Page 41 of Smooth As Whiskey

And with that, she let go of Pipe’s hand and then shoulder-checked me and walked away.

I looked at Pipe, hope surely shone in my eyes, but he held his hand up, “I’m not going to risk pissing my woman off. I don’t sleep unless she’s next to me. Sorry, brother.”

Just then, Asher came out of his office, leveled a glare on me, and snapped, “Church.”

The moment the doors closed behind us in church, I slammed my hands on the table in church and growled, “You’re my fucking brothers. Why the fuck are you taking her wishes over mine?”

Rome slammed his fist down and stood, pointed his finger at me, and said, “I’m tired of your shit, Irish. You’ve been told. You’ve been warned. Fucking hell, time and time a-fucking-gain that you were fucking up with that woman, but you didn’t listen. You didn’t give a flying fuck. I hope Sutton meets someone wherever she is that realizes that the moment, the very fucking moment he gets a look into the soft spot she has, that he knows he’s just been given the world. And you had that. Just with a crook of your finger. You make me sick.”

And with that, Rome stormed out of church. All without a backward glance.

As I took in the faces of my so-called brothers, I realized something.

They all felt the same fucking way.

Fuck.

Me.

Then the very last person I expected to say anything stood and then said, “You can go fuck yourself.”

I watched as Coal stood and walked out as well.

And as he did so, everyone else stood too and walked out.

Asher sighed and then banged the gavel on the table.

“Irish, I warned you. Time and time again. What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I fucking wasn’t, Pres. But goddamn.”

A retort formed on the tip of my tongue along the lines of old habits that are hard to break, but I swallowed them down.

She didn’t deserve that.

She didn’t deserve to have a man who thought like that.

And when I found out she was gone, I had made a vow to be the man that deserved her.

And I would be that man. Come hell or high fucking water.

He sighed then, “Not sure I should tell you this, but if I was you, I’d want to know. Word got to me that a brother from another charter found out she was rid of you. He’s making his claim on her. Soon.”

“Then tell me, Asher. Tell me where she is so I can go get her and bring her home.”

“You won’t be able to bring that woman back here. Think about it, Irish. Think. She was raped by someone she should have been able to trust. And if that wasn’t enough, the very first person she should have been able to count on, always, was the one who sat there and watched it all fucking happen.”

I sat down in my chair then and dropped my head to my hands.

But Asher didn’t let up, and if he had, I wouldn’t have respected him as I should, “Then she gives her heart to you on a silver fucking platter, and you don’t see it. Even though I know she’s told you. She’s told you so much that she loves you, it’s a wonder those three words haven’t lost all meaning for her. But then to watch her with Maisie and I know they haven’t. She’sshown you, Irish, until she’s been blue in the face. You want to know where she is, then fucking earn it.”

I didn’t know how. I would go about that.

What the fuck could I do to earn the information he held close to his chest.

Hell, the information that all my brothers held close to their chests, as well as their women.

I wouldn’t know until almost two weeks later what I had to do.

---