by Rose, Lila
My man loved to control.
But he had my heart at hand. He knew I’d be more than happy to have my family close, and I was.
Also, it was not only my parents living in their house, they had adopted Josie. Who was still one mixed up girl, but who could blame her after living with David for three years, and what he’d put her through?
I told her I’d help her along the way to recovery, because we were sisters now. That was the first time I’d seen her smile. Not only has she attached herself to my parents and me, but she’s formed a bond with Maya, Cody, and Billy, the cookie-lover biker, one of Talon’s brothers, who’d been her savior by taking her to the hospital.
Not long after I was released from the hospital did Talon and I have our first argument, and it was regarding Pick. Mattie and Julian had told me what Pick had done for them. Talon wanted Pick gone from the brotherhood. Mattie, Julian, and I told him to give him another chance…eventually, we’d worn him down, and he said he’d consider it. Meaning Pick was still in the brotherhood, and in the end, it was Talon and Mattie who helped Pick cut the ties his mother had on him.
I used to wake every night while I was in the hospital, but that stopped as soon as I had Talon sleeping next to me.
I’d always have scars, but they were something that made me stronger. To prove that I was over what had happened, and that I was stronger for it, I did something that scared me. I got my first tattoo to cover the smallest scar—which hurt like a mother-fruiter. And that was when Talon and I had our second argument. He didn’t want my body inked. That was when I yelled, ‘What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.’ His reply was, ‘What the fuck does that mean?” I flashed him my tattoo on my lower stomach, a picture of a hawk, and underneath was written ‘You flew into my life, but I’ve got my claws into yours.”
The next day, he’d come back with his own tattoo, a picture of a kitten digging its claws into his skin.
“Jesus, kitten. I can hear your brain churning again. Get to sleep. Everything will be good.”
I smiled into the dark room and knew that everything would be good, because I had my badass-biker beside me.