Page 164 of Long Way Down

“But, even if it’s new, and even if there are still brothers with their doubts, the club has newresources. We’ve gotten bigger, and we have big allies, now. The family’s growing. Everyone in this room is a part of that family,” he said with a gesture, “and that means they’re protected by us.

“It also means” – here, he turned to Melissa, directly – “that they might be called on to help the club, in ways that aren’t always legal or in keeping with the above-board parts of their lives. The club demands loyalty. Can everyone here pledge that loyalty?”

It was asked of them all, yes, but the other non-Dogs in the room all had stronger, more deeply-knotted ties to the club than her. She was the new-comer. The cop. The one they all doubted.

She’d taken an oath to protect the city of New York. To serve under the law.

But the past few weeks had taught her that, sometimes, the best way to serve her city, to protect its people – the way a little girl with blonde hair and dirty boots had never been protected by her hometown – was to break the law.

In that way, she didn’t feel like she was betraying anything.

She took a deep breath. “Yeah. I can pledge that.”

Maverick nodded, one corner of his mouth twitching in the tiniest of encouraging smiles. “Alright, then.” His gaze swept the room again. “Let’s talk about building an empire.”

THE END

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