Page 42 of Diesel
“Taking back what we were promised when we earned our patches. We create the club it should be again. A place where we don’t have to hide our family, just to keep them safe, where we don’t have to watch our backs against our own brothers. If my dad was still alive—” His jaw flexes, as he grinds his molars together. “It fucking destroys me to know that you hid your wife because you were scared she’d get hurt. That ain’t club, Diesel. At least not any club I recognise.” He interlaces his fingers on the table, his eyes flaming with the war cry of revolution. “We need you.Ineed you. If we do this right, this club can be something worth bringing your family into, but you need to be fully in this. I need to know I can trust you.”
I don’t speak for a few moments because this deserves weight, deserves thought. I rub my fingers over my bottom lip, my mind set on the path ahead.
I want Kenna to have a life that doesn’t make her question if I’m coming home in a box and since I can’t walk away from the club, not without dying, I’m going to make it something worth living for.
“Yeah, I’m in,” I say. “But make no mistake, Nic. You try to put a knife in my back when I’m not looking, and I will burn all of it to the fucking ground myself.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
We fall silent, both just working through our thoughts. “Dash…” I ask. “He pull through?”
All I can think about is his girl, Dayna. She’s fuckingcrazy, but I like her. She’s… kind, and one of the few people who has never treated me like a freak.
“Yeah,” Nic says. “He pulled through. It’s gonna take some time for him to get back on his feet, but he’s still with us.”
Relief settles in my bones. I like the guy. He talks too much and he’s fucking opinionated, especially about my food choices, but I like him.
“Okay,” I say finally. “I’m in. Let’s take our fucking club back.”
Nic grins. “Yeah, let’s take it all back.”
FOURTEEN
MAKENNA
Terror crawlsover my skin as the minutes tick by. I watch the clock, which seems to be moving in reverse and bounce my leg to release the tension strangling me. If Zane isn’t back soon, I’m going to his little clubhouse to find him. They don’t get to keep him. They don’t get to hurt him. He’s mine and he was mine long before he put that kutte on his back.
Suddenly, everything I was angry about seems so insignificant.
I could lose him to this. I could lose everything for real.
The key sounds in the front door and I bolt to my feet so quickly it makes my head spin. I grip the back of the couch to steady myself as the door opens and Zane steps inside.
Fuck.
He’s here. There is no blood, no bruises, but he looks drained. His shoulders are hunched, bags around his eyes as if he hasn’t slept for a month. I slide the gun onto thecoffee table, relief surging through my veins and I cross the room to him without a thought.
As soon as I’m in front of him, I fall into him, pressing my cheek to his heart so I can hear it beat. His smell in my nose, his heat against my skin, breath in his lungs.
“I didn’t think you were coming back.”
He gathers me tight, just as he always does, like he’s scared to let go. “Nothing would ever stop me from reaching you.”
I pull back just enough to look at him. “You don’t get to do that again.”
“Do what?”
“Walk into something without me. I’ve been losing my mind for the last hour, wondering if you were already dead. From now on wherever you go I go.”
He stiffens. “That’s not happening.”
I glare at him, bristling. “I get that you want to keep me safe, but why don’t you understand that I also want to protect you? Do you think I wouldn’t have taken that bullet for you?”
He growls. “I know you would have and that’s what fucking scares me, Makenna. That isn’t your job.”
I step out of his grasp this time, putting distance between us. Is he serious? “So it’s okay for you to bleed for me but not the other way around?”
“Exactly,” he says, his voice low and flat.
