Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 74501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 248(@300wpm)
She sat back and asked a shocked, “Have you lost your mind?”
“Watchin’ a documentary, even twice, does not mean you know my Club, Georgiana.”
“No, but I stood in your own damned living room, with your brother and your dad, both in pain because you hadn’t shared, you hadn’t asked them to be at your side through this, and I figure it isn’t a stretch that every brother who wears your patch would feel the same way.”
He shut up.
“They are not going to vote this down, Dutch. They’re going to feel angry and betrayed you went this alone. And they’re going to feel pain too, because you’re drifting away when you are the bones of them.”
Her words made something in his chest squeeze.
Hard.
“What?”
“You’re him.”
And at that, his stomach started to churn so much, he thought he’d be sick. “I’m not.”
“Dutch, both of you are.”
“Georgiana, don’t talk shit you don’t know.”
“My God, Dutch!” she exclaimed, throwing up her hands in exasperation. “Carolyn has been stealing from your brother for years to feed a drug habit and Jagger was justifiably angry when he found out. He called her an ugly name and within seconds apologized to me because he said that about my sister when I was around. That is your father. That is Jagger. That is you.”
Dutch stared at her.
“You’re right, I never had and never will have the absolute honor of meeting your father. And you’re right times two, all I know about him is that film, and getting to know you. You look like him. And you look at me like he looks at the camera in pictures I’ve seen of him—”
“Stop talking.”
“And you held Murtagh like he held you—”
“Stop talking.”
“And Murtagh is just a cat. God works in mysterious and sometimes hideous ways that are still wondrous. He took away Graham Black. But when He did, He left the world with two of him. Jagger and you.”
He surged up, taking hold of her, and landed on her with her on her back.
She let out a puff of air.
“Stop fucking talking,” he bit out.
She stopped talking.
He scowled at her until, like he couldn’t hold it up anymore, his head dropped, his forehead slamming into hers.
She didn’t make a peep.
He shut his eyes, tight.
And then she spoke.
“You miss him,” she whispered.
His throat closed, he moved to shove his face in her neck, and it came out strangled when he said, “Yes.”
He’d been five.
But he never forgot his dad.
You don’t.
You don’t forget that kind of love.
It’s planted in you in a way that never dies.
She slid her hands down his back, murmuring, “Baby.”
He pushed his face in deeper, tightening his arms around her.
When he felt she was having trouble breathing because she was bearing all his weight, he shifted so he had it in his forearms, but he didn’t take his arms from around her.
“Talk to your brothers,” she urged gently.
“I’ll talk to them,” he agreed.
“About helping us with Carlyle…and other.”
“Yeah,” he grunted.
She glided one hand up to his neck and gave it a squeeze.
He read her request, lifted his head and gave her his eyes.
“You’ll find your passion, Dutch.”
He wasn’t sure about that.
But he nodded anyway.
She took her hand from his neck, curled her fingers in and used the backs of them to stroke his jaw.
He took her warning and was glad he read it before she asked, “Do you feel guilt you miss him so much when Hound gave you so much in his stead?”
Christ, how was she driving to the meat of everything?
“Yes,” he answered.
“Hound was his brother. Do you think he wouldn’t have given you the same thing, perhaps not in those proportions, but in the way he could even if your dad had not died?”
Jesus, he hadn’t thought of it like that.
“No, he would have given it,” he told her. “They all did and do. They did it with Rush. Tabby. With Cutter and Rider, Tack and Cherry’s kids. Nash, Lanie and Hop’s boy. All of them.”
“It’s family,” she whispered.
Fuck, it was in front of his face.
It was what they fought for, what his dad died for.
And it took Georgie to point it out.
“Yeah.”
“You can’t drift away from family, honey,” she said, smiled and finished, “ever.”
“No.”
“No matter what path you take, they’ll have your back.”
His forehead dropped to hers a different way before he said, “Yeah.”
“Okay, good we have this sorted out,” she muttered.
He lifted his head. “You paid some serious extra attention to that movie the second time around, didn’t you?”
“Well,” she shrugged on his bed, “I was into you.”
Thank fuck, that made him smile.
“I was gonna make you a quick breakfast before we hit it,” he told her. “But it’s gonna have to be fast food on the way to the Compound. I gotta call a meeting of the brothers.”
She eased under him. “Good.”
Yeah, what was happening here between them…