Page 7

TALLY

“Tally, you’ve got the floor.”

My brothers all looked at me. Fourteen of us surrounded the table, men who I’d trust my life with a million times over. The Brothers by Blood MC had been my family since well before I patched in. My dad, Loose, was the Vice President for Kit’s dad, Oz, and then for Kit until two years earlier when he finally decided to pull back on his duties.

He still came into the club a couple of times a week.

It wasn’t unusual to find him and Oz sitting at the bar or playing pool while Oz’s old lady, Bright Eyes, and my mom played with the kids and caught up over coffee.

Kit’s brother, Tie, took over as Vice President when Loose stepped down.

He was young, but every member of this club knew that was the position Tie was meant to have. He’d fucking earned it, and our brotherhood was already strong, but with me on one side of Kit and Tie on the other, our family was practically impenetrable.

I leaned back in my chair, explaining to my brothers about Kat and what she’d told us.

A lot of them already knew how important she was to me.

Some didn’t, but I was sure they could feel it.

“I’m proposing that a few of us to head to Jacksonville and let this guy know in whatever way necessary that fucking with Kat and Dylan would be a really bad idea.”

“You think there will be any pushback on that suggestion ?” Pac questioned from down the table.

I shrugged. “To be honest, I’m not really sure.”

“I asked around,” Kit cut in, strumming his fingers on the table. “Not a single person I talked to in that area knew who he was, which means he’s probably a little nobody trying to be a somebody.”

“So, does us doing this mean you’re taking Kat as your old lady?” Tie questioned with his eyebrow raised and a smirk on his face.

Is that what this was?

She’d shown up last night, but it was like no time had passed.

Seeing her at first had instantly brought back that pain in my chest I’d felt when I found out she’d left without an explanation or a goodbye. But the moment I knew she was in trouble, it’d all changed and become so damn clear that I cared about her right then, just as much as I had eight years earlier.

And I was still figuring out exactly what the hell that meant.

But I didn’t want to be left once again wondering why.

Or regretting not saying something before it was too late.

“At this point, I’m still trying to figure that shit out, brother,” I answered honestly. “I just know she was really fucking important to me a long time ago, and my gut is telling me not to make the same mistakes now as I did back then.”

“All right then. Any objections to the club stepping in on this?” Kit questioned, and the room stayed silent. “All in agreement?”

A resounding “aye” filled the room.

It felt good to know my brothers had my back on this.

Even though I never doubted that they would.

Just hearing the support made me sit a little taller.

“Tie, Wreck, Tally, and I will make the trip down to Jacksonville tomorrow. Get things sorted and come back the day after because my body is no longer fucking made for riding ten hours in a single day.” Kit and I were getting older, but I swear, since he’d had kids, he had aged about ten years more than me. I’m not sure if it was the constant worry, or just how Nya ran circles around him, but I’m sure he felt it was worth it.

“Weston?”

Weston leaned in. He was one of the older club members and one of Loose’s close friends. “Prez?”

“I’m leaving you in charge,” Kit announced. “Please don’t let my old lady put up any more Christmas decorations. With that and the forecast of snow, I’m starting to feel like I’m in the fucking north pole.”

The room filled with rolling laughter, and we dispersed.

I passed Kat, Harmony, Kaci, and another old lady, Del sitting around a table, cackling with laughter. It was good to see Kat slip back into the group so easily. Because Harmony used to live up in Huntsville, she and Kat had been close for a long time, and it didn’t just play on my mind when she left without a trace.

A lot of members and club girls up there were confused and sad to not have her bright smile around.

As much as I wanted to steal her away, I left them to it. The girls needed their time with Kat too. Instead, I headed down the hall to my room, intending to find a thicker damn hoodie to put on so I could go out to the garage and make sure my ride was good to go for the trip the next day.

I glanced into the room Kat and Dylan had slept in, pausing when I saw the kid sitting at the edge of the bed, staring at the wall.

“Hey, man,” I started, walking over and stepping inside. “You doing okay?”

He shrugged but didn’t look at me. “I guess.”

I took another step a little closer. “You wanna talk about it?” He watched me out of the corner of his eye for a brief second before looking away again. “You don’t know me, right? Why would you want to tell me all your problems.”

I eased myself onto the edge of the bed, making sure I still gave him plenty of space. He didn’t exactly welcome me, but he also didn’t tell me to fuck off. Though I could see that changing dramatically if I tried to come in too hard and fast.

Dylan was two or three when I was hanging out with Kat, and she made it clear she didn’t want him to be confused about our relationship by finding us in bed or anything like that. I respected her decision, where Dylan was concerned. I wanted to make sure we moved at whatever pace she was comfortable with because she was the one who had another person in her equation.

That didn’t mean I hadn’t spent time with Dylan, though. She’d brought him to the clubhouse, to club events. Hell, I’d given him his first motorcycle ride.

We’d been good friends.

He wouldn’t remember any of that, but I still hoped there might be something deep in his brain that at least told him that he could trust me.

“What happened was scary, huh?” His hands gripped the blankets at the edge of the bed, and he clenched his jaw. “You know it’s okay to say it was damn scary. You know what scares me? Spiders.”

I finally managed to pull his entire focus.

He turned slightly to look at me, a soft frown on his face that let me know he thought I was a little crazy. Or weird. Or both.

Nothing new.

When he still didn’t respond, I continued, “Yeah, they’re scary as hell. Eight legs. What kind of demon has eight le—”

“We just ran.”

I paused. Holding my tongue while he cleared his throat. Given his bloodshot eyes, it was clear he was trying to keep me from seeing how upset he was. “Yeah. You did. You guys ran. You got out of there. You got somewhere safe.”

He shook his head. “Mom tried to make it like no big deal, but… I should have done something. Told that guy that banged on the window to back off.”

Ah.

There it was.

He was the man in his mom’s life, and he felt like he hadn’t done enough to protect her. He ran— he didn’t stand and fight.

“Dylan, there was a guy on your couch who had been stabbed by this asshole,” I said seriously. “There are times when you have to know when to run into battle and when to retreat, regroup, and come up with a winning plan of attack.”

“Have you ever…”

“Retreated?” I laughed. “More times than I could count.”

It wasn’t a lie.

There were times when being the big man could have meant being the big dead man had I not walked or if one of my brothers hadn’t dragged me away.

Self-preservation kept you alive.

“I just want to make her proud,” he murmured, turning to face me a little more.

Opening up.

Letting me in.

“Young man, there will be plenty more opportunities for you to stand up for your mom, trust me.” He scoffed, obviously not convinced. “There’s gonna be coaches of your sports teams who will roll their eyes at your mom cheering like a crazy woman on the sidelines, and they’ll make stupid comments like, ‘hey, check this lady out’ to the dads.”

He was trying not to smile, but it was like a switch had turned on behind his eyes, making them a little brighter. “And what should I do if that happens?” he was humoring me, but I didn’t mind because it seemed like he was slowly sliding out of his shell.

“I think, in that instance, a stray ball off the side of the foot,” I explained, and got to my feet to demonstrate.

A gentle laugh from the doorway had me pause mid-kick.

“Are you teaching my kid how to take out his soccer coach?” Kat asked with a smirk.

I pressed my hand to my chest, gasping dramatically. “You really think I’d do something like that?”

“I do.”

“He did,” Dylan added, letting out a loud laugh when I hit him with a look of total betrayal. “I mean… do you think Layton’s still out kicking the ball around?”

Kat stood a little taller. “Yeah. I think I saw him out there still.”

He jumped up off the bed but looked down at his feet. “Uhh…”

We’d managed to pull together some clothes that fit him, but he was still only wearing a pair of socks.

Kat pointed back down the hall. “Del’s at the bar. She said she’d pulled some runners out of a cupboard that would fit you and are basically new.”

“Okay,” he said. He rushed over and wrapped his arms around Kat before ducking out the door.

Kat grinned and shook her head. “I really have no idea how you do it.”

I closed the distance between us, wrapping my hand around the curve of her jaw. “My charm is a gift. There really isn’t an explanation,” I teased. “But honestly, I think he needed someone to tell him that he hadn’t failed you by not standing up and fighting.”

She reached for my cut, grasping it tightly as her head shook back and forth. “Did you guys talk about what happened in church?”

“Yeah. We’re gonna drive to your place tomorrow and sort it out.”

Her eyes widened a little, as if it shocked her to know we were gonna go all the way down there to sort this shit out. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet,” I answered with a shrug. “Find this guy. Have a chat with him about proper etiquette when you’re in someone else’s house.”

She shoved my shoulder, but I barely moved. “Tally. Seriously.”

“Gorgeous, I’m as serious as a heart attack,” I told her, pressing my forehead to hers for a second. “The boys and I are gonna make sure you and Dylan don’t have to be scared. Whatever I have to do to make that happen, I’ll do.”

She leaned in, taking a deep breath and pressing her head to my chest. She was letting me hold her up, and I knew that was big.

“There is something kind of amazing about you,” she murmured, looking up at me through her eyelashes.

I was two seconds away from dragging her into a bedroom and letting her know in more ways than one that I felt the fucking same about her.

“Hey, Mom.” Dylan’s call had us both stepping back, though I fucking hated it. Dylan didn’t remember me from when he was little. I was a stranger to him and wanted to build a relationship with him, not have him see me with my hands all over his mother in the hallway. “Harmony said I should probably see if Tally has a jacket ’cause it’s really cold.”

“Yeah, I got you,” I answered, brushing past Kat with a smile. “Come in, let’s see what we can find.”