Page 47 of Keg's Revelation

My lips twitched, and I noticed Hawk’s did, too. And Charlie, being Charlie, went with the flow.

“Girl, tell me about it. I think arrogance is a prerequisite to becoming a member of the club. You’d think I would be used to it, but no, one of them says or does something and bam, I’m shocked.” Hawk and I watched as Charlie put her arm through Raven’s and started leading her away. “Come on, I’m starved, and the spread of food is in the kitchen. It’s where we’ll find the other women. I’m Charlie if you didn’t catch it before, and the lug I’m with is Hawk, or Kaden, whatever you want to call him. He’s the VP, vice president of Haven MC.”

I looked over at Hawk as we followed the women, listening to Charlie. “Still not referring to herself as your ol’ lady?”

Hawk chuckled. “I call her it when I really want to get under her skin. She knows she is, and she knows it is a term we use forthewoman in our life, but she swears it’s archaic and cavemanish, and that last one is her word.”

“What term does she think should be used?”

“I don’t know. And I’m not asking. I asked if she liked ball and chain better—and for a week, brother, I had to hide her damn taser and sleep with one eye open. Crazy ass woman.”

“But she’s your woman.”

“Damn straight.” He lifted his chin at the women, then added, “At least you aren’t going to have to spend your evening with introductions and who’s who, Charlie will have it all taken care of for you before the evening is over. You looking to head into ol’ lady territory with Raven? If you’re not, I’ll tell Charlie to cool it with the Introduction to Haven MC 101.”

“A little late for that,” I said as we walked into the kitchen, and Charlie started immediately introducing Raven to everyone. Thank God the kitchen was huge. At the oversized table sat my dad, Moose and Katie, Smoke and Tink, Fire and Macy, Tram, and Roach. But the ones at the table that caught me by surprise was Shock and Freak.

The two kept getting more and more social, and that started with Katie and Charlie.

I looked over at the food lined on the counter and island, buffet style, and found Pinch and Crank working their way around it, loading their plates.

“How’s baby’s momma?” Crank said and made a motion with his head in Raven’s direction.

“Good one, brother,” Pinch said and patted Crank on the back.

“Really, man.” I snorted. “Raven’s fine.”

“You could do worse,” Hawk said, then chuckled. “And you have.” The three of them laughed.

“Fuck all three of you.” I started placing food on two plates.

“You know, it’s probably good you never brought her around the club before,” Pinch said.

“Dumbass, she and I were in high school back then. And none of you were even in the club yet.”

“You were still dating her when we were all prospecting,” Crank said and leaned against the counter and started eating from his plate.

“She was sixteen whenIstarted prospecting. She was too young to be at the clubhouse or near it.”

“Brother, back then, I don’t think some of the brothers would have cared about her age or that she was yours,” Pinch said, then shrugged when I looked at him.

What Pinch said placed a new light on things for me. I’d never brought Raven to the clubhouse, not even when there were cookouts when the family and girlfriends could attend. I’d come with my dad and Sami, then go see Raven afterward.

Between the weed, booze, and other drugs some of the guys were using, they wouldn’t have given a shit about her age. Dad had kept Sami in his sights every time we were at the clubhouse. If he had to go to meet in his office with someone, he’d tell me to glue myself to her. And she’d been called princess since the day we moved there.

Raven wouldn’t have had the advantage of being the president’s daughter. They hadn’t messed with Sami because they knew Wild Bill. They would have paid with their life if they had.

They would have taken Raven as a challenge to me. The son of the president. Stone and his followers never liked me from day one. Even though I was just a kid. And as I stood there with two filled plates, I found I was thankful I hadn’t known about Ry because Raven and he would have been targets. Like Sami, I would have had no choice but to hide them away when Stone went in the wind. I wouldn’t have put it past the asshole to have taken her in his little trafficking deal with Kosnoff.

Finding I had a son and that I missed those years hurt, but how bad would it have hurt to have known him, then have to send him away or worse, he’d been hurt himself or killed as a distraction. A distraction to take Wild Bill’s focus off cleaning up Haven, and Stone would have taken any advantage he could to gain the seat of the president.

Yeah, that shit was an eye opener. I might not have known Ry existed then, but he’d been safe and away from the crap Haven had gone through. That counted as a big thing in my book and eased a little more of my hurt.

“Reed?”

“Yeah,” I automatically answered and was pulled from my thoughts to find Raven beside me.

“I could have fixed my own plate.”

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