Page 7 of Finn

Whether they’re ready to tell me or not.

It’s time.

3

Finn

“Hey brother, you doing alright?” Zane asks, sitting next to me.

I shrug, keeping my attention on the strippers on stage. It’s a good distraction from the noise in my head. “Yeah.”

“I know you don’t like talking about your private life, and we bust your balls a lot. Take it from me, don’t let that shit fester because you might take all your rage out on a prospect who doesn’t deserve it,” he says, slapping my back.

I grin, glancing over at him. I’m only newly patched into the club. When all the bad shit went down with Harper and Z, I was a prospect. I was put in charge of keeping an eye on Harper—keeping her safe. Not once, but twice I fucked that up. Zane wanted to kill me, and I don’t blame him. He had enough going on with finding Kingsley before he found us. I’ve learned a lot since then. Made mistakes I’ll never make again.

“Sometimes the prospect deserves that rage,” I say, tipping back my beer.

“You proved yourself more than once, Finn. That shit with Harper wasn’t all on you, and you know that. I was in a bad fucking place. I don’t want to see you slip into that place,” he says.

I chuckle and turn toward him. “I’m not, brother. I don’t even know what Mia and I have going, but her daddy issues aren’t going to throw me into a fit of rage. That’s her shit to figure out.”

He laughs, shaking his head. “One day, her shit will be yours. You’ll see.”

“Hey, you guys heard from Porter?” Kace asks, turning his chair around to sit down.

“No, why?” Z asks.

He plays with his lip ring as he looks between us. “Just haven’t seen him since yesterday.”

“Did you ask Riley?” I ask.

“Ask me what?” Riley pulls over a chair and sits down.

“You talk to Porter?” Z asks.

He tosses back a shot and slams the glass on the table. “Give him time. He’s dealing with a lot of shit running through his head. Not everyone wants to sit around braiding hair and sharing stories.”

“Fuck you, Riley. We’re just worried,” Kace says.

Riley nods and lights a smoke. “I know, but just give him a little time. He’s gotta clear his head. If we don’t hear from him by tomorrow, I’ll go looking.” He looks between Z and Kace. “You know damn well what it’s like to need a distraction from your thoughts and how you do it.”

Alcohol, women, and drugs. That’s what he means.

“You hear from Mia?” Riley asks me.

“Nah,” I say, looking back toward the stage.

“You think you’re gonna?” he pushes.

I squeeze the back of my neck and look at him. “I have no idea.”

He starts laughing, and I cross my arms. “Leave it to you to finally find a chick, and her dad is Porter. She’s been a part of this club before you and had no fucking idea.”

The others join in laughing, but I find no humor in the situation. He’s right. I finally find a girl that I really like and want to spend time with, and it blows up in my face. My mother used to tell me that no relationship in life was worth pursuing. She said parents abandon you, friends stab you in the back, and romance doesn’t exist. It was something I believed for a long time, considering she was right about the parents abandoning you part. This club has given me a reason to believe that friends don’t stab you in the back. They become family. They’ll have your back without question. As far as romance, I’ve seen it with members. I just never experienced that myself. So that’s still up for debate.

Before I can reply, Enzo walks over. “We need to be around the table.”

We all get up and follow Enzo. Walking into this room still gives me the chills. I’ve wanted to be a member of Shattered Souls long before I even knew what it was. It was when I saw that biker, who I now know was Axel, Zane’s father, kill a man for raping a woman. He never spoke to me, probably never even saw me, but every time I heard that bike, I’d run out of the trailer. There was no male role model for me. When Axel would drive by, I always felt that he was the kind of dad I’d feel safe with. He was the guy I wanted to be when I grew up.

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