Leave a Trail (Signal Bend #7)(102)
“We lean on each other. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to go?”
He picked up her hand. “Yeah. I guess it is. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” She lifted his hand and kissed it. “Is all this why Isaac and Show fought like that? I still don’t understand that.”
“Isaac is giving up the gavel. It makes sense—he’ll be locked up for years, and he won’t be close enough to lead from inside. But Show threatened to turn in his patch when Isaac and Len go in. Leave the club. Isaac winning that fight means that Show stays and takes the gavel officially. He doesn’t want it, but he’s the right one to take it.”
“They fought so hard over that? I don’t understand.”
“Isaac and Show are a team. They just are. They finish each other’s sentences. I don’t think Show knows what the Horde is without Isaac. I don’t think any of us do. When he was hurt before, we just sort of spun our wheels until he came back. But Isaac thinks the Horde will fold if Show’s gone, too, and he’s right.”
“Wait—is Isaac leaving the club?”
“No. He’ll die Horde. Len, too. They bleed Horde blood. But they’ll be away so long, the club will have to go on without them until they come back. We’ll have to figure it out.”
Adrienne started to cry. She was sobbing before she recognized that her sadness was so acute it required tears.
Badger pulled her close, burying his face in her hair. “Fuck, babe. I’m sorry. I knew I shouldn’t have told you so much. I’m sorry. Please.”
She shook her head and sniffed, getting control of her rampaging emotions. “No—I’m glad you told me. I’m just so sad for everyone. It’s so sad.” The tenuous hold she’d claimed slipped, and she wept again.
This time, Badger just held her, rocking her slowly, his lips on her temple.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Badger held Adrienne as close to his body as he could, tucked into his kutte, her feet off the ground, his face snug in the crook of her shoulder. He breathed her in, feeling the gossamer floss of her hair caress his face. She had him in the same grip, with her slender arms fastened around his neck, her face tucked likewise into his shoulder.
He pursed his lips and kissed the sweet flesh of her throat. “I love you,” he murmured, letting her feel his words.
“I love you, too. You have to come home. You have to.”
He leaned back a little, so that he could see her face, her deep blue eyes rimmed with long, amber lashes, the light spray of freckles that kissed her skin. “I will. I promise. I’ll come home, and we’ll get married, and things will be better. They’ll be good. I promise.”
She nodded, her eyes going wet. When he set her feet back on the gravel lot, she grabbed the placket of his kutte in both hands and gave it a shake. “You just made me a promise. No take-backs.”
He laughed and kissed her nose. “No take-backs. I’m coming back.” She stepped into him again and laid her cheek on his chest.
Holding her to him again, Badger looked over her head at the scene around the clubhouse parking lot.
The Horde had been forthcoming enough with family that they all knew the men were leaving today for big trouble. Isaac, Show, and Len were all wrapped around their women the way he was wrapped around his.
He’d made Adrienne a promise, and he meant to keep it, but there was no guarantee he would. To come out of what they were about to do—even with the Feds in their corner somehow—would require a kind of luck the Horde hadn’t had in years, if ever.
They were leaving Double A, Dom, and the Prospects home to take care of the town, in case their plan blew back on their loved ones again. It made them fewer in the fight they were headed to, but they couldn’t leave their home vulnerable. There was only so much Lilli could do on her own. The old ladies were locking down with the kids again—and the puppies, too. Isaac and Show had said goodbye to their children already; they were in the clubhouse playing innocently with the pups, being watched over by club girls while the Horde said goodbye to their women.
Badger had given Adrienne the most rudimentary shooting lesson, not having time to do more. But she knew how to make a handgun fire—and how to make sure it didn’t, unless she wanted it to. It was the best he could do, and he hoped with everything he had that she wouldn’t need to try out her scant skill while he was away.
“Okay, brothers. We need to be on the road.” Isaac stood with his arm still tight around Lilli’s shoulder.
He kissed her temple, whispered something into her ear, and then stepped away from her. That was the sign for them all. Badger gave Adrienne a last, long squeeze and then lifted her chin up and kissed her, taking from her soft lips and tongue as much of their love as he could. His hand slid around her neck and down her spine to lightly brush her fresh ink. His ink. A badger pawprint, high between her shoulder blades. Still new, it was tender, and she winced subtly at his touch.
“Sorry, babe. Can’t keep my hands off it.” He spoke with his lips still on hers.
She pulled away a little and smiled up at him. “It’s okay. I love that you love it. I love it, too.”
Show’s shadow moved over them, and Badger stepped back. “I’m ready.”
Show nodded, then turned to Adrienne and cupped her cheek in his hand. “Love you, little one. You be strong. I’ll keep him safe for you.” Like Isaac, Show still bore the marks of their battle in the ring.