Page 43 of Tico

She’s quiet for a moment before I lean down, kissing her temple. “You have my word, Ember, that I’ll do everything in my power to keep you from falling into their hands again. Pyper, too.”

Her body finally relaxes against me again. “Thank you, Diego.”

A thought has me releasing her and standing to cross the room. “I almost forgot,” I say as I pull an envelope out of my cut and walk back to her. “This is your cut from tonight.”

Her lips part slightly at the sight of the thick envelope and then her brows dip in confusion.

“What do you mean, ‘my cut’?”

This time, it’s my turn to stare at her in shock and then I curse under my breath. “Those assholes never gave you anything from your fights?”

Ember frowns and shrugs slightly. “Well, yeah, but at most it was a couple grand. And that only happened a few times. I usually only got a few hundred dollars each fight. That’s why I worked at the diner, their bar, and had my little space in the bar to tattoo. Everything else—utilities, food, clothes, hygiene items, school supplies, personal items—I had to cover for both me and Pyper. Dad said that since he paid for us growing up, it was now my turn to pay for everything. The trailer had already been paid off for years, but if anything needed to be repaired, that cost was on me, too. Same for my ol’ beater of a car.”

I exhale slowly as I try to control my anger. “Well, that’s never going to happen here. You will always get your fair share of the cut every time you fight.”

Her fingers tremble slightly as she takes the envelope from me. Then her eyes widen when she looks inside and her hand flies to her mouth as a strangled sob escapes.

“I’ve never had this much at once, Diego. Never. Pyper… I can finally get Pyper the things she needs. Even replace my tattoo equipment I had to leave behind.”

Tears streak down her cheeks and I sit beside her again, pulling her into my arms as she repeatedly thanks me.

“You don’t have to thank me for this or things like this, Ember. Never.”

“I want to, though,” she says, her voice trembling as she sniffles and tries to stem her tears. “You don’t know how much this means to us. How muchyoumean to me. How much everything you’ve done means to me, to us. Thank you doesn’t even begin to cover everything, but I still want to say it.”

I lean down, kissing her forehead and hold her until her tears subside. A few moments later, she shivers, and I help her stand. “Let’s get you in bed.”

We climb under the covers and she gnaws on her lip as she settles on her side, facing me.

“What’s going through your mind, Vicious?”

She sighs. “I just wish I could be there to hear what Uncle Ryan and the others say when you interrogate them. And to dish out some of their pain as well,” she says with a hard edge to her voice.

I hesitate, knowing she was going to bring this up at some point. On the one hand, I know she said she was willing to help with any female problems, but am I really okay with that? It’s not that I don’t think women can handle the things we do, because I know they can. It’s more of a ‘do I want to expose Ember to that’ kind of scenario. I could always have Xochitl come down with Poison, her Enforcer, but there are times when they’re out on runs, or I should say missions as they call them, and are not able to come right away. It would be nice to not have to look outside the club when those issues arise.

If I really am okay with Ember helping us out with any women we need to take care of…then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for her to be down there tomorrow. If anything, we could use it as a test run to see how she’ll react.

My mind flips back and forth between allowing her or not. Finally, I decide it couldn’t hurt to bring it up tomis hermanos(my brothers) tomorrow in Church. Then a thought occurs to me that I hadn’t thought of before.

“I’ll bring up your offer to help tomorrow in Church, Vicious. But even if the vote doesn’t go your way, I think it would be good if you are down there when we talk to Ryan and later, your dad and Scooter once we get our hands on them. This might just be the closure you need.”

She stares at me in shock, her mouth opening and closing, but no sound comes out. “Are you serious?” she asks, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Yeah, Vicious, I am.”

She lunges forward, kissing me. “Thank you,” she breathes as she pulls back. “You don’t know how much that means to me.”

My mind flashes back to a time a few years ago, but I shut the door on those thoughts before they try to drown me again. I do know how much that means to someone because I’ve been in a similar position before.

I pull her into my arms and she rests her head against my chest, her fingers drawing lazy circles on my chest. Feeling Ember in my arms and in my bed feels right and it brings me a feeling of peace that I hadn’t expected. Peace that I appreciate since I know things are going to be beyond fucking tense around here for a while.

“Night, Diego.”

“Night, Vicious.”

Chapter 23

Ember