Then I was running toward him, hurdling myself into his arms like I’d done a thousand times over my lifetime.
When his big arms closed around me, I felt like I was home.
“Glad to see you here, baby girl.” Silas Mackenzie was a rough and gruff biker, but he had a soft spot for his family. Especially for his girls. “How was the trip over?”
The trip over wasn’t nearly as boring as it’d once been. Especially since I’d spent the trip pressed up against a certain man’s muscular back.
“It was great,” I said. “I got to stop at my favorite Arby’s.”
He grumbled under his breath. “That place is shit.”
The place was shit, but it was still good.
“You say tomato, I say tomato.” I shrugged.
June was there beside me in the next moment, and my grandfather let me go momentarily to wrap her up in a hug, too.
“Junie,” he rumbled. “Glad to see you brought our wayward grandson home.”
Her eyes gleamed. “I’ve decided to try to do it on a more permanent basis soon.” Her eyes trailed over to me, and then to Sin. “You mind if I steal Blaise for a few seconds?”
My grandfather winked. “Sure thing. Because there’s a little shithead that’s been avoiding the hell out of me, and I see he’s penned in right now and won’t be able to do it today.”
I looked where he was looking to see him staring at Zach, who was standing next to the fence with his back to it, while his mother and father spoke with him not a few feet away.
Once we were gone, June nudged me with her shoulder. “Hey.”
I turned to look at her. “What?”
“He’s in a motorcycle club?” June asked, her brows raised to her hairline.
I followed her gaze over to Sin who had his back to me.
He had his cut on, and I could see every single detail of it.
The top rocker read ‘Souls Chapel Revenants’ and the bottom read ‘Souls Chapel, Texas.’
Then there was the rather large skull in the middle with flames surrounding it smoking a cigar with a top hat on his head.
It was really cool.
“Ummm,” I hesitated. “Yeah, he is.”
My dad and him were shoulder to shoulder.
My dad’s cut, a worn old thing that looked like it’d been put through hell and back through the years, looked downright faded compared to Sin’s very obviously newer one.
My dad’s club, the Dixie Wardens MC, had always been a lifeline for me.
But now that Sin and I were actually a thing, a sudden thought occurred to me.
My loyalties were no longer with only the Dixie Wardens.
Now my loyalties were split between two clubs. The Souls Chapel Revenants were slowly starting to mean just as much to me as a club that I’d spent my whole life being protected by.
It was a really weird feeling.
“Johnny talked about prospecting for a club down in Texas, but he can’t find the time. Not with all the work he’s doing overtime wise with the police department, and spending time at home with our kids.” She pursed her lips. “What’s it like being in a motorcycle club?”
“What isn’t it like?” I mused. “I don’t know any different, June. It’s just life for me. It’s family and home, loyalty and honor. There’s a biker code that only another biker, a biker’s old lady, or a biker’s kid would understand.”
She pursed her lips. “He’s been finding excuses not to join up. And I wonder if that’s because of me.”
“If he wants it, he’ll get it,” I told her.
“What are y’all talking about so seriously over here?” my brother asked, coming up from behind us and throwing his arm over both of our shoulders, curling his arm until it was tight around our necks and bringing us both into the curved protection of his body. “You look like you’re concocting a plan.”
“Actually,” I said when June stayed silent. “We were just talking about how you were a little bitch and making excuses as to why you couldn’t join up with a club back home.”
Johnny sighed.
“I’m split,” he admitted. “I want to be a Dixie Warden. I’ve wanted to be one for my entire life. But the one back home that’s closest, the Bear Bottom Guardians, I know it’s filled with family, too. But it’s a tough situation that I haven’t really figured out a solution for. I want to be independent like the rest of the Dixie Warden kids, but I also want that name on my back that I’ve always pictured. And since they don’t have a chapter down there…”
“We could always move back to your hometown,” June murmured. “There’s nothing stopping us.”
She had a point.
Other than I would miss them.
“We can discuss this later,” Johnny mused. “Seeing as things are about to hit the fan.”
“What?” I asked.
“If I’m not mistaken, that’s the sonogram photo of my future unborn niece or nephew over there sticking about halfway out of Sin’s pocket. And mom is zeroing in on Dad and your old man. And you know that Sin being yours isn’t going to stop her from checking out his ass,” Johnny admitted.