“What’s with the voice?” he asked.
Mei narrowed her eyes at him, and the expression seemed to suit her features more than the saccharine smile she’d leveled my way. “Why don’t you mind your own business, Eugene?”
“My bar,” he retorted. “Therefore, it’s inherently my fuckin’ business.”
Mei’s glower deepened, and she muttered, “Touché.”
“What’s with the happy-go-lucky shtick?” he continued, crossing his arms across his barrel chest. “You and Bea decide to swap personalities for the day or somethin’?”
Mei blew a raspberry through her lips and threw her hands in the air. “Jesus, Eugene, it’s calledbeing friendly. You should try it sometime.”
“Like you’re such an expert,” he quipped, but a little twitch in his mouth said he enjoyed this kind of banter.
Her sigh was beleaguered. “You know, I was trying to do my good deed of the year, and you totally ruined it.”
“Good deed?” I asked because as much as I was enjoying the exchange, I was tired of being lost.
Mei winced and gave me a weak smile. “Uh, I may have recognized you from that night at the clubhouse when Boner brought you over? We didn’t meet officially, but my Old Man is Axe-Man, or Axe as you used to know him, and Boner is an idiot, but I love him, so I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Mei…” Eugene said like a warning.
She rolled her eyes at him. “Fine! Bonermayhave mentioned that you had a cosmetology certification, and Axe-Manmayhave mentioned Lin was looking for someone at the salon.” She shrugged.
“So…you were, like, waiting for me to show up?” I asked, confused because there was no way she could have known I would be there that morning.
“It was actually just a coincidence,” she admitted. “Boner and I were still working out how I might run into you. He thoughtthe grocery store, but I figured maybe the mall? And, uh, I hate shopping, so I didn’t relish the idea of just hanging out in a mall all the time until you showed up. He should’ve asked Bea because she loves shopping and she’s friendly as hell, but she’s super pregnant, and Priest basically isn’t letting her out of his sight. Besides, I’m the one with the connection to Lin’s, so…”
She stopped talking because I was laughing.
I couldn’t seem to stop.
God, Aaron Clare was fuckingwonderful.
Mei and Eugene shared a look but let me have my slightly hysterical giggle. I wiped a tear from my eye, careful of my liner.
“He’s crazy,” I said finally. “I can’t believe you agreed to do that.”
Sincere kindness softened the edges of Mei’s precisely drawn features, and when she spoke, her tone was deeper and filled with warmth. “I’d do anything for Boner, and I know he’d do anything for me. That’s the way our crew works. It’s a ride-or-die kinda loyalty.”
My lips twisted instantly. “I know people like to say that, but c’mon, no one wants to die for anyone else. Hardly anyone is that selfless.”
Mei stared at me for a long moment as emotions worked behind her eyes.
“I could tell you a lot of stories about The Fallen that prove different, but they aren’t mine to tell. I’ll only say this; Boner took a knife to the gut for me and the Old Ladies without hesitating. I was abducted and buried alive, but the club saved me. You know what the first thing Boner said to me when I saw him after that? ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t there diggin’ with the others to keep you outta the ground.’ And I know, if they’d let him, Boner would’ve been digging next to the others even as he bled out if it meant keeping me alive.”
A chasm cracking open at my center made me shudder as if someone had ripped out the backbone of my life. I felt unbalanced by the hope that filled the bloody cavern. Longing tasted like acid on the back of my tongue.
Mei reached over to touch my clenched hand on the counter, her fingers light against the faint bruise marks I hadn’t thought were dark enough to conceal on the inside of my wrist.
“If I’ve learned anything in my life, it’s that heroes come in all shapes and sizes, but the best heroes are the ones who are a little tarnished themselves. It means they’re literally willing to do anything to keep the people they care about safe. It means they can understand a little of the hell you’ve been through.”
“You’re saying Boner’s like that,” I murmured, my voice lost to the chaos of emotions wreaking havoc on my insides.
“I’m saying they arealllike that,” she corrected softly. “And it extends to the women, too. We take care of our own at all costs.” She paused, wrapping her hand around my wrist so that her fingertips matched the bruise points, and I shivered at the gentleness of the touch against the cruelty of the one that left those marks.
I sucked in a shivery breath, trying to get myself under control. I wasn’t usually so emotional, but being back with Rooster was a daily barrage against my mental health, and then being infrequently faced with the blinding kindness of Aaron and his family was almost too much to bear.
“You’ve just gotta let us,” she whispered, looking from me to Eugene, who flinched imperceptibly at the implication, scowled fiercely, and then turned on his booted heel to check on a man at the other end of the bar.
