Azrael jerks back slightly and watches me closely. “You sure you?”
“Positive.” I give a curt nod.
Azrael has been my best friend and knows me better than anyone. He’ll back my plan, whatever I intend to do. I might have already had one talk with Reaper, but I’m gonna have to have another one. This one being the one when I ask him and Ember’s other uncles for permission to claim Ember. Officially.
There’s a difference between being able to protect her and claiming her as mine. Reaper probably knew it was going to come to this, but he still expected me to do things right because this is his niece.
“Let’s get this shit over,” Reaper states coming in the room we hold church. The last of the stragglers were right behind him.
Angel closes the door, and Reaper takes his seat as he bangs the gavel down.
“Scythe, what did you find?”
Scythe clears his throat, his face that of pure exhaustion, probably from working overtime on research, mixed with Josephine and him having the baby. I knew they struggled with August sleeping still. The kid can’t be more than seven months or so, but with the women on lockdown, he’s got them in his room with him as well. Not that Scythe would ever complain. Man loves his woman and kid.
For the next hour, Scythe goes over everything he’s found, and my gut doesn’t sit well with me at everything he’s learned. The ‘Nameless Militia’ don’t play around, and if we don’t handle things just right, we could be looking at the same fate as others who go up against them. Too bad for them, we’re not like others. We’ll stand together and take them on.
We also have the backing of Diablo’s woman’s father, who has his own men.
Diablo again offers to deal with this himself and pay the debt, but Reaper and Angel both tell him it’s not going to happen, which we all agree.
“We got a way of contacting this Dead Eye fucker?” Reaper asks, eyes on Scythe.
“I can get word to him,” Styxx answers, earning Reaper’s attention. “Guy takes to the streets, I’ll find a way to get word through those in the homeless community.”
“Best way if you do that is to go to the alleyway by the bypass,” Beast remarks. “Those will be the ones who’ll get the message to him. You don’t even have to say a word. Just walk around a bit.”
“We did our best to avoid that alleyway as much as possible,” Diablo grumbles. “You either ended up dead or wishing you were for a while there. Don’t know if it’s changed much, but I doubt it.”
“Right,” Reaper grunts and looks back at Styxx. “Take Beast and Diablo with you.”
“On it,” Styxx grunts and taps his knuckles against the table.
“The women are staying on club property until this is done,” Reaper goes on, eyes coming to me, “I know Ember’s got a shift, but until this is over, we gotta keep her here. I don’t want to risk it.”
“Agreed.” With this new information, I’m right there with him. “I’ll talk to my cousin and see thather schedule is changed for the time being.” I know Ember’s gonna be pissed but at least she’ll be safe here at the clubhouse in order to be pissed.
“Azrael, I want you and Harvester to go along one side of the fence line, make sure there are no holes. Ghost, Thanatos, I want you to go the other way. Prospects can handle the bar and other shit. I want a member on the gate. Any volunteers?” Reaper glances around the table, looking at each member.
Serpent raises his hand. “I’ll do it.”
“Good.” Reaper nods and looks toward the others at the table. “Tombstone, Angel, Daemon, are heading to deal with a meeting for the next car shipment we need to get ready. The rest of you, be ready to switch out and do what needs to be done. I’m not taking any chances with this shit.”
I couldn’t agree more. Taking chances on something like this could get someone killed, and that’s not what I want to see happen.
Reaper ends church and everyone makes their way out. That is, except for Tombstone, Angel, and Reaper. The three of them stay seated, eyes locked on me.
“Got something to say?” Angel asks the moment it’s just the four of us in the room.
“Yeah.” I nod and meet each of their gazes. “It’s more of a question to ask because I respect the threeof you and wouldn’t go against the club. I want your permission to claim Ember as my ol’ lady.”
“You want us to give permission to do something that you’ve already done?” Tombstone scoffs.
“I haven’t yet. Do I want her as mine? Yes. Have I decided she was going to be mine again? Hell yes. Have I told her that she was gonna be mine? Damn right. She and I have history, and we’re working through what happened between us. Regardless, at the end of the day, she’s mine, and I want her to be my ol’ lady. I want to put the ring that was given to me by my grandma on her finger. I want your permission to make it happen. She’s mine.”
The three men stay silent for a long while and look between each other. Finally, it’s Reaper who speaks. “I told you when I put you in charge of our niece’s protection that you needed to fix what happened between you two. You want her as yours, if she wants that then I’ll give my permission, but you fuck her over and I’ll kill you.”
“That won’t happen,” I tell him. “No way am I losing her by fucking anything up. Not again.”
