Mad Dog (Angel’s Rebellion MC: #2) (Angel's Rebellion MC), стр. 101

“If that's a proposal, it needs work,” Ava muttered much to the amusement of the men at my table.

“Nah, babe. You'll know when I'm proposing,” I said amid the laughter.

“Beau, I probably should have had this discussion with you alone, son, but I think you're man enough to handle it with everyone being here. You're gonna be a big brother in about six months.”

I watched as Beau processed my words, an expression of pure joy crossed his face. “Well, fuck me. Finally, I get to have siblings,” he exclaimed.

“You okay with this, Beau?” Ava asked him anxiously.

“Fuck, yeah, I am. Like Gunny, I'm glad you and Dad found each other. He's due some happiness and so are you. Should I call you Mommy now?” he asked as he grinned wickedly at Ava.

“Oh Lord, he has your sense of humor, Dog. Heaven help us,” she declared as we all busted out laughing at her words.

Viper walked into the room amid our laughter, briefly hesitated when he saw who was at the table with me, but, fuck, he was my family too. I motioned him to come over. He stopped at the bar for a beer, then joined us.

“Private party?” he asked as he sat down.

“Nah, Brother. Beau's ragging on Ava. But I'm pretty sure she can hold her own against him.”

Ava stuck her tongue out at Beau and the snickering continued. It felt fucking great to be laughing. I hadn't realized that I didn't do much of it until Ava came into my life. I watched as Viper studied Ava then me, then with a smile on his face he opened his beer and took a drink.

“You're not gonna fucking tell me you already knew,” I growled at him.

And damn him, the fucker smirked at me. I looked down at Ava to see she was shaking her head.

“The shit you told me about him is true, Dog. I'm pretty sure he knew as soon as I walked out of Doc's office,” she stated. “He truly is a woman whisperer.”

At which, the asshole laughed. Damn the man.

“One of these days, I'm gonna learn how you do this shit, if it's the last thing I do.” I told him as I glared at him. I fucking loved finally being able to joke with a Brother. Someone who I knew understood the responsibilities of a Prez and offered me the chance to relieve stress, kidding around instead of me blowing my top.

“Dream on, Brother. Not gonna happen,” he replied, at which Sarge and Gunny started laughing their asses off again.

I shook my head, nothing else I could do. We sat around the table shooting the shit for another forty-five minutes or so, then it was time for Church. I stood up with Ava in my arms, then turned and sat her back down. I cupped her face in my hands, leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips.

“Not sure how long we'll be, babe. If you're not down here when we get through, I'll come to our room to find you and let you know what's going on. But I want you to dress in the black clothing you picked out.”

She smiled at me, “All right, Dog.”

With that, we made our way down the hallway and into Church.

~*~

Once the last person was through the door and everyone was settled, I started speaking.

“I know you're all wanting to know why I called Church today. And, truthfully, it's for a personal and selfish reason. It's been three months and we haven't learned anything about the drug and sex trafficking. Basically, all we know is that Miller has a playroom in his house, and we only know that because of scoping out the house when the bugs were planted. It was agreed that we would hold off killing Miller until we had something on him and the judge, but plans have changed for Ava and me. Ava's pregnant and there is no way in hell that I will allow Miller to live any longer now.”

Exclamations of congrats rose around the room.

“I know the MC doesn't revolve around me, but if he ever found out that Ava was in town, I'm afraid he’ll try to finish what was started seven years ago. My reasoning is this, Ava was gone for all those years and I'm pretty sure Miller looked for her then. Once she wasn't found, any intelligent person would assume she was gone and the longer she stayed gone, he would have quit worrying about her. He couldn’t have known for sure if her husband had told her anything anyway.

“But if he found out she's back after all these years, he would assume she did know something and was here for payback of some kind. Granted as far as we know, he doesn't know she's back in the state. But with her being pregnant, she's going to have to start going out more often for doctor visits and things. That raises the chances of him finding out she's in town.”

I paused a moment to collect my thoughts and before I could say anything else, Viper spoke up, “Brother, you don't have to justify anything to any of us. We stand behind you.”

All around the room heads nodded in agreement.

“Prez, you tell us what you want done and we'll do it,” Blood spoke up.

“Thanks, appreciate it.”

“Son, every single man in this room has your back and we always will,” Sarge commented.

Gunny called out, “Our Own We Protect.”

And the room erupted in a loud chorus of male voices shouting, “We Protect Our Own.”

I gazed out at all the men surrounding me and sent a brief prayer to the Lord for putting these men in my life. Knowing that these men, my Brothers, had my back regardless of what the situation was, inspired me to want to be the very best President that they could have.

I took a deep breath and began, “Viper