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“Thanks for waiting out here, come in and have a seat,” I offer while they follow in behind me into the house. “I’m making a fresh round of coffee. Anyone want a cup?”
A round of ‘yes, please’ rings out from the guys as they make their way to the couches. Three knocks sound on the front door right as I’m pouring the coffee into mugs.
“I’ll get it,” I hear Rhett call out and a few seconds later I hear, “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here for her,” Cole’s voice says.
“She’s busy,” Rhett retorts and I hear the creak of the door closing but a hard thud hits against wood.
I come around to the living room with a couple of hot mugs and start to pass them out when I spot Rhett blocking the door, keeping Cole from entering.
“It’s okay, Rhett, Cole can come in,” I say and a round of grunts circle the living room where the other guys are sitting.
“See, Remi invited me,” Cole remarks in a gloating manner then charges in, knocking shoulders with Rhett. Sometimes I wonder if my thirteen-year-old is more mature than these grown adults.
After bringing more mugs of hot coffee out for everyone, I settle in the single chair in the room that’s by itself. As I sit, I realize how big each of these five men are compared to me. They all look a little rough around the edges and I don’t know if it’s because of the long night we had or if this is their usual look.
“Umm,” I start but come up blank. I thought this was just a conversation that Rhett and I were going to have but maybe he wanted all of his family here?
“We should probably introduce ourselves,” the guy with light brown hair says.
“Yeah, I guess I wasn’t expecting all of you. Honestly, I thought Rhett was an only child. Didn’t realize he had siblings,” I respond with a nervous chuckle.
“I am an only child, Remi,” Rhett states and gives me a confused look.
“But last night y’all said that you were brothers.” I swing my pointer finger between Rhett and Cole.
“Oh,” the guy with a mohawk slaps his knee then smiles. “How funny, do you know how MC’s work?”
I’m pretty sure I’m looking at them like they’ve each grown two heads. “MC’s?”
“Fuck, this is gonna be a fun morning,” one of the guys spouts off laughing hard.
“Shut up, Brass,” the light brown-haired guy says, giving him a hard look.
“I feel like there’s an inside joke here and I’m the only one not in the loop,” I state not liking that I’m being made fun of. “Someone start talking.”
“I’m part of a motorcycle club, Remi,” Rhett admits. “Do you know what that means?” I shake my head. “It’s a brotherhood of sorts. We’re each other’s family, not by blood but by choice.”
“Like a gang,” I say.
“Not a gang,” Cole speaks up in a rush. His voice is a little more forceful in tone.
“Club, Darlin’. I’m the president of the Dead Road MC the Texas Chapter. They call me Stone,” the light-haired guy says.
“Oh-kay,” I say, trying to process.
“That’s Bulldog, he’s the president of the Montana Chapter here.” He points over to Cole and I see now that they each have a name on a patch sewn onto their leather vests. “This is Hawk.” Stone points to the guy with the mohawk. “This fucker is Brass and you already know Reaper,” he finally points to Rhett.
“Reaper? What the hell?” I ask.
“When you’re patched and accepted to be a brother, you’re given a road name that best suits you,” the guy, Hawk, pipes up.
I nod but don’t say anything as I look over at Rhett because what the hell has he gotten himself into. He looks like the same boy I loved at sixteen but also very different. This version shows a lot of sharp edges and the light that used to shine on him isn’t as bright as it once was. I can only imagine what prison has done to dampen that light.
“I know you and Reaper have a lot to talk about but I wanted to come by and introduce myself to you on behalf of our club,” Stone says, leaning forward and propping his arms on his knees.
“I… umm, appreciate that,” I say.
