“I don’t, but you do, and I need you to be a top-ranking woman.”
“Seriously, why is this so important to you, Sav?”
She slumps her shoulders. “Because you are important to me. I want to know you’re taken care of if I’m ever not around.”
“You’re leaving?”
She rolls her eyes. “Don’t be dramatic. Of course not… but we’re both aware my father, one way or another, is going to want me home at some point.”
“Well then, I’ll send Kevlar and his friends to visit him,” I mock.
Savanah’s eyes widen as she gasps. “Oh shit, do you think he would?”
I let out a laugh. “No, Savanah, I’m not sending my… um, Kevlar, after your family.”
“We’re you just about to say your… boyfriend?”
“No—”
“Lover—”
“No—”
“Sex slave—”
“Sav, stop! I don’t know what we are, okay? He’s caught up on his wife still. There are hurdles for us. I’m not sure how long it’s going to take for us to get to a place where we can start talking any kind of labels.”
She rubs her chin. “Well, I for one, think you’re amazing. If he doesn’t want to see what’s right in front of him, then he’s an asshole!”
“Who’s an asshole?” Cherry asks as she walks up to us with Prinie by her side.
“No one,” I deflect.
“Kevlar,” Savanah announces anyway.
Cherry and Prinie pull up the two free seats, then sit, though Prinie is a little slower with her pregnant belly.
“What’s he done?” Cherry asks point-blank.
I glare at Savanah as she chuckles to herself, but I turn to Cherry. “Nothing really… I kind of don’t know where to begin.”
“She wants to bone him. He chickened out of giving her a good one, and she believes it’s because he’s still hung up on his wife. There… wasn’t so hard, was it, babe?”
Prinie snorts. “I like you, Savanah, you remind me of me. Before the belly and responsibility.”
Savanah dips her head. “Thank you, I will take that as a compliment.”
I roll my eyes as Cherry places her hands on the table. “Okay, so look… Kevlar and his wife had a huge connection to this club. I personally wasn’t here when it happened, but I know all about it. From what I’ve been told, they were really strong. I mean, he left the force for her, and he was at her bedside every day until the end. Even when she did pass, he stayed at the hospital until they wheeled her body to the morgue, then he took off after that.” She exhales like she’s saddened.
“It’s taken him years to get to the point he’s at now. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve seen him with another woman since I’ve known him. But, Jovie, maybe the reason he’s having trouble is because he actually likes you.” She narrows her eyes on me. “There’s a difference between finding comfort in a woman and finding a home and sanctuary with one. Maybe with you, he actually sees the latter, and it scares him a little.
“Maybe it’s bringing up memories of his wife, and it’s making him feel guilty. You can’t blame the guy. It’s not like he chose to end his marriage. Life ended it for him…
“It doesn’t mean in any way you’re second-best to Em… it just means you’re who he wants now. You’re the woman in his life he can see himself with. I imagine that would be scary as all hell for him.” She shrugs. “I’m not a doctor, just a pharmacist, but I’d put my money on that being your issue right there.”
I sink back in my chair. “You think he’s scared… scared of betraying Em?”
“Something like that. He has loyalty to her. He needs to remember that Em wouldn’t want him to cling to her forever. He has to let her go, to move on with someone new. Someone who is totally awesome, I might add,” Cherry offers.
Smiling, I reach over the table for her hand. “Thank you. That means a lot.”
“Take it from me, talking about things helps a lot in relationships. Miscommunications are never good. Bottling shit up and letting it all blow out of proportion is a quick way to ruin something good. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about,” Prinie tells me.
Sounds like there’s a story there.
Cherry reaches out, grabbing Prinie’s hand. “Then when you get on the same page, miracles happen.”
Prinie moves her hand to her stomach, smiling brightly. “Exactly. Not always planned ones, but a miracle nonetheless.”
“You and Wraith had a rocky road to get to where you are now?” I ask. I can’t continue to guess with their cryptic wording.
Prinie sighs. “Rocky doesn’t even cover it. We were corrosive, completely combustible. Then add in Zero hating the idea of us being together, and it was all-out war there for a while.”
“What happened? What changed?”
“Life. Somehow it has a way to throw curveballs and make things happen, which seems terrible at the time, but in the end, they had to happen to bring you closer. Zero was arrested, making Wraith the president for a short time. Wraith had to step up. I was so distraught, it stopped us fighting and brought us together again… there was more, much, much more to the story, but that needs food and alcohol.”
“You can’t drink, Prinie.” Cherry snickers.
“Dammit. When will this baby come out? Mama needs a whiskey,” she jests.
We all chuckle as Prinie shifts to get comfortable in her chair. “Jovie, I think the moral of this story is… these men are complicated as hell and each with their own back story. If you’re gonna stick around, if you’re gonna try and be there for Kevlar, you have to have a tough exterior and an even tougher interior. Because they will fuck with your emotions before they realize what’s right in front of them.”
“Amen! I don’t know if it’s just because of the club they’re meant to be seen as tough, so they don’t show their emotions, but these men do not deal with their feelings that well. As long as you can put up with him trying to figure his shit out, you’ll be okay. You just gotta hold on,” Cherry affirms.
What they’re telling me should be warning me off. It should be scaring me, making me want to run for the hills. All it’s doing though, is making me feel somewhat better. Letting me know it isn’t me who’s the problem.
Kevlar isn’t turned off by me as such, but it’s his own emotions. I just wish I knew a way to help him.
Cherry and Prinie are strong. They’re tough old ladies who have seen their fair share of Defiance battles, but neither of them grew up knowing their father and brothers were a part of the worst kind of criminal syndicate. In the blink of an eye, their world could be turned upside-down. With one knock at the door, their life could be taken or transformed all because of the blood that runs through the same veins.
My family are criminals.
Not just any criminals.
They are the type who would murder an entire family for taking the parking spot of a Slaver at Costco. They are that spiteful.
I have spent my life wondering when they would come.