Tensions were high in church. They had been since Cash lost his old lady and then lost himself inside a bottle of Jack. He wasn’t dealing well; we all knew it.
It was understandable. He lost not only the woman he loved, but the idea that she loved him above all else. Loyalty was imperative in an old lady, and Rachel didn’t choose Cash as her next of kin. She chose Ryder over her old man to make the final decisions for her life.
Some of the brothers thought it would have been too hard for Cash to make the decision to let her go, and judging by the way he handled it when Ryder signed off on donating her organs, maybe they were right.
But fuck that.
What Rachel did was a kick in the goddamn nuts.
It broke him.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved Rachel like the rest of the club. She was our first sister, and she meant a lot to everyone, but what she did was a betrayal.
She chose someone else.
The most important decision to be made, and she gave it to another man.
I would have understood had she chosen Beck. They were best friends. They grew up together. They were close.
Just not as close as Ryder and Rachel.
Ryder insisted that their relationship was platonic. They were siblings. Not by blood, but by choice. When Blade died and Beck moved away, they only had each other.
It made sense. No one understood chosen family more than a fucking biker who had no one until he joined an MC.
But it just fucking sucked.
My mind went to Lyssa. She made me think about taking on an old lady. She was so fucking perfect. But like I said, loyalty was imperative, and she fucking ran.
Here I was almost two months later, and I still couldn’t get her out from under my skin. I had lost interest in the club girls. Tiffany and Jade were great. Together, they were fucking fantastic.
But I didn’t want them.
I had no idea who the woman was, where she lived, or how to find her. I’d even broken down and asked Nav for help, but the seedy fucking bar had no cameras. Without a picture, he couldn’t run facial recognition.
She was gone forever.
Rubbing my hands over my face, I realized I had to let her go. I couldn’t keep dwelling on a woman I would never see again.
“Ok, Gunner, you’re up.”
We all focused our attention on Gunner.
As SAA, he took it upon himself to make sure everyone was good. He might be a cranky son of a bitch, but he took his role seriously.
“I met a woman.”
Staring at my brother, I didn’t know where the fuck he was going with his statement. We didn’t just announce when we met a woman. Good God, if we did, we’d never get anything done. Sure, we talked about the women we fucked. But if church consisted of us telling each other every time we fucked someone, we’d never leave the goddamn room.
“Shit.”
“Batten down the hatches.”
“Better prepare Dec, King. Shit’s about to hit the fan again.”
“Shut the fuck up, all of you. She isn’t for me. She’s for you fuckers,” Gunner announced.
“I have a woman,” Blade called out.