Tex (Hell's Ankhor #5) - Aiden Bates Page 0,17

waved a hand dramatically around the room. “The guest of honor arrives!”

I swallowed and stepped across the threshold. Ballast was packed with club members.

The place exploded into cheers.

I was frozen with shock. I scanned the familiar faces, all grinning and laughing: Blade, Priest, Gunnar, Raven, Maverick, Coop, Siren… And the new faces, too, faces I’d read about in letters but never seen. The man who must be Logan, with his arm looped around Blade’s, Maverick with a baby cradled in his arm and the artist at his side, the handsome police officer grinning at Coop like he hung the moon.

Blade had two beers in his hands. He stepped away from the crowd first, pushed a pint into my hand, and gripped my shoulder hard. “Jasper.”

I blinked hard, fighting back the tears swelling in my eyes. God, I’d missed this. Missed this club. Missed all these people. I didn’t deserve a welcoming like this, not after what I’d done, but I wasn’t going to turn away. I was nearly dizzy with gratitude.

“It’s good to see you, brother.” Blade pulled me into an embrace so roughly that beer sloshed over the edge of my pint glass and splashed onto the floor. I didn’t care at all.

When I pulled away, Priest was at Blade’s side, a soft look in his warm blue eyes. “Welcome home, Jasper.”

“Priest.” Grief suddenly roiled in my stomach. Of all the familiar faces, there was one missing. Ankh. I’d never get to apologize to him—never get to show him how I’d changed, and the unfairness of it was enough to make me breathless. “Priest, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I wasn’t here.”

Priest sighed and squeezed my shoulder. “I know,” he said. “Thank you. We’ll talk about it later, okay?”

I nodded and swallowed hard.

“Enjoy your homecoming first,” Priest said. “There’s plenty of time to catch up.”

It was chaos for a few minutes as I was surrounded by my members, getting hug after hug, slaps on the back, drinks, cheers, and laughter. It was overwhelming, and warm, and not what I’d expected at all. Siren put me in a headlock so Raven could tousle my hair, Gunnar wrapped me in a bear hug that lifted me clear off my feet, and Coop sloshed beer all over the floor in his eagerness to get his turn to do the same. And I finally met Rebel, and Logan, and Jonah—all the new faces I’d read about in letters but had never seen.

“Jazz!” Tex shouted. I glanced away from my conversation with Rebel and Coop and saw Tex dragging a slim young man toward me. He looked young and a little shy; not even the club leathers could take away the youthful air from his deer-like brown eyes and tousled blond hair. “This is Heath!”

Heath—the Heath. The kid who’d been stabbed by a Viper and continued to prospect. “Heard a lot about you, kid,” I said, offering my hand to shake.

Heath startled a little, but shook my hand with a decently firm grip. “What?”

“Well, read a lot,” I clarified. “Tex wrote to me about the Vipers going after you. Sounds like you’ve got balls.”

Tex had written to me about Heath, and Maverick had written to me about Tex—how he’d fought off the Vipers and hauled Heath into Ankhor Works before he bled out. It was just one story of many I’d gotten in the letters the other members had sent me. Tex had really stepped up as an enforcer, especially as the Viper threat had worsened.

A bright flush rose in Heath’s cheeks. “Well—I mean, I didn’t do anything—”

“Besides get stabbed.” Tex shook him a little. “And not leave the club.”

“Why would I leave the club just because I got stabbed?” Heath asked with what sounded like genuine curiosity.

That surprised a laugh out of me, which got Tex laughing, and then Heath was laughing, too.

God, it was good to be home.

As the excitement settled down, everyone got a second round of drinks, and Blade stood up on a chair. He waved his hands over the crowd, grinning as he called for everyone to settle down.

“Speech!” Gunnar called from the back of the crowd.

Coop barked a laugh and echoed it. “Speech!”

I stood near the front, and Tex slung his arm around my shoulder companionably. I couldn’t help but lean a little bit into the touch.

“Yeah, yeah,” Blade said. “Listen, thanks everyone for coming out. I think Jasper was adequately surprised.”

I nodded and kept my eyes focused on him. I couldn’t look around the room—I knew if