Page 83 of Cutter's Hope
“We need to ask you something,” Pyro said, “You give any thought about making Hope your Ol’ Lady?”
I eyed my friend, “Uh, yeah,” I nodded.
“And?” Atlas prompted.
“Have to ask her, not sure how my rag would go over.”
“Yeah that’s what we voted on,” Radar pulled out a plastic grocery sack from under the table, I raised an eyebrow.
“Dude, I looked, it’s not exactly in our by-laws but it’s not exactlyagainst themeither…” Atlas said.
“What did you guys fucking vote on? What did you do?” I demanded suspicious.
Radar pulled a cut, a small, trim one out of the bag and laid it out in front of me. I blinked, stupid. The top rocker read ‘property of’ like it should, the bottom rocker ‘Cutter’ like it should but between the two…
“No Ol’ Lady’s ever worn the club’s colors…” I said looking the patch over, the Kraken dragging the ship below the waves.
“Hope ain’t just an Ol’ Lady, Captain,” this coming from Beast.
I looked around the table at all my guys and they all stared back plaintively, “Somebody explain, before I suffer a goddamn stroke.”
“Hope can take it man, she stood side by side with us as good as any brother and if she were a dude, it’d be no contest... She’d be in. We see she makes you happy, you guys are a good match. She can handle it, and we wanted to show not just you but her that she’s got a place here. We want her to stay, too,” My best friend and first mate sniffed and propped his boots on the table, leaning way back in his chair. He raised his eyebrows, and waited for me to finish processing what my boys were telling me.
“Hope is yours, Man; every one of us can see it, but she’s got this club’s respect and fuck what any other club says or thinks… Except for our brothers from another mother up North. They think like us anyhow,” Nothing shrugged, “That’s why we like ‘em.”
I kind of scoffed a little incredulous and picked up my gavel, “So ordered?” I asked and got a rousing round of smiles and agreement, “So entered!” I brought the gavel down on the arm of my chair with a sharp crack, but my eyes were fixed on the property rag in front of me. There was only one thing left to do, really, and that was to convince Hope to wear it. I had no idea how to go about doing that but at the same time, I knew the time wasn’t right. Not right now. She was stressed out enough and add the pissed off to it… nope, it would have to stay here for now.
“I really don’t know what to say, boys, except ‘thank you’, so thank you.” I embraced each of my brothers one at a time until I came to Nothing.
“When you gonna ask her?” he asked.
“I have no idea, definitely not until this shit storm has had a chance to calm down.”
“I was gonna suggest that, she and the sister doing okay?” he asked.
“I don’t know, Man; I really don’t know, Hope seems to be hanging on by a thread and you know Marlin, he’s gonna do everything he can to protect Faith’s privacy and truthfully? That’s why I picked him. That poor girl has been through enough.”
Nothing nodded solemnly, he’d seen quite a bit of shit back when he’d been an EMT or Paramedic or some shit. I knew it was one of the two and that they weren’t exactly the same thing. Didn’t care enough about the distinction.
“Well, you know we’re all here for you and Hope, Captain. Just call.” Atlas said from over Nothing’s shoulder. Nothing turned, nodding back in agreement to what my secretary was saying.
“A man couldn’t ask for a better band of brothers,” I told my men and it was true. I looked down at the table, at the leather bodice-like vest the boys had gotten my woman and I felt a surge of emotion. A lot of things, so many things at once I couldn’t even begin to describe it if I wanted to.
“Get on back to Hope, Captain, we all know you want to, we’ll call you anything else needs attention,” Pyro nodded to me and I looked over all my men in turn one more time.
“You boys see something I don’t?” I asked.
“Yeah, she’s your ‘one’, dude. Now get going!” Lightning winked from the back of the bar and I huffed a laugh.
“Okay, I’m going,” and I went, still marveling at what my boys had done for me and her.
I got back to the house, tucked my clothes back into their Ziploc bags and sealed them tight. I switched back into my dry shorts, the sun having worked its magic on ‘em while I’d been at The Plank and the material had lain out on the back patio’s retaining wall.
I hadn’t bothered to go in the house either coming or going, I’d just gone around it, and had taken the Crash truck back and forth. I looked over my shoulder as Marlin slipped out the back slider.
“How’s she doin’?” I asked.
“Rough. She’s hurting, Jonesing hard for a fix that I ain’t got shit to give her,” Marlin bowed his head and palmed the back of his neck. “It’s worse somehow, you know?”
