Page 98 of The Oath We Take

I place my forehead to his chest and do my best to breathe through it, because while I understand Atom’s world is blowing up, and my father just destroyed our relationship, Hudson and I are now free to build our own lives.

“We’re leaving,” Atom says. “Figure this shit out on your own. You think I really did this, shoot me in the back on the way out of the door like the fucking coward you’re being, Butcher. You’re scared, I get it. I see it in your eyes. The club feels out of control, and you don’t know how to fix it. But it sure as shit isn’t like this. A good leader would have united us, not separated us.”

“Ember stays,” Dad says.

I look at my father. I see every version of him. The young father. The dissatisfied husband. The unfaithful biker. The lost president. And the first man to break my heart.

“Like fuck I do.”

I look up to Atom and he nods, leading me out of the club.

30

ATOM

Igrab Ember’s hand, clinging to it like a life raft to keep me above water, as I lead her out of the clubhouse.

I feel like I just got thrown from my bike. One minute, you’re riding high, and the next, you’re skimming across the asphalt while it takes your skin and consciousness.

Thoughts come thick and fast, barely staying long enough for me to process them.

“I’m sorry, Hudson,” she says quietly, and I stop abruptly, turning to face her.

“Why did you come?” I ask firmly, even as I cup her cheeks gently.

Words can’t express the pride I had in her when she burst through the door with a face like fury. And when she turned to me, I could see the question in her eyes.

Will telling them help you?

The irony is, even if I’d said no, there would be no other explanation for her arriving like one of the warrior goddesses other than to defend me.

“A gut feeling. A worry that you were on your own. That you might need my help convincing my father. That you might get hurt. I don’t know. It was death by a million worries while I waited, and suddenly, I knew I had to be here, side by side with you, together.”

Some of the raging anger in me simmers down.

“God, you’re so much more than I deserve,” I manage to say before kissing her lips like it’s the last thing I’ll ever do. Like I have to carry the memory of this with me forever. I allow my tongue to meet hers and it’s the first real, solid feeling I’ve felt since I left the house an hour ago. “I really do love you, Em.”

Her eyes go wide, shining with tears. “I’ll never get used to you saying that to me.”

I nod. “Please try. Because I do. With every fucking bone in my body. I realized when you started telling your father that you chose me that I could finally imagine a life without everything else in it. The club. Even the ranch. But I can’t imagine another moment of my life without you in it.”

Ember takes a deep breath. “We should go home.”

I nod. “You take the truck; I’ll follow on the bike.”

“Or you could let me ride your bike and you take the truck.”

In spite of everything, I find the ability to smile. “Definitely not. Now get going.”

She starts the engine as I climb aboard my bike. But as she pulls off the property, Wraith steps out and stops me.

“I’m sorry about what happened in there,” he says.

Mixed emotions appear to be the theme of the night. “Man, I’m glad you stood for me at the end, but seriously? You allowed me to walk into a minefield. You gave me no heads-up.”

“Butcher’s wound so tight about this Bratva shit. How they keep beating us at every turn. Didn’t think he was going to completely lose his mind.”

“But when you did realize? When he picked up the phone and yelled at me to get there? You didn’t think, ‘Fuck, I need to rein Butcher in…?’ To point out how insane he was? Or, shit, think to warn me?”

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