Page 24 of Blood Revealed

Half hour after that, we’re quiet, surrounding the Riot from all sides.

Guns drawn; we attack.

5.

Hannah

Directly after Hannah and Blood’s call…

There’s so much to catch my girls up on, mainly the fact that I’m now officially Blood’s old lady and he’s taking our relationship “hyperdrive,” whatever that means. I’m scared and excited at the same time to find out.

I find myself sayingI love youto the lunkhead whenever I talk to him now. I spent seven years fighting that emotion back, but now that the floodgates have opened, there appears to be no closing them again.

It’s my night off from the club and the men are away. They’ve brought the women who live in town up to stay at the compound, but for now, it’s business as usual. I’ve lived around bikers, the good ones and the bad ones, my entire life. I’m not sure ifbusiness as usualis to not freak us out or because there’s really nothing to worry about. I trust Blood. And I can’t let fear control my life.

I pick up my phone to call Elise at work. “Hey, girl,” she answers. “What’s up?”

“I was thinking we could go out for dinner and drinks after you all get off from work.”

“Ooh, a girls’ night out? I’m so down with that. Who you want joining us?”

“Everyone,” I answer, getting more and more excited about this little excursion by the minute. “All the girls who can come. I think we all deserve a night out, and with the men gone, what’s a more perfect time?”

“Not sure what we’ll do with the babies, though.”

“Maybe Brighton will watch them,” I offer. “She hasn’t gone out since her ordeal and I doubt we’ll get her to tonight.”

“Right,” Elise says. “I’ll call Frankie and have her invite Brighton. If she wants to come, we’ll need to hire a sitter. If she doesn’t, we can ask if she’ll watch them.”

“Perfect. I’ll call my sister. She can talk to Liv.”

“After Frankie, I’ll call Maryanne and Caity.”

“All right, we got this. Let me know who’s in.”

“Will do, babe,” she says back. “Talk to you soon.”

I end the call with Elise and call my sister. “Hey, Brin, we’re planning a girls’ night out. You down?”

“I don’t know,” she says. “I’m pretty tired. I think I might just sit this one out, but I’ll pass it along to Liv.”

“Do that, but are you feeling okay?” I ask. “You’ve been tired a lot lately.”

“Yeah, about that,” she says. “Growing a baby does that to you, so I hear.”

I—what? Did my sister just say what I think she said?

“Brin, are you telling me you’re pregnant?” I kind of squeal the last word out of excitement.

“Yeah.” I can hear her smile.

“Does Hero know?”

“Oh yeah. Since the day before he left. We were just keeping it on the downlow for the time being, but I couldn’t stand you not knowing. Hey—” she says suddenly. “If you all need a sitter, I’d be glad to look after the little ones. I can do that at my place, in my comfy clothes, or I can go over to anyone’s house. Either way, I’m down with that.”

“We are so talking about this more when we’re not on the phone and I can hug you. But I’ll let the others know your offer.”

I hang up the phone and after a call from Tommy Doyle’s wife Maryanne, who’s pregnant but in the later stages and thus not quite as tired as my sister, saying she’s down to dinner, and a call from Liv saying she’s down too, I get a call back from Elise. Frankie, Scotch’s beautiful, bitchin’ woman, and Caity, the First Lady of the Lords, will be there. Not surprisingly, Brighton begged off. Since the day Crass rescued her and claimed her as his old lady, she’s never wanted to leave the compound with the exception of going to and coming home from work. But she offered to watch the kids with my sister, and they’ve become good friends since my sister has been here. We hash out where we’re heading for the evening.

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