Page 17 of Damascus & The Wildfire
I stood to pour us each another glass of wine. Merrick grabbedthe photo album, and we moved to the couch, our knees nearly brushing together as we sat. He flipped open to the front page.
A young boy stood beside a tall, bearded man in front of a bar with a hand-painted Mavericks sign. He pointed to the photo. “This is my dad and me in front of the original clubhouse.”
He flipped to another page, where a younger girl sat at the bar with books and papers spread before her. “This is Merci, my little sister.”
I glanced at a photo of a dark-haired woman pouring a row of shots behind the bar. Her intense gaze featured the same warm brown eyes staring back at me.
“Is that your mom?”
Merrick nodded. “During the day, she taught art classes at the university. At night, she was the club bartender.”
“Is your mom still involved with the club? Is Merci?”
Merrick shook his head. “After my dad died, my mom moved in with her sister in Georgia. We all did our best to keep Merci away from the club once she hit high school. She’s too smart for this life.”
Merrick pulled out his phone and showed me a picture of him beside a tall woman with raven hair. She wore a long white coat and a bright smile. “Merci just graduated from med school. She’s an intern at a hospital in the city.” She was the spitting image of their mother.
“Wow. So, what about you? When did you decide to join the Mavericks?”
Merrick flipped forward a few pages and pointed to a photo of his younger self wearing a prospect patch beside his father. “I always knew I’d be a Maverick. I became a prospect when I got home after my last deployment to Afghanistan. Dad wanted me to carry on his legacy.”
“But what do you do for, like, a job?”
Merrick chuckled. “When I was younger, I made most of my money fixing bikes and fighting in underground clubs. Then I spent four years in the Army. Now my job is the club. As sergeant-at-arms,I get a salary. There’s a house at the back of the club property where I live, so my expenses are pretty low.”
“But what do you actually do?”
He shrugged. “A little this, a little that. I keep club members and their old ladies safe. Keep an eye on the businesses. Manage our private security business. Make sure the Rangers stay out of town.”
“Eva said you saved her life.”
Merrick looked surprised. “She told you about that?”
“Not really. She said she couldn’t tell me much, but that I could trust you and the other guys.”
He nodded. “Reaper is our brother, and that makes Eva a part of our family.” He looked at me curiously. “What about you? I’ve told you all about my family, but you haven’t mentioned yours beyond your dad.”
I released a big sigh. “That’s because I’m the black sheep. I have three younger siblings. Everest is thirty. He’s a CFO in Boston. Logan is twenty-eight. Lawyer. And Kendall is the baby. She’s twenty. She’s becoming a psychiatrist.”
“Why are you the black sheep?”
I swallowed the last of my wine. “Because I double majored in broadcasting and PR, and I quit my job to move here. I don’t work for a Fortune 500 like my brothers. I’m not getting a doctorate like my sister. My choices don’t make for great conversation at the country club.”
“Country club?”
“Yeah, my family’s kind of rich.”
Merrick didn’t seem surprised at the admission.
“Can I keep these photos for now? I want to scan them in. Maybe use them for the video.”
Merrick nodded. “The album’s been in my attic for years, so no rush to get it back.”
We stared at each other for a moment, and I bit my lip as I wondered what it would be like to kiss him. I shook the thought frommy mind. Maybe I was more buzzed than I realized. I needed to stop before making an ass out of myself. Again.
Merrick stood. “I should get going. Thanks for dinner.”
“You’re welcome. We’ll have to do this again. I don’t have many friends here yet, and it was nice to have someone to eat with for once.”
