Page 50 of A Twist of Fate

“Normally, we surprise prospects when we patch them in, but I need to set a few things straight with you first, so you, unfortunately, don’t get the element of surprise.” Merc spoke with the usual authority he did when he handled club business. Part of me was still daydreaming about my date with Gretchen last week. We had been damn near inseparable since, so you’d think I’d be dreaming about any of those other encounters, but no. That night, her riding with me, then riding me on the beach. That shit was etched firmly in my brain, and I couldn’t stop thinking of it for the life of me.

“Are you paying a damn bit of attention to what the fuck I’m saying over here?”

“Sorry,” I managed to get out and turned my focus back to the man who held my future in his hands.

He simply chuckled. “I’m guessing from the glazed look and dopey grin you’ve been sporting the past few days that things finally progressed with your woman?”

“They have,” I explained and Merc shook his head at the dopey grin that was no doubt back in place on my smug fucking face.

“Jesus, another one bites the dust, huh? Always thought the next generation would settle later than the last, and for the most part you all have, but I gotta tell you, I always imagined someone among you would wait until their late thirties at least.”

I just shrugged at him. “When you know shit’s good, why take the chance of walking away from it and not having it again?”

“That’s the damn truth. Don’t you ever forget it.”

“Don’t plan on it. What was it you needed to set straight with me?”

“Crow’s gone.”

“Know that already.”

“Smartass. Every meeting since you started prospecting, I always ask what everyone thinks of you. In the beginning, most of the older crew didn’t know what to do with you. You would have been booted out on your ass if I had dared to even think of a vote back then. Lately, the only hold out against you was Crow. The rest were all willing to vote in your favor. You know if it’s not unanimous, you don’t stick around.” I nodded my head in agreement. I had read the bylaws. The Aces High MC had some pretty stringent rules around prospects and how one became a brother. A unanimous vote among the active, voting brothers in the club at the time the vote is called is one of those necessary things.

“Well, I couldn’t call an official vote until he was gone, but we managed to get it done this morning. You were voted in as a brother.” He took a moment to allow me to digest that.

“Shit!” I scrubbed my hand over my heart a few times, as if the gesture would make that news sink in deeper somehow. “I honestly never thought it would happen.”

“Yeah, well, that makes two of us. Now, I know you won’t be a prospect anymore, so the dynamics you’re dealing with are going to change. The relationship you have with each of the brothers in this club will shift to something different too. I need you to not let that shift affect what we’re trying to find out here. You’re patching in as a brother, but I still need your help with cleaning house.”

“You think it was more than just Crow?”

“I know that fucker never works without backup. The fact that he recruited a club whore to do his dirty work don’t sit well either because he has a shit opinion of women. Something isn’t right here. I just haven’t been able to put it all together. Need you to keep your eyes open and your ears to the ground.”

“That will never change,” I informed him as I stood.

“Good, well, in that case, you need to be back here by seven. Shit’s going to be set up, and you’re officially going to get patched in. Bring your woman, and if you have a property patch to put on her back, bring that too. We’ll make it one big celebration.”

Telling Gretchen that I was going to be a regular member of Aces High was not something I was looking forward to. She already accepted the prospecting, but somewhere in the back of her mind, I honestly think she was hoping that was where it would end. Hell, I thought that it would end there too. Then I got to know the men of the club. Merc took me in and gave me a purpose beyond slinging ink. Deck had become a good friend too, and along with him came his Army buddy, Joker. They were starting to feel a bit like new pieces to my family. I wasn’t sure I’d be ready to let it go even if I had cracked the shit wide open and found who was really behind what happened to T-Bone.

I couldn’t dwell on it now though, I had to get to Gretchen and let her know about the celebration tonight with me patching in, and the fact that I needed her to wear my property patch when that happened.

It didn’t take long for me to get to her apartment. I was zoned out the whole way thinking about all the ways this could possibly go down. “Hey, what are you doing here?”

Gretchen was standing on the sidewalk when I pulled up. I tipped my head to the side and took her in. She was in another pastel colored skirt and top combo with her hair pulled up in a messy knot on her head. Little wisps of white blond hairs floated down around her face and blew around slightly in the breeze. It was nice to see her out of all the black she had taken to wearing for so long. Unfortunately, the collar she had been wearing was still part of her daily wardrobe. The fact that I’d seen her naked a few times now clued me into the reason she wore the damn thing so religiously. She had a pretty gnarly scar on her neck from when she went down on the bike. It was something that might be able to be fixed by a decent surgeon, or inked over by a talented artist. I just happened to know one who could work wonders with scar tissue too. Zeke had been training me to do it, but he was the best. It was something I had been meaning to talk to Gretchen about, but had put on the back burner because I didn’t want her to slide backwards again with her grief and processing everything.

“I had something to talk to you about,” I told her as I got off the bike and grabbed one of the two bags she had been carrying. “You go shopping?”

“I just went to pick some stuff up to make for dinner.”

“Ah, do you think it’ll keep for tomorrow?”

“Considering I just bought everything fresh, yeah.” Gretchen eyed me skeptically then. “What’s going on? You look really nervous.”

“That’s because I am. Something happened today that I need to tell you about, and if I’m being honest, I’m not sure how you’ll react.”

“Let’s get this stuff upstairs first then.” We did just that. I followed her up the stairs and helped put her groceries away before we sat down on the couch that took up the only living room space of the tiny apartment.

“There’s a party tonight at the clubhouse,” I started.

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