She would get the anger back then.
And that anger would lead to one thing.
Revenge.
I knew that feeling well.
I lived a life of it.
And if ever there was a reason for it, driving a woman to her own suicide with your evil, yeah, that was it.
He needed to be taken out.
And soon, Lenny would be ready to do it.
And me, well, I would let her.
But I would be there in the shadows, having her back.
Watching my girl do what she needed to do to be able to go on.
Yes, my.
There was no mistaking that at this point.
She was mine.
Hell, she was mine the first night I got to be inside her, she just didn't know it yet, or, more likely, was too stubborn to admit it.
And she was damn sure mine when she sat in the clubhouse and got on with my brothers.
And when she brought me French Toast Crunch and Cookie Crisp for dinner.
And when she snuggled into me at night.
When she gave me little pieces here and there of herself.
And I think even she would admit that she was mine when she learned the news of her sister... and came right to me, knowing I would be there for her, because I promised her I would, and I had made sure to keep my promises before, because she knew I would let her grieve how she needed to, but keep her going at the same time.
Because, as much as she would never want to admit this, she needed me.
She needed the comfort I could give her, the freedom she needed, but also the grip that held on at the same time.
Hell, I could even give her family, as makeshift as mine might have been, just bikers and old ladies. But no one could say we were as tight as any family. Our bond ran deep.
She would get on with them, too.
I already knew she got on with a bunch of them. But I could easily picture her and Renny throwing sarcasm back and forth. I could imagine her having deep conversations with Lazarus, pushing Reign's buttons.
As for the girls club, they would like her as well.
I already knew she and Lo and Janie got on from the gym. Alex and Lenny were cut from the same cloth, all sarcasm and attitude.
Maybe she wouldn't exactly be best friends with some of the other, softer girls like Penny and Kennedy and even Summer.
But then again, maybe they could help fill the void of softness that was left with Letha's passing. Maybe she would surprise me by clinging to that more than I would have expected.
"Yeah?" I asked, voice hushed, moving out of the doorway to Lenny's room where I had just put her down on the bed, still out cold. I didn't want to go far, but I knew better than not to pick up when Reign himself was calling.
"Know you're dealing with some shit," he said, voice understanding since he had fresh memories of Summer's grief over her father on his mind. "I just want to keep you in the loop."
"Did someone finally find something?" I asked, meaning about Adler who was just bouncing around the clubhouse in his cuffs, throwing around his snark, flirting harmlessly with the women when they happened by, clearly winning them over, for better or worse.
To be perfectly honest, I even liked the fuck.
Hell, I think we all did.
We were maybe even hoping that things came back as he said, nothing sinister in his connections.
We wouldn't hate having him as a brother.
So far, Janie and Alex had turned up almost nothing on Adler. He was a social media ghost. They said it was almost impossible to have no footprint online anymore.
But he had nothing.
They couldn't find a birth certificate or social security number, though that was likely because he wasn't originally from the States. There was no driver's license, no credit score, no nothing.
He was traceless.
In his line of work, that was not only smart, but necessary.
If people could trace you, so could the law, and then your ass was looking at twenty-to-life in a cell, pissing in front of other men, eating shitty food, and going half-crazy.
Reign would ask him directly eventually.
He could sit him down and demand the ugly details, every last one of them.
We had all had that treatment, not being allowed to play much close to the vest. He wanted to know if any of our dirt could come back and get thrown on the club.
But he liked going in knowing some shit so he could make sure you weren't trying to pull one over on him.
"We finally got in touch with Ward. He was apparently too fucking busy buying a dog to see us."
"Did you get a meeting?"
"Yeah, Cash and I went over to Hex today. Pagan and Laz came along since those two guys are close. He was shocked as shit when we said Adler had broken in."