Page 4 of Idaho

"I want something in return."

It was fascinating the way every individual muscle in my brother's shoulders could tense up one at a time like that. I watched in amusement as he slowly raised his eyes to meet mine. "What? You want my first born son?"

I chuckled. "I'm not fucking Rumpelstiltskin. What would I do with a kid?"

"Eat it, probably," he muttered.

"You really don't have a high opinion of me."

"Why should I?" he shot back. "You fuck over your family."

I winced, looking away from him. "Never going to let that go, huh?"

"No. I'm not," he growled. "What the fuck do you want from me?"

Here it was. I prepared myself for the fireworks. "I want to take you up on an old offer."

His mouth dropped open. Static and Riptide waited silently while Lockout processed. "You don't mean-"

"I do," I replied. "I want into the MC."

All the anger drained out of him. He just looked stunned, and perplexed. "Why?"

Shrugging, I leaned back in the chair. "I have my reasons."

"And as the president I have a right to know those reasons."

"Brotherhood."

"Bullshit. You don't give a fuck about family. About brotherhood."

I kept my gaze on his, steady, unblinking. "That's my answer. You offered when you first took over for me to join. You going back on that offer now?"

He looked like he wanted to say yes, but couldn't quite bring himself to do it. "No," he finally ground out. "You're not getting patched in."

"What?"

"You don't get a straight shot into the club. You can be a prospect though. The rest of my brothers will have to agree to have you join when the time comes."

"No problem."

He looked shocked. As though he'd expected me to rage and demand I be invited in immediately. Technically he was doing that by letting me prospect. "I have no problem starting at the bottom," I told him, folding my arms over my chest. "I know all about paying my dues, Brother." This was one of my many tricks in negotiations. You had to expect a certain amount of arrogance and ego from your opponent. They never expected you to be humble. Completely disarmed them.

Honestly, this would be a nice break. I usually ran everything. Taking more onto my plate right now would be defeating the purpose of scaling back at my business. This way I could just do what I was told and slowly worm my way back into my brother's life. That was all I really wanted.

"Whatever," he muttered. His eyes landed on Riptide. "You told Static to call him. You can get him set up. Get out of my office."

Static and Riptide were smiling as we left my twin's office, so I figured this was a win. It was for me, for sure. Prospecting with the club gave me the chance to hang around and hopefully, eventually, fix what I broke.

"Hey Priest," Riptide called out. "What apartments are available?"

"I have my own place," I told them.

"Everyone connected to the MC is staying here for now," Priest said as he walked up. His eyes studied me for a moment before he turned back to Riptide. "Put him in six."

"Will do. Thanks."

I followed Riptide and Static up the stairs, aware that all the men were still in the downstairs area and they were all watching me like I might steal their valuables. Hopefully they'd eventually loosen up. "Why is everyone staying here?" I asked. That wasn't consistent with the information I'd gotten on the club over the years.

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