certifiable—and he sure as shit wasn’t getting better with old age. “Well, that’s reassuring.” At his snort, I grumbled, “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”
“Me either, honestly, but when she came to us today and told us about the scholarship, about her turning it down?” He sucked down a sharp gulp of air. “Something’s gotta give, man, and I don’t want it to be her sanity.”
I flickered him a look. “What do you mean? Ama’s okay.”
“Okay? She’s barely coping, Ink, and you know that as well as I do. Maybe if she has yours and the other two’s balls in her fist, she’ll be able to move on. Make something of herself.”
My eyes narrowed at him. “You think Rhode Island would take her next year?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. But I wasn’t even thinking of that. I think that no matter how secure she feels, she’ll never be able to be far from home. Not about to complain about that. Like I said, I’d have dealt with it, but I didn’t want her in Rhode Island. So fucking far away. But I hate that the choice has been made for her by that prick.”
My jaw clenched as I nodded. I knew exactly what he meant. Ever since I’d heard about the scholarship, I’d been dreading her leaving. Well, dreading something that I’d known would probably never happen thanks to Ama’s issues.
Still, the fear of her somehow taking those issues and ramming them in the balls had filled me. And yeah, I knew how fucked up that was.
I wanted her to overcome her anxiety, but I didn’t want her to go.
Didn’t want her to leave the clubhouse.
To leave Rutherford.
To leave me.
Fuck, I was a selfish bastard.
Licking my lips, I rumbled, “I’m too old for her. But even worse than that, I’m no good.”
“Think we both know that’s BS.”
I’d done shit in the army, shit no fucker should ever see, never mind do. No way did Ama need my level of crazy in her life.
No way.
No how.
“Anyway, not giving you a choice. Ama can’t just sit around the clubhouse all day. Can’t just stay at home, either. Think we both know where the natural place for her to be is, and it ain’t fabricating guns. So, either listen to me or don’t, but I want you to apprentice her.”
My eyes widened. “You want her to become a tattoo artist?”
“What else can she do?” he challenged, his gaze on his daughter.
“She can still be an artist.”
“Nah. Ama needs a purpose. This will be good for her and I know she’s been interested in the parlor for a while now. Not just because you’re there every evening, either,” he tacked on wryly. “She’ll earn her own money, get some independence, and if I know you as well as I think I do, she’ll get an old man out of it too. So if she asks, do it.” He shoved me forward so hard I almost collided with the wall before he slouched off as silently as he’d arrived.
For a second, I was floored.
Then, I was just uncertain.
It wasn’t every day a man gave his MC brother permission to take his daughter as his own, but then, Ama was no regular daughter, and I was no regular MC brother.
Sucking down a breath, I contemplated my next move. One that would be for Ama’s good as well as my own, because even though I was selfish, I tried not to be where she was concerned, tried to fight my natural inclinations.
For her, I’d always tried to be a better man.
❖
Saint
“You gonna kiss me or not?”
I narrowed my eyes at Bubbles. “Not.” Fucking her so hard the bedframe rattled, I planted Ama’s beautiful face over the hard-lined one of the sweetbutt I was currently screwing.
To Bubbles, I did everything I couldn’t do to Ama. I fucked her hard, fast, and dirty. I was rough and mean with Bubbles who, fucked up as it was, loved me for it. And yeah, that was no word of a lie. She loved me and I just barely tolerated her.
I was a bastard. I knew that. But to me, she was a hole, one I could fuck with no obligations. That was her job here, after all. It wasn’t just me who treated her that way, and maybe it was a testament to the fact I wasn’t all bastard that I felt shitty about what I was doing most of the time.
When I blew my wad inside her, I immediately rolled off