He frowned, but then gave a chin lift and walked out the door, closing it behind him.
I sat on the edge of one of the beds and pulled Daisy between my legs. "Hey, I’m sorry I was an asshole."
She wove her fingers into my hair at the nape of my neck. "I just don’t understand why you let my brother rile you up so much. Or him you, for that matter."
I sighed. "There’s sothing about that guy I don’t like about myself."
"You’re nothing like Cash."
I smiled. "I love that you think that, baby, but I have a feeling he and I are more alike than either of us want to admit. Maybe in so of the good ways as well as the bad, but alike nonetheless."
"Well, my brother doesn’t say things like ’nonetheless.’"
"Not big on the use of conjunctive adjectives?"
"Now you’re just showing off."
I chuckled. "I’ll be sure to grammar sha him next ti I need to take him down a peg."
She tugged on my hair. "Or, you could not do that."
"Or I could not do that," I said, but nodded, indicating I was totally going to do that. I slid my hands around her waist and pulled her closer. "You doing okay? Did you talk to Teagan yet?"
"I am now. And yes, she’d been blowing up Cash’s phone apparently until she heard my voice and got ’proof of life.’ She’s good now. How’s your dad?"
"I can’t believe you’re still worried about my dad after everything you’ve gone through today."
"Well, he’s way more banged up than and I’ve got you to put back together if I have nightmares."
"I love you."
She smiled, leaning down to kiss gently. "I love you too."
"Are we getting a room and staying here tonight?"
"What about your dad?"
"Mom said they have it covered." I stroked her back. "It’s more important that you feel safe and comfortable."
She bit her lip, wincing, then trying to cover her reaction and I knew she didn’t want to know she was in pain.
"Fuck," I hissed, jumping up to grab a wet washcloth.
"I’m okay."
"You’re bleeding, baby," I countered, setting the flannel gently against her lip. "Press."
She took the towel and pressed it against her mouth, blinking back tears. "I wanna thtay here."
I slid my hand around her waist and kissed her temple. "I’ll get us a room."
Before she could say anything further, Cash and Razor walked in... with Booker, Hatch, and Flea right behind him.
"Daddy?" Daisy pulled, out of my arms and rushed to him.
"Hey, baby girl." Booker pulled the washcloth away from her face to survey the damage.
"I’m okay. What are y’all doing here?" she asked.
"We need to talk," Flea said, closing the door behind them. "Glad you’re okay, sweetheart."
"First things first, glad to fuck you’re all okay," Hatch said. "Now, Huck, I need you to take off your cut and hand it over to ."
"Uncle Hatch, please don’t—"
"Stay outta this, Ducky."
I took off my cut and handed it to Hatch.
"Good. I’m gonna need you to take off this prospect patch and replace it with this," he said, handing back the cut along with a Dogs of Fire Club mbers patch.
"Wha-what?" I stuttered out.
"I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. This patch isn’t a shortcut to your full mbership. For that, you still have to bleed but tonight, you drew blood to protect a family mber. If that doesn’t prove that you’re worthy of mbership, I don’t know what does," Hatch said. "But most of all, I’m giving you that patch to protect you, Daisy, and the club."
"I don’t understand."
"As a prospect, you’re not owed the protection of the club but as a mber, what you did tonight, will never leave the lips of any of the brothers. We may not be one-percenters, but that doesn’t an we don’t know how to get blood off our hands. What you did for Daisy and for society by wiping that psycho off the face of this earth, was just. Razor and Cash saw to it that no one will ever find Cyrus’s remains or the gun you used to shoot him. Cash made double sure there’s no surveillance evidence of you there either."
I swore. "That gun was an antique. It was the crown jewel of my father’s collection. It’s irreplaceable."
"Actually," Flea said. "There were seven hundred made, and I already have a line on three suitable replacents. I’m also bidding on a nice pair of French dueling pistols. They’ve got really cool engravings."
"Okay, Flea, take it down a notch, brother," Hatch said. "As you can see, I’ve got the right man on the job to replace your old man’s piece."
"He’ll notice the difference," I said.
"Just tell him he must have gotten hit harder than he thought."
"Uncle Hatch!" Daisy admonished.
Hatch shrugged. "Don’t worry about it, Booker’ll fix the registration papers electronically to match the replacent’s serial number, no one’ll be the wiser."
"Where do we go from here?" I asked.
"You finish your trip as planned, until your old man gets back on his feet, then we go ho and act as though nothing ever happened. Flea and I’ll make sure everything copasetic here, and head ho tomorrow. Booker can decide what he wants to do with Archer, but Cash and Razor are gonna stay." Hatch crossed his arms. "I an it when I said we’re n of our oath, an oath you’ll take in front of all your club brothers once you return ho to Portland."
"Is Portland ho?" Daisy asked .
"Is that where you’re gonna be?"
She nodded with a grin.
"Then that’s where ho is."
"Glad to hear it." Hatch smiled. "Flea and I are gonna take off. We’ll see you in a few weeks."
They walked out, followed by Razor, leaving us with Booker and Cash.
"So the bracelet worked, huh?" Daisy asked Booker.
"Baby girl, the second you hit that button on your bracelet, lody was filing a flight plan to get us here. You’re just lucky your mother didn’t co with ."
"How does that make lucky? She’s the only one who can control you," she complained.
I chuckled. "I’m gonna book us a room real quick. Do you want to stay here, or co with ?"
Daisy pointed to her bruised face. "I’ll stay here."
"Okay, I’ll be right back," I promised and headed down to the front desk.
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