Page 88 of Riding the Edge

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, there ain’t no better medicine than riding the wind,” he replies simply. A beat of silence passes between us and he looks away. “I’ve always had a problem merging my personal life with my club life,” he confesses. “Not many people know this, but it took a lot of swaying from Jack for me to even consider becoming a prospect for the club.”

That surprised me. All this time, I assumed he chose the life he leads with conviction.

“Me and him go back a long time,” he begins to explain. “As kids, he and I used to ride our bicycles up and down these streets, looking for trouble or an easy way to turn a buck—whichever came first. Trouble and money went hand in hand for us. We didn’t play stickball or wait for the street lights to go on before we went home to our families and a freshly cooked meal. His mother hated him and mine died before I learned how to wipe my own ass. So, when those lights on the side of the curb came on and all the privileged kids scurried back to their good homes and their picture-perfect families, Jack and I went buck-fucking-wild.”

As he recalls his childhood, I try to picture him a young boy running amuck and for some reason that brings a smile to my face. Maybe because that troubled boy has turned into a fiercely loyal man with morals. Morals, he taught himself.

“It was on these streets, in between felonies and misdemeanors, that we became brothers. A time and place where he had my back and never had to wonder if I had his. Loyalty and respect became our creed long before he owned a Harley or heard of the Satan’s Knights MC. Before he became the deranged Bulldog and me, the patient Wolf who suffers in silence and hunts alone. Way back when we were kids, breaking into homes and tying the owners up so we can steal their jewelry.”

At that, I flinch.

“I took the rap for a home invasion we did together and got my ass sent to juvie—It was the first of what would become many times I sacrificed myself to spare a brother,” he continues. “Anyway, I met Pipe in juvie and when I was released before him, I told him my intentions. I had kept in contact with Jack and knew he was prospecting for the club. Guys like us, we didn’t come out to second chances and clean slates. We got released, and we went back to the streets because that’s the only place we knew how to survive.”

He pauses, turning to me.

“By the time Pipe was released, I had already met Patty. I linked him up with Jack and started to go off on my own. I got a job as a laborer and soon Patty was pregnant with Nico. I married her right away and put every effort into doing the right thing by her and our son. While Pipe and Jack ran around selling their souls to the Devil, I worked as many odd jobs as I could. But doing eighty hours a week on a clock barely kept the lights on. I’d look at Pipe and Jack and they were rolling in the dough.”

“So, to provide a better life for Patty and Nico, you joined the club.”

“It seemed like the right idea at the time,” he confesses. “Patty couldn’t handle the life and kicked my ass out before Nico could talk. I didn’t blame her though. She didn’t marry an outlaw, she married a blue-collar guy with a rap sheet, someone who promised he’d be better but never fulfilled that promise. The other two knew what they were getting from the beginning, but they thought they’d change me, that their love could fix all the things broken with me. But once a fuck up, always a fuck up.”

Pulling my hand onto his lap, he intertwines our fingers.

“I’m going to take back my patch eventually,” he says. “But I want us to be on solid ground before I do,” he continues. “I told you I learned from my regrets and I wasn’t lying. You come first, Lady, before me, before the club and before my brothers.”

Lifting our joined hands, I do what he’s done so many times and brush my lips over his knuckles.

“I appreciate that Al,” I whisper. “But you should also know, I won’t try to change you. Like you’ve learned from your past, I’ve learned from mine and I know for this to work, we both need to accept we are who we are, and I like who you are. There’s nothing more attractive than a man’s loyalty and you’re the loyal man you are because of your brotherhood. I respect that.”

“Nothing more attractive than loyalty,” he murmurs, rolling on top of me. His hands slide to my hips and he slides me under him, positioning himself between my legs. “You sure about that, Lady?”

“Well,” I say, winding my arms around his neck. “Maybe there are a few things.”

“Like?” he questions, kissing my neck.

“Your mouth.”

“That all?”

“There might be something else,” I murmur, trailing my hands down his back. Finding his ass, I pull him closer and lift my hips. His cock rubs against me and I smile.

There’s that too.

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