Overdosed: Fury's Storm MC (52 page)

As I said the words, my heart ached a little. But I had to be strong. For her sake, as well as mine.

“Even if he cares for you? Because it’s so obvious that he does,” Sabrina pointed out.

“Yeah, well…he cares about his club, too. Sometimes I think he cares about them more. I don’t want to be second to any MC. I would need to know that I came first.”

He turned to me, and I saw a little smile on his face. My heart ached even more.

Gabriel

It was a long day. It took hours for the police to finish questioning me in the parking lot of the hotel. I knew there would be more questions to come, especially when it came time to sign a formal statement. I’d been down this road before.

I kept looking back at Kat. She wouldn’t let Sabrina out of her sight, and for that matter, Sabrina didn’t want to be without Kat. I knew the two of them would be inseparable for a long time.

Cops led Mike and Tony to separate cars, placing them in the back. I wasn’t sure how I felt about them. They were stupid kids. Thorn had probably told them they would be big men in the club if they helped him make the peace with Jorge and his crew. Could I blame them for being a little dazzled by that? Probably not. But it didn’t mean I forgave them. They had their own shit to deal with outside of the club, though. They’d held Kat hostage, for one thing. It all depended on whether she wanted to press charges.

Thorn was on a gurney, wheeled from the room to an ambulance. “Can I talk to him for a minute?” I asked. The cop let me go, and I walked over to where the paramedics were about to load him in. They waited when they saw me come up to them.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey.” He looked gray, but I guessed it was from the loss of blood.

“I’m sorry I shot you,” I said. “Wow, that sounded really stupid.”

He laughed a little. “It did. But it’s okay. That’s nothing compared to what I did.”

I shrugged. It would take me a long time to get over everything that had happened, but I knew one thing for sure. “I forgive you.”

His eyes went wide. It took a lot for me to say it, but his reaction made it worthwhile. “Really?”

“Really. You’re my brother, man. I know why you did everything. I’ll stand by you.” And I meant it. I had to accept the decisions he had made, like the drugs and the lying. But at heart, he was still the same person. Other things got in the way, was all. Once that shit was taken care of, we could be on the same footing again. Granted, I didn’t know if he’d be going to jail or what. But I’d stand by him then, too.

“Tell her I’m sorry,” he said. “Tell them both how sorry I am. You know I didn’t mean any of it.”

“I know you didn’t. That’s why I aimed as low as I did.”

He laughed again, nodding. “Fair enough.”

We shook hands, and I watched as paramedics placed him inside the ambulance. I didn’t know where he was going after the hospital, or how long it would be before he was free. But he was my brother for life, no matter what.

I turned back to Kat, who was still sitting with Sabrina. She smiled, nodding a little. She understood.

There were more questions. This time, the cops took Sabrina into the room, and then Kat. I waited until it was all finished. I knew I should technically have gone back to the clubhouse, but I called over there to explain what was going down and had a long talk with Randy, who was sergeant at arms. He was third in line, or second considering the way Thorn had left the picture. I would do my best to be sure he wasn’t removed permanently, but I didn’t know if the rest of the guys would be as forgiving as I was. They didn’t owe him what I did, didn’t know him like I did. I would have to do a lot of convincing to keep him in good standing.

In the end, it was my decision who stayed and who went. I wouldn’t patch in Mike or Tony after this—they were too stupid to be valuable club members. If they didn’t know enough to take big deals like the one Thorn had gotten them involved in to their president, they didn’t deserve to wear our patch. I would vote for Thorn to stay in, but there was a good chance the rest of the guys would overrule me. I couldn’t be a dictator. I would have to bend somehow. If they insisted Thorn had to leave, I would make sure he stayed safe. That would be my only condition.

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” Randy said when our conversation came to a close. I laughed a little.

“Yeah. Something like that.”

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’ll be okay. It’s a lot of shit to handle.”

“Well,” he said, “if there’s anyone who can handle it, you can. Spike thought so, too, or else he wouldn’t have put you in his place.”

I laughed again. “He had no idea I’d be taking over so soon, though.”

“Eh, I think he had an idea. He knew something big was gonna happen. He wasn’t in the dark. Jorge and company had been quiet for too long. He used to talk to me about the chance of them attacking us. And he had faith in you.”

I felt stronger than I had in a while. “Thanks, buddy.”

“Don’t mention it. Go take care of your old lady.”

I chuckled a little when I hung up the phone. My old lady. How would Kat feel about that title? I didn’t even know if she wanted the job—but if she did, she definitely wouldn’t want to be talked about like a piece of property. I was getting smarter when it came to dealing with her temper and stubbornness. Was that what love did to people? Because I would never have changed my way of thinking for anybody else. For her, it seemed worth it.

It was well past dark by the time we left the hotel. Kat drove herself and Sabrina, who said she would come back for her car another time. One of the cops offered to have it towed to Kat’s house instead.

We stopped to get something to eat halfway there, at a diner just off the interstate. Now that I saw them sitting together, it was like looking at twins. And I knew from the way Kat kept touching her sister, stroking her hair, patting her hand, that it would take a long time for her to get over this.

Sabrina kept looking at me, with her head tilted down toward the table. I knew why she felt uncomfortable. “I guess you wouldn’t imagine sitting here with me like this, would you?”

She shook her head.

“We don’t know each other very well,” I said.

“No, we don’t. It’s really weird,” she admitted. Kat was quiet, watching us.

“Well, there’s plenty of time to get more comfortable. The main thing right now is that you’re safe. You’re both safe.” I looked at Kat, my chest tightening when I thought of what could have happened if I’d gotten there any later than I had. She was mine. And she would keep being mine. I would never let her go after this. She meant too much to me.

“Do you know who called me?” Kat asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Tracee. The woman who’s been living with Thorn.” I shuddered a little, wondering how he could have been with her. He fell far, going from a pretty girl like Sabrina to someone like Tracee. I looked at Kat. “She didn’t mean to hurt you when she did it. He had his ways of getting her to do what he wanted. And hey—she told me where you were going. That was good, anyway.”

“I never would have gone if it hadn’t been for her calling me.”

“But then you wouldn’t have found me, either,” Sabrina said. I watched her eat like she hadn’t eaten in weeks.

“We’ll go crazy if we keep thinking about what could have happened. Let’s just be happy everything turned out all right.”

We left the diner soon after. “Should I come to your place?” I asked Kat, keeping my voice low. She nodded.

“Where am I going now?” Sabrina asked. I looked at Kat.

“To my house,” Kat said. “You can stay as long as you want. I have all your things in your old room, but the bed is ready for you.”

“I guess I don’t have an apartment anymore. Or a job,” Sabrina said.

“It’s all right. We’ll get it all worked out. I’m just so glad you’re back. We can talk about it in the car.”

I got on my bike, smiling to myself. If that kid thought she was gonna make a move without her sister’s permission any time in the next year, she had another thing coming. Maybe even more than a year.

***

Kat was finishing up with getting Sabrina settled in her room. I had helped move things around in there to make it a little more comfortable while Sabrina showered and changed into her own clothes, then I went to Kat’s room to give the two of them some alone time. Kat had been glowing when she led Sabrina through the front door. Like a dream was coming true. It meant everything to me that she was safe, and finally happy.

I realized something then. I had never felt that sort of feeling before. Being happy over another person’s happiness. It was like I was learning all the things other people already knew. It had taken long enough.

I stripped down to my boxers and got into bed. It was incredible, the way things had turned out. I wouldn’t have guessed that the girl who came storming into the bar, demanding to know where her sister was, would work her way into my brain and my heart the way Kat had. Now, here I was. In her very feminine bedroom, full of ruffles and lace and fluffy pillows. She was definitely the girly-girl on the outside.

Inside was another matter.

I was laughing to myself when she came into the room. “What’s so funny?” she asked.

“This room, and me in it. I don’t really fit in, do I?”

She smiled. “You fit in my world just fine. But yeah. You do look a little out of place.”

“Does it bother you?”

“It’s not me I’m concerned about,” she said. “It’s you. Does it bother you?”

I thought seriously about it. “Not if it has to do with you, it doesn’t. I’ll do what I have to do to make it work with us. If that’s what you want.”

“Is it what you want?”

I sighed. We were getting nowhere. “I feel like we’re both trying to say the same thing here, and I guess I have to be the one to say it first.” I sat up, taking her hands in mine. “I love you.”

She smiled hugely, and her eyes filled with tears. “Are you sure?”

“Am I sure? Kat, I almost died today. Not because of Thorn. Because I didn’t know if you were okay. It would have killed me if anything happened to you. That’s when I knew I loved you. I couldn’t live without you now if I tried. Simple as that.”

“I love you, too,” she whispered.

Something in my heart clicked, like a piece falling into place. I felt like a whole person for the first time in my life.

“What are you going to do with the club?” she asked. “I have to know.”

“Will the answer change how you feel about me?”

“Never how I feel,” she said, “but it will affect my life, so I think I should know.”

“I want us to be legit, all the way,” I said. “I’m tired of the dangerous bullshit Spike got us into. He was a good man, and he meant well, but I know there’s a better way for the club, and all of us. I don’t want my guys getting killed over bad blood and deals gone wrong. It’s not worth it. It’s not what we were originally about.”

“How will you do it?”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure. But I know it’s possible. I talked to Randy about it tonight, and he and a lot of the guys feel the same way. They don’t want to continue down the path we’re on. I know I can set things right.”

“I know you can, too.” She smiled. “I want to be with you while you do it.”

I had a funny thought. If there was a chance for me to make things right, the odds were in my favor with her in my corner.

I took her in my arms, lowering us both to the bed. “I’ll never let you go,” I whispered. I meant every word.

“Me, too,” she said. “I thought I was going to lose you today. Or that you would lose me. It broke my heart. That was when I knew how much I love you.”

I tilted her head toward mine, until we were face-to-face, and kissed her gently. All the feeling I had for her was in that kiss.