We’d been playing at the barbeques on and off since we were kids, and for the past few years had started out our tried-and-true set with the same song. It was a tribute of sorts, and it didn’t matter how many times we played it, all the women of the club stopped whatever they were doing and stood still, watching us. “I Will Follow You into the Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie wasn’t really the older generation’s style, but when Trix had sung it exactly a year after the shooting that had killed my little brother, great-grandmother, the Aces’ president, Slider, and his wife, Vera, everyone had stopped and stared. A song about following your spouse when they died, even if heaven and hell wouldn’t take them—well, that resonated with the rowdy bikers and their old ladies. It was also extremely fitting for our fallen president and his wife.
I glanced at my mom and met her eyes as Trix sang, and I couldn’t help but nod when she mouthed ‘thank you.’ Yeah, I’d do anything for that woman and she knew it. Thank God. She hadn’t talked to me for weeks after I’d gone off on her the year before, but she’d eventually forgiven me.
As soon as the first song was over, we fell into a familiar pattern of songs that rarely changed. Leo sang most of them and Trix had a couple, too, but I kept my mouth clenched shut. I wasn’t singing, I didn’t care what kind of puppy dog eyes my mother gave me. I was fucking twenty-three years old, goddamnit. I’d been to prison. I wore an Aces cut. I made my own damn decisions. Just for good measure, I didn’t look her way again.
We knew the songs, knew that everyone liked them, and knew we could get our asses off the stage when we hit the end of our short list. So I was surprised as fuck when a few songs in, Leo completely stopped drumming and singing—well, yelling. We didn’t have any mics or anything, so he had to sing pretty loud.
My hands went still as I glanced over my shoulder at him. He was staring emotionlessly off to the side of the clubhouse, and when I followed his line of sight, I cursed under my breath.
Fucking Cecilia.
She’d just shown up in a barely decent top that I sure as fuck didn’t want to see on my little cousin, and was chatting with a prospect. She knew that shit would piss Leo off. I had no clue what was going on with them, but they’d been dancing around each other, fighting and making up for the past few years.
Trix stopped when she realized we were no longer playing, and she turned abruptly to her brother.
It only took seconds for both of us to stop playing, but that must have been what Leo was looking for, because as soon as we were silent, he started yelling/singing again.
“La, La, Lalala,” he sang, a nasty smile on his face as he started drumming.
Oh, shit. The familiar Offspring song made me groan and I immediately looked at Cam, who was standing near Trix’s side of the stage with their sons playing in the grass at his feet.
He was livid at Leo’s choice of music. It was a good song, but fuck, “Self Esteem” was about a chick that kept fucking around on her man and he just kept taking her back.
And Leo was staring right at Cecilia while he sang it.
Trix looked at her feet, then glanced my way, shrugging her shoulders as she started to play. She wasn’t about to leave her brother hanging, even if he was making a complete jackass out of himself. My fingers hit the notes on my bass without thought and I shrugged back as I joined in.
I watched the crowd as a few of the guys started laughing, but my dad, Uncle Casper and Dragon were not amused.
They were even less amused when my little sister, Rose, led our cousin Lily onto the grass directly in front of the stage. The two had been practically inseparable since they were born just six months apart, so it wasn’t surprising to see them together. What was surprising was the fact that they must not have felt the tension that filled the field we were standing in. As they came to a stop, Lily’s head was nodding along with the beat, her thin, fourteen-year-old shoulders moving slightly while Rose stood still next to her.
Then my baby cousin surprised the fuck out of me when she started rocking. Hard.
I couldn’t help but grin when Lily suddenly let go of Rose and threw up devil horns, her hair flying all over the place as she danced. She was really fucking moving, jumping and whipping her hair around, and most of the crowd around us stopped to stare. They weren’t being rude—most had smiles on their faces, but they were definitely staring.