but at the same time I knew it was in both clubs’ interests if they started in a brotherhood peace.

“Hannah doesn’t have to; I can guess and Eve usually knows what she likes as well,” Abby said after a minute had passed and Hannah hadn’t budged.

I looked back at Hannah. The period of silence she had with her family was about to be broken; if not, I was going back on my end of the deal.

“No,” Hannah finally spoke and looked up at her family. “Eve will have us eating ice cream and chocolate chips for every course.”

I smiled; finally, she speaks!

I don’t think I’d ever seen a group of people look as delighted as the Wilson family looked just by hearing Hannah speak. Even Reaper had a smile on his face but the hurt and pain of what he had done was clear in his eyes which were locked on Hannah’s badly bruising jaw and cheek—hell, even down her neck was bruised.

Eve was quick to grab Hannah’s arm and was firing questions about what she wanted to eat, and how Eve thought she had turned into a corpus in the bedroom. Abby gave me the biggest smile; she didn’t need to say thank you, as it was clear by the expression she gave me. Then she turned and followed the girls.

Suddenly, what I had to do next hit me, putting a really bad taste in my mouth.

“If this is about Hannah…” Tyson started but I put my hand up for him to stop.

“Nothing to do with Hannah. Well, it is but isn’t at the same time.” I worded that really badly. I sighed. “It’s about Tatz.” I felt like a traitor just saying his name to them. “I just want to say that for the record this goes against all my beliefs and my loyalty to the club.” I pointed at them. I did not want anyone thinking I was a club traitor.

Tyson frowned but by Reaper’s expression he realized I was about to share something that was for the Deadly Dozen’s ears only.

“Tatz is pushing a move to end the brotherhood peace.” I hated myself for saying it—God, it was like I’d stabbed Cyrus in the back. My eyes went to Reaper. “He is using your disappearance as an excuse to say that you don’t respect them. We all know he knows the real reason why you aren’t at the club right now.” I thought I had to get that out there. “Regardless, they are voting this weekend on whether to end the peace.”

We all knew two biker clubs not at peace didn’t fit in any town together, no matter how big that town was.

“So I suggest, Reaper, that you put in some face time with Cyrus. He has a level of respect for you. But with Brad’s lack of effort in last week’s meeting and Tatz’s words of you not respecting the club—well, those are the two reasons he’s letting Tatz call a vote on the brotherhood move.”

Now I wished that was all I had to say on the subject but it wasn’t. I may have told them what the club’s view was but now it was time to share with them why Tatz was acting like this.

“Tatz obviously saw what you did to Hannah. He had a rough upbringing. He would be thinking that what you did to Hannah was normal and happens regularly.” I saw Reaper’s mouth go to open. So I was quick to add. “We all know it’s not. Hannah pushed you on purpose and you snapped. It was her fault, too, but Tatz doesn’t know that and I didn’t know Tatz had this angle on his reason to end the brotherhood.”

Now that I did, I could tell Tatz that what he had seen wasn’t normal behavior. I let the silence fall between the three of us. Reaper’s expression was unreadable.

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