Cyrus eyes the board and after a few nods from several guys he casts his gaze to Eli.
“The Riot either knows she’s here or they don’t.” Eli shrugs as if he doesn’t care, but there’s something off about his movements. A rigidness that tells me he’s hiding something. “They haven’t made a grab for her since the motel and because of that I think she’s safe. While I love Emily being here, her dad called this week and he wants her back in Florida.”
His words slam into me. “She’s heading home?”
“It’s been over a month. She has a life and it’s time for her to return to it.”
Jeff wants her home. They’re throwing a very public party. I pinch the bridge of my nose as the puzzle pieces click together. “You’re using tonight to see if anyone will make a grab for Emily.”
“We’ll have people on her,” Eli says. “We’re considering this a trial run of what will happen when she returns home.”
When she returns home... It’s the second time he’s said it and each time my heart clenches with the words. “Does the Riot know Emily’s here? The truth this time.”
There’s silence and when no one answers I search my father’s face. When he won’t look away, I have my answer of yes. I suppress the urge to scream. Even when I’m patched in, unless I’m on the board, there will be things that will never be my business.
“If they know she’s here, if you think it’s possible the Riot will make a grab for her, why send Emily home? Isn’t she safer where we can protect her?”
“Not your place to question my decisions,” Eli says in a low warning. “Especially when it involves my daughter.”
I nod and Eli nods back that he’s cool with me even though I spoke out of turn. Eli loves Emily. He would never intentionally put her in harm’s way.
My arms flex as I straighten. “I got her back. She trusts me.” She cares for me. “We’re friends.” I’m in love with her. “She won’t question me being stuck to her side.” As long as she doesn’t mind me stripping her naked in my mind the entire time. “No one will touch her.” And if they do I will snap their fucking necks.
The man who’s been my surrogate grandfather sizes me up. “You screwed up a few weeks ago when Eli asked you to watch over Emily.”
“I did.” When I stood in the same spot I am now, the gravity of what I had to lose almost crushed me. But now that I’m in love with Emily the reminder causes a lethal combination of fear and anger to swirl into a storm. “I swear I’ll never let her or Eli down again.”
“We know, son. All of us have watched you over the past few weeks and you’ve done everything we’ve asked you to do and more. You’ve stayed by Emily’s side, kept her safe and somehow gained her trust. Through that she’s spent time with Olivia and—”
“With me,” interrupts Eli. The sincerity of his words hits me hard. Fuck, this meeting is gaining momentum.
“She’s spent time with most of us and that’s because you’ve made her comfortable,” says Cyrus. “You’ve sacrificed weeks of your life to protect someone we care about and we want you to know we’ve noticed.”
I scan the room, hunting for the blank cut. This moment is so huge that I redistribute my weight. This is Christmas morning times a million. But then the blood rushes out of my head and I all but sway on my feet. I’m lying to them. They’re about to make me a prospect and they have no idea that I spent the night in bed with their daughter...their granddaughter.
Cyrus stands, then lays both of his hands on my shoulders. “We’re patching you in tonight.”
The world zones out. “What?”
“We took a special vote and the club agreed to consider the past month your prospect period. Tonight, you’re becoming a brother of the club.”
A raw emotion builds inside me and I hook my thumbs into my pockets as I try desperately to keep my shit together.
“Jonathan,” Cyrus says in a low tone and it’s not the president of the club talking to me, but the man who taught me to fish at four. The man who drilled it into my brain to hold the door open for a girl. The man who helped care for me when my own parents couldn’t.
Cyrus’s arms close in around me and mine do the same to him, careful not to touch his patch. The hug is strong, tough and intense on both ends and when we let go the entire room is on their feet. Each man waiting for his turn to embrace me and one by one I embrace them back.
Emily
NO ONE IN the crowded kitchen mentions Olivia’s seizure, not even Olivia. There’s a ton of women in here. All shapes. All sizes. Most of them wear a black vest similar to the Reign of Terror, except there’s no skull with flames bursting out of the eye sockets, but a simple patch that reads Terror Gypsies.