Page 44 of Rhett Redeemed
An attractive blonde woman comes out of the house and gets into her car. It must be Lacey Jones, the lady the car is registered to. I’ve never seen her before, though, and I have no idea why she’d be following me. She looks innocent enough, kind of like a librarian. But I know better than to judge a woman by her appearance. No one would think Clover or Cara are both trained well enough to snap a man’s neck in an instant either.
“She’s cute,” Dice comments, a smirk playing on his lips. “Is she one of the ways you’ve been getting over Con?”
My lips tighten. “I’ve never seen this woman before. Also, shut the hell up about Con.”
“Come on, can you blame me? Leah told me about Con and how you never even cheated on Cara. That’s complicated shit, man.”
My eyes narrow. “So much for client confidentiality.”
“I understand why you did it, you know. There’s been so many times when I’ve thought to myself that Leah could do much better than me—she could be with some other intellect with a degree and a normal job—so I get it,” he comments, surprising me. “But I’m too selfish to let her go, so props to you for not being selfish.”
“I think I was being selfish and now I have to try not to be.”
“What do you mean? You wanted what was best for Cara, so you did what you had to so she could have the life she wanted and deserved.”
I give him a look. “You’re telling me that Leah would be fine if you made decisions about your relationship for her without even talking to her about it?”
Dice cringes. “Well, when you put it like that, yeah, you’re a dumb fuck, man.”
I laugh at his honesty. “You’re right, but I don’t know, with how things are going now, I think it’s just what was meant to happen with us. It was just our time to part. She never wanted to be with a biker, never mind a president. We grew up watching relationships like that and we all saw firsthand how much the women have to sacrifice. Not to mention the danger that they are put in every day. The stories I could tell you... The clubhouse was a little different back in the day.”
“How so?” he asks, sounding interested.
“Everyone was there more—the men basically lived there and so did the women. It was like one big family, and the second my mom became involved with Talon, I was included in that family, just like that,” I explain, smiling at the memories. “The MC had such loyalty for each other, and all the OGs were in their prime. I want that for us. It’s our turn now.”
“You’ll make it so, Rhett. I believe in you,” Dice replies, looking out the window. “We all do.”
“Do you think the new members have that dedication and loyalty to the club? To making us a family? I can’t make anything happen unless we have people around who want the same.”
Dice studies me. “I don’t know, man. I don’t think we’ve seen everyone’s true colors yet. It would take some time before we see who the men really are.”
I nod. “I agree.”
I have to wonder if this is why Arrow is stepping down now. This new generation is so different from theirs. It’s like these guys are just in the MC to get laid, and I learned early on that it’s more than that.
We go silent for a few seconds, until Dice breaks it. “Now what? Should we break into her house and see if we can find anything?”
I smirk at his suggestion. “No, not just yet. I’ll come back if I need to. We better head back.”
The MC decided just today that we will have a boxing tournament where basically we’re all versus each other and fight until there’s one last man standing. After learning that Decker is a better-trained fighter than me, I’ve been wanting to step up my game, because my pride took a little hit. The fiasco with Marko ended in a match between his best fighter and me. Decker had to step in for me when I was pretty much going to get killed. So yeah, not going to let that happen again.
I’m not used to anyone being better than me at shit, and I don’t like it. Not that I’d ever admit this out loud.
When we pull up at the clubhouse and get out of the car, Sledge is standing out the front talking to Zeke and Bear, another two of our just-patched-in members. These are the men that I will grow with, just like Arrow has with my dad, Rake, Tracker, Wolf, Sin, Irish and the rest of the original Wind Dragons members. They have all stood by each other through thick and thin: prison, deaths, attacks, crime, breakups, pregnancies...everything.
And I want my generation to have that same loyalty to each other.
“Who is fighting first?” Dice asks, studying Sledge’s huge size in apprehension.
I laugh at his expression. “Yeah, let’s put Sledge last.”
“What shady shit have you two been up to?” Bear asks, running his hand through his black hair. His hazel eyes are almost otherworldly, swirls of brown and green.
“Shady?” Dice asks, closing my car door.
“You took the car instead of your bikes. Dead giveaway.” Bear smirks, ducking as Zeke playfully punches him.
“Nothing too shady, just a little stakeout.”