“Application for Avery Joyce George...” that was me, “… to adopt Gage Hall.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, my hand going straight to my chest as I fought to breathe. “What?” I whispered, looking to Shotgun, who was smirking like he knew he’d got this shit done without me knowing a damn thing about it.
“Everything has been done. You just need to sign the papers if you accept,” the judge announced, a woman in a business suit placing some papers on a table beside me and holding out a pen.
The answer was, of course, yes.
It was always going to be yes.
So I signed, and applause filled the room.
As far as I was concerned, I would have helped Shotgun raise Gage like he was my own anyway while always letting him know about his real mom.
Emma would hold an important place in our home, and I would always treasure her for bringing that beautiful baby boy into this world. Without her, I wouldn’t have him.
“Great,” the judge chirped. “Second agenda, Gage Hall name change.”
“Yes, your honor,” Shotgun agreed, though this time I was simply confused.
“Emma never gave Gage a middle name,” Thayleah explained with a smile and tears in her eyes, though they seemed more happy than sad tears. “She always wanted that part to be Shotgun’s when she finally told him about Gage.”
“So…” Shotgun started, shifting from one foot to the other, “… from now on, he’ll be Gage Micah Hall.”
Micah.
“Like I said before, it’s okay to feel that ache in your chest when you miss someone you’ve lost, but now today isn’t just the day your sister died… it isn’t just your birthday… it’s also now the day you adopted our son. And the day we chose to remember Micah and treasure and honor her and celebrate her life right alongside yours.”
And from now on, we would.
“I love you,” I told him, sinking into his arms.
“I fucking love you, too.”
SHOTGUN
“We appreciate you boys choosing to join us down here in Phoenix as we grow,” I announced, the crowded clubhouse listening in as I welcomed our new recruits. “I can already tell from the way I can see my ugly face in your chrome out there, you’ll fit in fucking perfectly.”
I shook their hands, slamming my palm hard on their backs before handing them their new Phoenix, AZ patches and taking a step back. Seeing Rein and Bandit’s face light up at their new Arizona patches was something that made my chest swell.
The two boys had come to us from the Montana Chapter of the Brothers by Blood. Both looking for a change in atmosphere, and I imagine a change in temperature. They were still young, not been patched long, but they’d both sure as hell done their fair share to prove themselves—Rein’s transfer taking a little longer than we would have liked because of probation orders from his last stint inside.
The kid had a story.
One that not only involved the club ranch in Montana but also the rich streets of California, an overdose, and a horny stepmother. The kid had been through it all and come out the other side with his shit together. If that wasn’t strength, I don’t know what the fuck was.
I was already proud to call him my brother, though I was still going to put him through his paces, just for fun. After all, I had a fucking reputation to keep.
A few years ago when Shake had come to the club looking for members to join him and someone to take the lead into the unknown, I wasn’t sure what the hell this new path would bring. I sure as hell didn’t imagine we’d be growing so fucking big, so damn fast with new applications for transfers coming in every couple of months from clubs around the country.
And I never fucking imagined we’d have two nightclubs open with business so damn good, other clubs were sending men down to look around and see how they could do something similar in their own cities.
Our club was new, but it was fucking thriving.
And I couldn’t imagine raising my boy anywhere else.
With anyone else.
I couldn’t help but admire my old lady wearing her brand new colors—the boys not the only one I’d given new patches to today. Avery had been mine since she walked into the clubhouse, everyone fucking knew that, but the property patch meant more to me than just showing the world she was off-limits.
Asking her to wear my colors was asking her to stand beside me.
To have my back.
To help me see clearly when my vision was blurred.
It wasn’t about me just wanting her to be my girlfriend or my wife. It was about me being vulnerable enough to admit that I needed her to be by my side and that she made me stronger because she did.
I hooked my arm around Avery’s shoulders, pulling her back against my chest. She fit there perfectly like our bodies were puzzle pieces, and she was made to slot perfectly against mine. “Where’s the boy?” I murmured in her ear, and she nodded across the room where he was entertaining Kennedy and Saff, one of Empire’s bar staff with his babbling. “Perfect.”
I moved quickly, trying to usher her toward the stairs, but she just laughed, placing her hands on my chest. “We have to wait,” she argued, pushing back against me. “Adrian will be here in a few minutes to take him and put him to bed. He needs a bottle ready.”
I rolled my eyes, pressing a long hot kiss against her soft lips before pulling back. “I’ll get his bottle ready,” I told her as I walked backward. “Then, you’re mine.”
“Yes, sir.” She laughed, but the flush across her cheeks told me more, and all I fucking wanted to do was get her alone.
I gathered up Gage, much to the girls’ disappointment, and strolled through into the kitchen, surprised to see it already had one occupant. “You don’t want to eat with everyone else?” I questioned Thayleah while trying to rein in my son, who was squirming on my hip, ready for his bottle and bed.
Thayleah looked up from the burger she was mindlessly pulling to pieces, blinking a couple of times before the dazed look in her eyes finally disappeared, and I knew she was here with me. She slipped back into the past easily, the memories of the hell she went through still haunting her daily.
She’d worked through a lot of her demons over the past few months, but it still wasn’t unusual to find her staring at the wall in tears or hidden away in a quiet space with her mind still struggling to find that line between recollection and reality.
“Yeah.” She nodded, pushing the plate away and holding out her hands for the squirming child in my arms. “One day, they’ll go away, right?” she asked, not even needing to specify exactly what she was talking about. She didn’t need to. I knew. I’d heard the night terrors when she first moved in and sat with her while she tried to sleep, so she didn’t feel alone.
It was the least I could do.
I had failed to protect Emma, but like hell I’d fail her sister too.
She forced a brave smile in front of Gage, but the tears that sat precariously on her lower lashes told a different story.
I handed him over, his giggles loud and echoing off the walls of the kitchen.
The boy loved his aunt.
And she needed him.
He was something she had left of Emma that didn’t include the pain and torture she’d endured.