Page 67 of Dravin

“But that… I meant right now.”

“It’s yours, Dominic. I had the club restore it foryou. It wouldn’t be right for me to keep it. This was your family’s dream. It belonged to them. It’s right where it belongs. This is home.”

“No!” He shakes his head but studies the bike and says more softly and far less forcefully. “No. Why would you do that? You don’t even know me. And why would they?”

“We’ve all been through hard shit, some of us more than others. Pain in every form you can imagine. Some of us have been broken. Some of us still are. The thing that unites the club isn’t truly just a love for bikes. It’s brotherhood. It’s finding your family and knowing you can be who you are, even if that’s ugly and fucked up. It’s finding goodness, acceptance, and even love.The love of a brother who has your back no matter what life decides to beat you with.”

Or the love of a good woman.

“You’re not a member, though.”

“Don’t have to be to know that. This place isn’t like any other on earth. I can say that for certainty. It’s a family. I’ve been here less than a month and it’s already made me want to be a part of it. I had that once and never thought it would come around again. It’s different. This is based on peace, not necessity.”

“For some, it’s no doubt necessity.”

“Yes. I suppose so.”

Dominic tries to give me the key. “I can’t accept this.”

I step up, refusing to take it. “You can. Please. She was literally made for you. Even if you never ride her, this is where she came from, and she needed to come back to it.”

“Jesus Christ, Dravin,” Dominic curses. This time, he swipes his hand over his face roughly and then yanks his sweater up to dry what his hand couldn’t reach. “I don’t want your pity, your club, your business, or your bike.”

“I don’t doubt it. So, let me clarify. It’s not pity. It’s an offer of brotherhood. You don’t have to be a part of the club to accept my friendship. I know what it’s like to live isolated. I chose it, but some of us don’t. I’ve known brotherhood and I’ve known loss. There were days I thought I couldn’t pick myself up and put myself back together and there were days when I wondered why I even bothered. We truly love your work, and I hope you’ll change your mind about accepting our business.You might not want the bike, but it’s yours anyway.” I dig the paperwork for the bike out of my back pocket. I still have ways to go about finding just about anything I need to know about someone. It’s made out in his name. “It always was.”

“Fucking Christ,” he hisses, sniffling loudly and clearing his throat roughly. “I haven’t cried for years. Not when that stone fell on me and not after, so thanks a lot for this, you bastard.”

“No problem.” I throw back my head and laugh.

Eventually, Dominic joins in. His hand curls around the key and the paperwork, crushing the immaculate pages.

“If you want some fucking sculptures, I guess I could sell you a few of my choosing.”

“Yeah? You’d do that?”

He snorts, rolling his eyes. “You’ve twisted my arm.” He motions to the one that he can’t use properly. “Literally.”

It takes a damn big man with a huge spirit to be able to poke fun at himself or laugh about something so horrible. Sure, some can when it’s all past them, but this isn’t the past for Dominic. It’s still very much the present.

I wasn’t wrong about him. He’s the kind of person that the world should have kicked and ground into dust, but he’s still here, still fighting, still wearing his golden fucking heart on his sleeve and it’s motherfuckinginspiring.

“I hope that if I stick around Hart, you’ll let me come hang out sometimes. Here, or if you want to come, we’d be happy to have you visit the clubhouse.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

His face is all,not on your life,but he swallows hard and chokes out a laugh that turns into a shaky sigh. “I have a feeling that you won’t take no for an answer.”

“I’m not very good at that, am I?”

“You fucking suck at it.”

Of anything in the world, it’s not a bad thing to be terrible at.

Chapter 14

Kael

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