Page 52 of Saint's Sinner

“Uggggg,” Night groaned, while Sinn finally started dressing in the clothes Saint dumped in his lap. “At this point, I almost hope this present is ticking.”

“Hate to break it to ya, but it would never make it past the gate if it was,” Saint said.

Less than three minutes later they were heading down to the club, Night moving a bit stiffly but far steadier than when he’d arrived back from visiting his family. Was good to feel and as much as Sinn wished they could lock themselves in Saint’s bedroom for at least another week, he missed the garage about as much as Night was missing the kitchen, and he knew Saint had been working on things on his phone when he’d thought his two boys were sleeping. He’d caught Night on his phone last night too, probably working up menus for the bar, if his muttering about onions, red basil, garlic aioli and po’-boy sandwiches, interspaced with curses about pricing, was any indication.

While Night had been gone, Sinn overheard several members of the crew admit to not feeling like bloated sacks of shit after they’d finished eating the meals Night cooked, and there had been talk about takeout containers, something he knew Night would be proud of once he found out. Sinn hadn’t brought it up to him yet, not with how desperate he was to return to work as it was. He’d have tried slipping away from bed in the middle of the night which might not have been a bad thing considering it would have given Sinn and Saint reason to tie his hands to the headboard and have fun with him.

“Note to self, order silk ropes,” Sinn muttered.

“Don’t need to order them, the dungeon is fully stocked,” Saint remarked as he opened the door to the clubhouse for them.

It always took Sinn’s eyes an extra-long time to adjust from the brightness of outside to the dimness inside the building where shadows were less defined around the edges and more like drifting blobs. Giant drifting blobs when one of them started approaching.

“Holy shit! Haze? What the hell man, I thought you guys headed south,” Night declared, cluing Sinn in that it was his brother.

“We are. Had to go back and take care of something first,” Haze said, stopping in front of them. The shape of the item Haze held out to Night was a dead giveaway of what it was. “Uncle Jim won’t be blowing up our phones any longer.”

“You…you didn’t…”

“Naaa, I thought about it but in the end he wasn’t worth catching additional charges over if they ever do catch up to me.”

Night’s voice was thick with emotion when he spoke. “Haze…man, I don’t know how to thank you, but why’d you risk it?”

“The way you talked about these guys,” Haze admitted. “You made them sound like the family we always wanted.”

“But…how’d you know I’d still be here when you knew I was just comin’ back to tell them Unc had my kutte?”

“Give it here,” Mark said, his shadow having joined the others.

Night handed it over immediately, though Sinn could feel the slightest quiver in his body from where Sinn stood pressed up against him.

“You can have it back as soon as I take the prospect patch off and Kat sews your top rocker on.”

“Wh…”

Cheers went up around them, while Night stood frozen. Pride surged through Sinn at the knowledge that Night had just been acknowledged as a fully patched member of the club.

“As for how I knew,” Haze said once the cheering died down and he’d reached out to settle a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “That’s easy. If they were everything you claimed they were, then no way were they kicking you out for losing that vest, not after what you forced Unc to do to you to get it, which never would have happened if I had been there. We should have hit the road the moment the funeral was over. Hell, we never should have gone in the first place. Should have known it was a set up. Bobbytold me that Aunt Almira had been sick for months. Wouldn’t surprise me any if Unc put her out of her misery as a means of assembling us all.”

“Wouldn’t surprise me either.”

“Bobby and I need to get rolling,” Haze declared.

“Yeah, I get it, but let me introduce my partners first.” Night said, giving Sinn a little squeeze. “This is Sinn, the amazing bike builder I was telling you about. And the menacing one is Saint, our club’s vice president. You don’t have to worry about looking out for me anymore big brother. These guys all have my back.”

Several voices around them chimed in the affirmative.

“I’ll always worry, you should know that by now,” Haze said. “But it seems to me that these guys are better for you than our kinfolk have ever been. You’ll hear from me when the heat dies down, I promise you. Just look for a return address from Mexico, that’s where we’ll be.”

“Wait,” Sinn said. “If you’re heading south I’ve got a safe haven for you. Folks down there are my family, but even more than that, they owe me a major solid after some of the shit they pulled recently. Let me make a call.”

Stepping away, Sinn pulled the phone from his back pocket, and hit the button to trigger the mic. “Call the lioness.”

Several chuckles broke out around them, while Night just shook his head.

“Does he seriously refer to his mother as The Lioness?” Haze asked.

“If you find that surprising, you’re gonna love this. In his phone, his grandfather is listed as the old buzzard and his pops is grouchy bear,” Night explained. “Those folks down there are so paranoid they won’t write a name on anything.”

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