Shannon was sitting on one of the couches, a sleeping twin in each arm. Adrienne went and sat at her side.
“I’m confused. I’m missing something. What happened?”
“Badge didn’t talk to you?”
Adrienne blushed. “No. We, um…we didn’t talk much last night.” Except for getting engaged, that was.
Shannon smiled. “I heard that part.”
“Oh, God.” Adrienne put her face in her hands.
“Don’t be embarrassed, Ade. I think there was a lot of that going around last night. All that worry and tension. All that loss we almost had. You need to be close after that.”
“Something bad happened, didn’t it? Even though they came home okay.”
Shannon sighed. “There’s a thing with the Horde. The men decide what their women can know. Nobody interferes in that. So there’s not much I can tell you. I think Badger will fill you in, though. It’s not something he can keep from you for long.”
“I don’t think he’d mind you telling me. I mean, you’re my mother.”
Shannon turned sharply at that, her brow furrowed. Blushing again, Adrienne dropped her eyes. “I mean, the position’s open. But I should—never mind.”
“No, Ade. I’d love for you to think of me like that. If you want. But I don’t want to step on your memory of your mom.”
“You’re not. You couldn’t. But she’s not with me, and I lost everything she was a part of. I feel like I need one, you know? I don’t think I could call you anything but Shannon—that’s just how I know you. But…I’d like it if…if it’s okay.”
Shannon’s eyes sparkled. “Yes. It’s wonderful. But, honey, I can’t tell you club business, even so. It disrespects Badge. Do you understand?”
She did. She understood. As curious as she was, in a way it made her love this family even more.
But she and Badger were going to need to talk.
~oOo~
The Horde had been locked in the Keep for about thirty minutes when the doors slammed open and Isaac stalked out, pulling his kutte and shirt off as he stormed down the side hallway. Show followed right after him, doing the same thing, his face turbulent with anger.
“Oh, Lord. Oh, no. Here—take Joey, would you?”
She did, and her sleeping baby brother stirred and resettled in her arms. “What’s going on? Can I ask that?”
“If you’d like to see how these men settle their disagreements, follow me.” Shannon stood, and Adrienne followed. Everybody was going down the side hallway. They turned at the end and went into a room through two double doors and some plastic strip sheeting.
There was a boxing ring in the room. Isaac and Show had both stripped bare to the waist and were taking off their boots and socks.
“They’re going to fight?”
Shannon rolled her eyes. Badger came up to them then, and he put his hand on Adrienne’s lower back, a possessive gesture she loved a lot. “You sure you want to see this, babe? It gets pretty rough.”
“Yeah. I’m okay.”
“Alright. I have to go over there. If you need to leave, do. It’s okay.” He kissed her cheek and trotted over to the ring.
Isaac threw his rings to the floor. Show did the same and dropped his beanie, too, staring back at Isaac. And then they both climbed into the ring. Len called Isaac to one corner; Badger called Show to the opposite. Len and Isaac were talking with evident heat; then Len swung himself into the ring and went to the center, his eyes on Show. “No rounds. Fight to knockout or tap out.” Show stared and then nodded curtly. Len went back to Isaac’s corner.
Shannon sighed. “God. They must be really pissed.”
“What does that all mean?”
“They’re going to fight until one of them can’t anymore. Basically, they’re about to beat the crap out of each other.”
“Without gloves or anything? But they’re old! And Isaac’s all bruised already.” He was—he had several large, dark bruises on his belly and ribs.
“Yes. They’re being testosterone-addled idiots. But there’s no one here who could tell them that and make them hear it.” She looked around. “Kellen—where’s Lilli?”
“In Isaac’s office. I told her, but I don’t think she’s coming out.”
Shannon nodded. “Okay. Thanks.”
A bell sounded, and Isaac and Show met each other in the middle of the ring.
They were impressive specimens of maleness, really. As much as she loved Badger’s lean muscularity, there was something dazzling about the two giant men in the ring now. Adrienne knew what it was like to be hugged by Show, entirely surrounded and sheltered by his huge body. Isaac was even bigger. And they were both massed with sculpted muscle—Show’s chest hairless except for a line up his rock-hard belly, Isaac’s covered lightly with dark hair that narrowed to a similar trail. Isaac had the full complement of ridges over his torso—six-pack, scallops on his sides, everything. Muscles rippled over Show’s torso, too, though his body was a bit meatier and thus his contours were fewer. Their arms bulged enormously. As they moved—dancing around each other, throwing punches, dodging and connecting—their muscles flexed and rolled. The sweat of their exertions began to make them glisten, and then they looked almost unreal.
Adrienne realized she was standing there with her mouth open. It was probably deeply weird to be staring in such amazement at two men old enough to be her father, especially when one of them basically was, but they were amazing.
They weren’t all beautiful, though. Show’s back, as she’d known, was a shock of scars. And Isaac’s, too. While Show’s looked almost intentionally organized into a crude pattern, though, Isaac’s were more random—uneven blotches of dark, raised skin, and pale, straight lines that were obviously left from surgeries. They had scars on their fronts and their arms, and their faces, too. Kind of everywhere. And lots of ink.
Once Adrienne had processed the magnificence of their bodies, she understood how serious the fight really was—those rolling, flexing muscles were impelling fists forward and doing real damage. There was blood on the mat. The crunching sound of fist meeting unyielding flesh and the animal echo of their grunts were louder than she’d realized.
“Are they really trying to hurt each other? I don’t understand.”
“I don’t, either.” Shannon’s answer was tight with worry. “This is bad. I wish Len would stop it.”
But Len didn’t. Nobody did. Show got Isaac on the ropes twice. Isaac brought Show to his knees once. But they kept fighting. After several minutes, they were leaving huge, bloody footprints and smears on the mat; they’d stepped through the widening spatters of blood. The air was growing dense with the smell of sweat, blood, and testosterone. But they kept going.
Finally, Isaac came off his third time on the ropes with a heavy punch to Show’s belly and another under his chin that rocked his head back, and Show went down with a thud that shook the concrete room. Isaac leaned over him and roared.
Shannon gasped and took a couple of steps forward. Adrienne followed. Show did not get up. Len swung into the ring and went to his knees at Show’s head. He counted to ten.
Isaac dropped immediately to his knees. And then he fell over completely. Both men lay motionless. Len went to Isaac. Badger went to Show.
The room was silent except for Len and Badger’s exhortations for the fighters to get up. Len looked up. “Tash! Tash! Where’s Tasha?!”
Adrienne knew—or at least knew part of it—so she stepped up to the ropes, still cradling Joey in her arms. “She left when you went into the Keep.”
“Alone?”
“Yeah.”
“Fuck!” He dug into his pocket and came up empty. “I need my phone!” Double A ran out to toward the Hall.
Then Cory was pulling on Adrienne’s arm. Adrienne turned and saw that she had Millie. Where was Shannon? Adrienne looked around and saw her climbing into the ring.
Cory pulled again. “Come on back to the Hall with me, Adrienne. Let’s make some
way. We don’t all need to stand around and watch.”
“But they’re okay, right? They didn’t just kill each other while we watched, right? Right?”
“Come on. I’m sure they’re okay, but we need to get out of the way.” When she pulled again, Adrienne came. As they approached the double doors, Lilli came through, her expression drawn and even angrier. Kellen was right behind her, looking freaked out.
~oOo~
Isaac and Show were okay. Swollen, badly beaten, and concussed, but okay. Once Tasha got back to the clubhouse and tended to them, putting them both immediately to bed, the clubhouse cleared out. Badger left to trade his Harley for his truck so he could take both Adrienne and Hector home. They first went with him to the B&B while he did some work.
While he worked, Adrienne watched Hector and Weasel get acquainted. Weasel was not impressed. Hector very much was. It was cute to watch.
Then Badger drove them home. They showered and got in bed, where they stayed, except to tend to Hector’s biological needs and their own, for the rest of the day.
It was dusk, and they were eating popcorn in bed, naked, watching a DVD on Adrienne’s new laptop. Despite its rocky start, once it was clear that Isaac and Show hadn’t beaten each other to death, it had been a good day.
But they had yet to talk.
Adrienne paused the movie and closed her laptop. Turning to face him, she sat cross-legged. “Badge. Tell me what’s going on. Why did Isaac and Show do that? Aren’t they best friends? Why was Lilli so mad? And Tasha, too. What’s going on?”
Badger dumped back into the bowl the handful of popcorn he’d just grabbed and set the bowl aside.
“I haven’t figured out where the line should be with what you know, babe. I want you safe, and I don’t want you too freaked out.”
“Fuck that.”
His eyes got huge. “What?”
“I’m not a hothouse flower. I’m in this life. I want to know. I want to know how to shoot and how to protect myself. I want to know exactly what it is I’m worried about when you go away. That’s how you keep me safe. By not keeping me ignorant. And if I freak out, I’ll get over it.”
He smiled then, and it was full of love and pride. “Okay. Okay. I told you we’re going to fight the guys that hurt us last year. It’s a drug cartel.”
She couldn’t catch the gasp before it got away, but she didn’t react otherwise. She held his eyes and waited for him to go on.
“Turns out the Feds have a guy inside the cartel. He’s going to help us…take care of the man who ordered Hav’s death and what happened to us all that day.”
“’Take care.’ You mean…” She couldn’t say it out loud.
Badger didn’t answer, but he cocked his head and lifted his brows, and she understood that, yes, he meant ‘kill.’
“He’s been in the cartel for a long time. He has the whole club on charges that could put as all in prison until we die.”
“Badge, God. No!”
“Easy. He offered us a deal. It’s involved, and I’m not gonna give you those details. But it boils down this way: if we come out of the fight we’re heading to, he’s going to help us collect on that debt, and he’s not gonna take the club down. His price is Isaac and Len are going inside. For a pretty long time. Six years, at least.”
“Oh, my God. Oh, my God. But—Gia and Bo! I don’t—oh my God!”
“Yeah. It sucks. But what Isaac had planned before this deal was sure to get him killed. This is the best plan. It gets us free of the cartel, it gets justice for Hav, and it gets Isaac and Len home someday.”
“This is the kind of crap you’ve had stuffed in your head all this time? Badge, you have to tell me—for you, you have to tell me. You should be able to unload that.”
“You’ve already been through so much because of me, Adrienne. I lean hard on you already.”
“We lean on each other. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to go?”
He picked up her hand. “Yeah. I guess it is. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” She lifted his hand and kissed it. “Is all this why Isaac and Show fought like that? I still don’t understand that.”
“Isaac is giving up the gavel. It makes sense—he’ll be locked up for years, and he won’t be close enough to lead from inside. But Show threatened to turn in his patch when Isaac and Len go in. Leave the club. Isaac winning that fight means that Show stays and takes the gavel officially. He doesn’t want it, but he’s the right one to take it.”
“They fought so hard over that? I don’t understand.”
“Isaac and Show are a team. They just are. They finish each other’s sentences. I don’t think Show knows what the Horde is without Isaac. I don’t think any of us do. When he was hurt before, we just sort of spun our wheels until he came back. But Isaac thinks the Horde will fold if Show’s gone, too, and he’s right.”
“Wait—is Isaac leaving the club?”
“No. He’ll die Horde. Len, too. They bleed Horde blood. But they’ll be away so long, the club will have to go on without them until they come back. We’ll have to figure it out.”
Adrienne started to cry. She was sobbing before she recognized that her sadness was so acute it required tears.
Badger pulled her close, burying his face in her hair. “Fuck, babe. I’m sorry. I knew I shouldn’t have told you so much. I’m sorry. Please.”
She shook her head and sniffed, getting control of her rampaging emotions. “No—I’m glad you told me. I’m just so sad for everyone. It’s so sad.” The tenuous hold she’d claimed slipped, and she wept again.
This time, Badger just held her, rocking her slowly, his lips on her temple.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Badger held Adrienne as close to his body as he could, tucked into his kutte, her feet off the ground, his face snug in the crook of her shoulder. He breathed her in, feeling the gossamer floss of her hair caress his face. She had him in the same grip, with her slender arms fastened around his neck, her face tucked likewise into his shoulder.
He pursed his lips and kissed the sweet flesh of her throat. “I love you,” he murmured, letting her feel his words.
“I love you, too. You have to come home. You have to.”
He leaned back a little, so that he could see her face, her deep blue eyes rimmed with long, amber lashes, the light spray of freckles that kissed her skin. “I will. I promise. I’ll come home, and we’ll get married, and things will be better. They’ll be good. I promise.”
She nodded, her eyes going wet. When he set her feet back on the gravel lot, she grabbed the placket of his kutte in both hands and gave it a shake. “You just made me a promise. No take-backs.”
He laughed and kissed her nose. “No take-backs. I’m coming back.” She stepped into him again and laid her cheek on his chest.
Holding her to him again, Badger looked over her head at the scene around the clubhouse parking lot. The Horde had been forthcoming enough with family that they all knew the men were leaving today for big trouble. Isaac, Show, and Len were all wrapped around their women the way he was wrapped around his. He’d made Adrienne a promise, and he meant to keep it, but there was no guarantee he would. To come out of what they were about to do—even with the Feds in their corner somehow—would require a kind of luck the Horde hadn’t had in years, if ever.
They were leaving Double A, Dom, and the Prospects home to take care of the town, in case their plan blew back on their loved ones again. It made them fewer in the fight they were headed to, but they couldn’t leave their home vulnerable. There was only so much Lilli could do on her own. The old ladies were locking down with the kids again—and the puppies, too. Isaac and Show had said goodbye to their children already; they were in the clubhouse playing innocently with the pups, being watched over by club girls while the Horde said goodbye to their women.
Badger had given Adrienne the most rudimentary shooting lesson, not having time to do more. But she knew how to make a handgun fire—and how to
make sure it didn’t, unless she wanted it to. It was the best he could do, and he hoped with everything he had that she wouldn’t need to try out her scant skill while he was away.
“Okay, brothers. We need to be on the road.” Isaac stood with his arm still tight around Lilli’s shoulder. He kissed her temple, whispered something into her ear, and then stepped away from her. That was the sign for them all. Badger gave Adrienne a last, long squeeze and then lifted her chin up and kissed her, taking from her soft lips and tongue as much of their love as he could. His hand slid around her neck and down her spine to lightly brush her fresh ink. His ink. A badger pawprint, high between her shoulder blades. Still new, it was tender, and she winced subtly at his touch.
“Sorry, babe. Can’t keep my hands off it.” He spoke with his lips still on hers.
She pulled away a little and smiled up at him. “It’s okay. I love that you love it. I love it, too.”
Show’s shadow moved over them, and Badger stepped back. “I’m ready.”
Show nodded, then turned to Adrienne and cupped her cheek in his hand. “Love you, little one. You be strong. I’ll keep him safe for you.” Like Isaac, Show still bore the marks of their battle in the ring.
She wrapped her arms around his waist. “Thank you. Keep you safe, too.”
Show hugged her and kissed the top of her head. Then, looking at Badger, he nodded toward the bikes, and they headed over together.
Cory and Nolan were outside with the families. As the men headed to their bikes, they followed Isaac’s lead, each stopping to hug Havoc’s old lady and eldest son.
As the Horde rolled out of the lot, away from their home, Badger looked back to see all the women standing in a line, holding hands. Nolan was not with them.
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