Leave a Trail (Signal Bend #7)(124)

Until Show had brought her ex-father up, Adrienne had had no inkling he was in her thoughts at all, but once the idea was out, she knew it was true. Charles Renard had been standing in the corner of her mind, leaving a shadow of loss and discontent. But Show was wrong. “No. I don’t want him back. I’ll never want him back.” She would never forgive him for erasing her from his life and driving away in an empty U-Haul. There was no coming back from that. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t forget him; she would never forgive him.

“But you miss him?”

She shook her head. “I miss my mom. I miss the way things were before she got sick. But maybe that’s not even true. If she hadn’t died, I wouldn’t know you or Shannon or anybody here. I wouldn’t have Badge. I don’t think I’d give Signal Bend up even if it meant I could have my mom back.” The horror of that thought brought her tears up and over, and she put her hand to her mouth to hold back the sobs.

Show pulled her into a sheltering embrace, and she cried against his dense chest, tucked into the leather of his kutte. “Shhh, little one. I understand. Doesn’t mean you love her less. No matter how bad things get, it’s good we can’t go backwards. We deal with what life throws at us and find strength in what we live through. We make what comes next the best we can. If there’s no place for your father in your future, then that’s the way it is.”

Sniffling, she sat back and looked up into Show’s kind, handsome face. “I have my father in my future.

I have you.”

He smiled and kissed the top of her head. “Well, you know I’m glad to have the job. I sure love you.

Lookin’ forward to spoiling that grandbaby you’re makin’ me, too.”

“You were wrong about me and Badge, you know. About him being wrong for me.”

“Wondered if you were ever gonna get around to tryin’ to make me eat that. But no, I don’t think I was.

I think you were right for Badge, and that made him right for you. He’s a strong guy, been through more than most. But he needed a special person to show him his balance. That was you. Sometimes I look in your eyes and think I see something in you that’s older than time. You are something special. You look for the good in people. You bring it out of them. Badge is a lucky son of a bitch.”

With a bittersweet sigh, Adrienne leaned into his hold again, resting on his chest, letting the deep, steady thump of his strong heart settle her body and mind.



CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX



Generally, presenting a Prospect with his new kutte was a matter of handing it to him with a handshake.

Prospects were grunts, sentenced to a least a year of being the members’ bitch and doing the shittiest work they could find. The celebration came afterwards, if they made it through a patch vote.

But Nolan signing on as Prospect was something else entirely. On his eighteenth birthday, on a sunny day in late April, the Horde threw him a party. He was still in high school, having promised his mother he’d graduate. There had been a lively discussion in the Keep about whether to wait until he graduated before they let him wear a kutte. A few of the Horde—Zeke was the most vocal—had trouble with the thought of a high school kid, even one with only a month left to graduation, wearing a kutte.

But Badger, his sponsor, had argued hard, stressing the ways Nolan was already acting as a Prospect, the responsibilities he’d already taken on, his already tight bond to the club, and the vote had gone his way.

He’d obviously not be allowed to wear his new kutte at school, but he was prospecting before he’d even graduated. Badger thought he might have to pay extra hard for that privilege. He’d seen the intent in Zeke’s normally inscrutable face: Nolan would be put to the test before he was brought up for a patch vote. Badger thought he’d do some testing himself. He was glad the kid was prospecting. He knew Havoc would be busting his seams with pride. But getting that kutte so early would be the last special consideration Nolan would get. He’d have to sweat to earn his patch, prove he was worthy of it. There was no pride or glory in being handed an honor like that.

Cory seemed conflicted, proud and happy for Nolan, but worried. Things had changed so much since the fall, though, that Badger thought she could take some ease. Signal Bend was quiet. The Horde’s work was entirely focused on the town—getting the B&B going again, as it had been now for a few weeks, running Valhalla Vin, taking care of folks’ troubles and disagreements, keeping order. The only ways they were crossing the line now were a few protection runs that might not be entirely squeaky clean and some black market runs for Tasha. The Horde made sure she had the resources to care for people the way they needed care.

But even those were infrequent occurrences. They were running more legit than Badger had ever known them to be. Moreover, the new Sheriff had been close with Keith Tyler, and had taken on his mentor’s friendly feelings toward the club. So long as Signal Bend stayed off their dispatch, the Horde would not be harassed. So Nolan was coming into the club at a time when Cory could relax a little and feel as assured as anyone could ever be, regular citizen or outlaw, that her boy would be okay.

Badger liked it this way—calm. He and Adrienne were starting a family. They’d bought a house on about fifteen acres, with a small barn, not far outside of town. He wanted their life to be a quiet one. They both had deep scars, inside and out, from the life the Horde had been living, and he felt that he’d had enough outlaw excitement in his life. He was only twenty-seven, but he felt considerably older. Now he wanted to work his straight job at the B&B, riding to work every day with Adrienne. He wanted to go home and spend the night with her, being married, fixing up their house, getting ready for their son, f*cking in their bed, with Hector closed out of the room so he wouldn’t sit there and stare.