Page 11 of April 5

"You're my family." She swallowed the heavy lump in her throat.

"You can't have too many." Mama Sue paused. "Speaking of family. Have you seen my son?"

"Of course, I've seen him. I've already made him angry at me." She wasn't ready to analyze what their encounter met that morning.

"He's never angry at you. He's mad at himself, child," said Mama Sue.

Half the time, she believed Jagger hated her for loving him. Other times, she wanted to believe he fought with her because he believed he wasn't good enough for her. She would never care what he'd done in his past or what he'd do in the future as the president of Havlin Motorcycle Club.

All she wanted to do was be with him and love him.

"He hasn't answered my call in two days. Can you pass the phone to him, honey?"

She couldn't hide the smile that erupted on her face. If she didn't know any better, she would think Mama Sue was giving her an excuse to get close to Jagger again.

"Sure. Let me go look for him." She held the phone to her ear and carried her bag with the other hand. "How's everything at home?"

"Quiet with you gone," said Mama Sue.

Katrina laughed. "I bet you like that."

"Hell, no." Mama Sue sniffed. "I miss you like crazy."

One of the bikers noticed her head toward the back of the building with her hands full and jumped to open the door. She winked, thanking him.

Once inside, she dropped her bag and blinked to adjust her vision to the darkness in the room. The clubhouse had no windows and relied on overhead fluorescent lights on the high ceilings.

The moment her eyes adapted, she spotted Jagger at the head of the table, concentrating on a stack of papers. Beside him, sitting to his left was her dad.

"Uh oh," she murmured.

"What's wrong?"

"Dad's with Jagger." She lowered her voice. "Get ready to hear us fight."

"If he starts anything, tell him he'll have to face me when he gets home," said Mama Sue.

She smiled at the warning. Mama Sue was barely a hundred and twenty pounds and only five foot four inches tall. Nothing was intimidating about her, except she was married to the past president of Havoc-Lincoln Motorcycle Club and knew every in and out of the club. Katrina had seen grown men run away from Mama Sue.

"Okay, I'm going over." She made it to the end of the table before her dad spotted her.

Ruger stood and pointed toward the door. "Get out."

"I can't leave." She held out her arm with the phone in her hand. "Mama Sue wants to talk to Jagger."

Ruger's mouth tightened. Even he was afraid of getting on Mama Sue's bad side.

She walked around the table and handed the phone to Jagger. "Keep the phone. I'm going to take a shower. I'll find you when I'm done and pick it up from you."

Jagger ran his hand down his beard and whispered, "Doors unlocked. Use mine. You'll have privacy."

She cocked her eyebrow, surprised he'd offer with her dad sitting eight feet away.

"It's the only one you're guaranteed not to have a member walk in on you," he said loud enough for her dad to hear.

Not wanting to start a war between the two men, she walked away to gather her bag and then slipped into the hallway.

Her dad wouldn't check up on her to see where she went because he had Jagger in sight. She slipped into Jagger's room.

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