Page 21 of Wait For Me

“How is Star fucking around with some other guy a good thing?”

“She’ll already know what that’s like. It will be out of her system, just like the bullshit you’ve been up to better be out of yours. She’s a good girl. It doesn’t matter that she was raised a club kid, she’s always been a good girl. She’s the marrying kind, Son. She’s not the kind you marry and then fuck around on.”

“I know that.”

“Yeah, I guess you already learned that lesson the hard way, huh?” She eyed my cut that still had the prospect patch on it.

“Somehow, I’m thinking being busted back to prospect wasn’t the bigger part of the lesson,” I admitted.

“Good boy, then you already know to cherish what you have when you’re able to get hold of it again.” Mom leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Go get your girl, and don’t fuck it up this time.”

Later that night, when I hit up the clubhouse Mack was the first person I ran into. “Hey man,” I called out to him.

“What’s up, Bag?”

“My mom’s good to go now. I’m ready to get back out there.”

Mack smirked and cocked his head to the side. “Get back out where?”

“Back to Star Watch.”

“No need.”

“What do you mean, no need? Is she on her way home?” I’d kill Mike if he had failed to mention that important bit of information to me.

“Not that I know of,” Mack replied, that smirk still firmly in place.

“Then why wouldn’t I get back out there?”

“Why would you want to?”

I stood there, not knowing what to say. There was no way I wanted to lay all my cards out on the line for Mack to see. The fucker would probably laugh at me. Kind of like what he was already doing.

“Let’s go to the office for a bit.”

I followed Mack to the office and took a seat when he indicated I should do so. He stood there, looking for all the world as if he was the president instead of Tripp, who was once again gone on a run. That man was gone more now than he was here. Made me wonder if he wasn’t getting ready to set up a new chapter somewhere else and that could only mean one thing. Star decided she wasn’t coming back at all.

“We’re patching you back in on Friday.”

“What? Since when? Just like that?”

Mack chuckled. “You act like you don’t want your patch back. Something I should know?”

“You told me I had to follow her for six months.”

Mack shrugged his shoulders. “You did a good job out there. Mike is doing just as good a job, only he isn’t ready to earn his full patch yet. We need you here. Tripp’s gone right now because there was more to that explosion that took out the Alabama clubhouse and several of our members.”

“I thought that was just a jealous ex?”

“We did too. For all intents and purposes, it was. That jealous ex also wears a cut though. Tripp’s dealing with the fallout and potential war since the Alabama guys decided to go off half-cocked and enact revenge in the name of the Savage Vipers without being sanctioned nationally. Now, war doesn’t seem to want to stay localized. They’re gearing up to make a problem on a national level. We’re a little off the beaten path here, but some of our other chapters are already feeling the heat.”

“Don’t you think that means Star should be better protected and not left with a prospect who hasn’t earned his colors?”

“You were just a prospect too,” Mack reminded me. The grin never slipped off his face.

“I was a member before I fucked up.”

“And you’ll be a full member again on Friday. We need you here.”

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