Page 227 of Smooth Sailing

The island of Chaos.

This was never gonna go anywhere.

This was never going to change.

This was going to be his, a part of him, a safe place, until he died.

No matter where he was.

But leaving it was going to suck too. Leaving the place, leaving the brothers behind, and he finally understood why Diana was so concerned about him moving.

It didn’t change his mind.

She was his woman.

She was his happiness.

She was his future.

But this was his sacrifice, and it was going to cut.

He shook off his thoughts and focused on what was up next.

They were meeting…for him.

They were meeting to help him exorcise his bio-father.

And he was going to tell them he was moving to Phoenix.

Hugger squared his shoulders and walked the rest of the way to the meet room.

He opened the door and saw they were all there, seated around the big table with the cutout in the middle covered in Plexiglas and filled with the first-ever Chaos flag, their insignia in the middle, their motto, the words Wind, Fire, Ride and Free surrounding it.

The only one not sitting was Hound, who never sat. He always stood, arms crossed on his chest, shoulders and the sole of his boot against the wall, the brothers’ guard dog, always on alert.

Rush was at the head of the table, and Hugger had to pause when he saw a tall stack of plastic-folder-covered-bound paper, like some kind of reports, sitting on the table beside him.

He didn’t know what those were, but considering why they were all there, that stack made him uneasy.

“Good of you to show,” Boz gave him shit for being late.

Hugger went to his chair, one that was situated between Dog and Snapper.

Only when he was seated did he flip Boz the bird.

Boz grinned.

“Right, we’re all here,” Rush said and brought down the gavel.

Hugger tensed.

This was it.

Fuck.

“We got somethin’ to talk about and we all know what it is, but business first,” Rush declared.

With that, Rush stood and started sending those plastic-folder-covered reports flying down the center of the table. Hands shot out to grab them, pass them around, until everyone had one.

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