Remy knew this would change their minds altogether. The unexpected shoot out and Jaxon’s breaking and entering would result in upgrades of every single camera within the clubhouse and, for fuck’s sake, the alarms would not be so goddamn loud next time!

Next time, Remy scoffed. That wasn’t going to happen. He was going to sort this fucker out once and for all.

He bitterly watched as Jaxon extended his hand out for Sara again. He seemed to be adamant about something. Heart lurching in Remy’s chest, he watched as Sara shook her head. His Birdy shook her beautiful, amazing, faithful head! Looking dejected, Jaxon dropped his hand down, and then he spoke to her again. And once more, his Birdy shook her beautiful, amazing, faithful head! More words, and then Jaxon was gone, moving out of the frames and disappearing. On his own.

If Remy had not been around the other members, he might have cried. He’d known she loved Jaxon, and the extent had always terrified him. He always wondered if she would flee to him. Now he knew.

Remorse flooded him hard. After what he did to her… He gulped the knot in his throat. How could he have questioned her loyalty? Fuck, he was a piece of shit unworthy of her love. Love. Yes, love. She loved him. Loved him more than Jaxon. This footage was living, irrefutable proof of her loyalty.

Unable to hold back, he hurried out of the surveillance room, ignoring everyone’s calls. He rushed to where his Birdy was, sitting in the bed, wrapped in a ball. He approached her slowly and hesitantly. When her face came into view, he was delighted to find she wasn’t crying. Because crying might have meant she regretted not taking Jaxon’s hand. Instead, a look of fortitude adorned her face.

When she felt his presence, she looked at him. There was relief in her eyes when they connected with his, and that was his undoing. He collapsed to the ground and wrapped his arms around her waist, bringing her out of her ball and to the edge of the bed. He sank his head into her lap and shook with the happiness and gratitude he felt for her.

Always he’d been alone. Until her.

Her hands raked through his thick hair and then she held him for dear life. After some time, he looked up at her, hardly able to control his emotions when he stated, “I love you more than anything in this world.”

Her lips quivered and a single tear fell from her eyes. “I-I love you, Remy.”

He wiped the tear before it reached the bottom of her face. “I’m so sorry for questioning you. For–”

“Don’t,” she whispered with a shake of her head.

“It couldn’t have been easy for you saying… saying no to him.”

“Sometimes the pain is worth enduring,” she responded quietly.

He took her face in both his hands and kissed her. These were the lips he could never grow tired of. The lips that he now knew cherished him as much as he cherished her. The lips that belonged to a woman he would love until his last breath. He was going to marry this woman and, fuck, as much as he hated kids, he wanted them with her. He wanted a dozen little Sara Nolans running around with pouty lips; who cried at the drop of a hat; who poured out their every emotion because they sucked at hiding them; who watched shitty movies and listened to even shittier music. He wanted it all. Enough to walk away from the fucking Jackals and move someplace quiet to start over again. Because what kind of father and husband sold drugs and killed druggies? He wanted to change. She made him want to be a fucking superhero.

“He’s going to start a war,” she then said. “He said he’s going to burn down the bar first tonight.”

He gripped her tighter. “Why did he tell you that?”

“Because he wanted me to come with him before it happened. He wanted to put me in one of their hideouts. Of course he trusted me enough not to tell you this…” Her words trailed away. He watched her with sadness. It wouldn’t have been easy at all selling Jaxon out like this.

“Please be careful,” she begged him, voice breaking. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. Just take care of yourself.”

She shouldn’t be worried about him. Remy was good at dodging death and putting the fuckers into the ground. They didn’t call him Reaper for nothing. He was more than capable of stopping this kind of retaliation and defending his club.

“You don’t have anything to be worried about, Birdy,” he reassured her.

He kissed her again, and she held him tighter to him as she tenderly stroked his lips. Her love for him was leaking right out of her and it wrenched his heart again. For a moment, she couldn’t stop herself. She hugged him so hard and kissed him so deep, he felt drugged by the intensity of it.

“I gotta sort this thing out,” he murmured to her, brushing his nose against hers. “I’ll be back sometime tonight. Stay in the room and keep the door locked. Just in case. Okay?”

She nodded her head. “Okay.”

He kissed her hand and got up, drinking her beauty in one last time before he walked out of the room. Now that he was away from her his anger resurfaced. How could they fucking think they could start a war? Where had this even come from? The Scorpions were dumber than he thought. All that talk from Fritz was starting to make sense. They had to end this shit once and for all. These fuckers had uprooted into their neighbourhood and now enough was enough.

He barged into the surveillance room and laid down the actions for tonight. Then they unloaded a damning amount of guns from the artillery room and climbed on their bikes, each carrying a duffel bag on their back.

“Stop drinkin’ yourself to death,” he scolded Fritz on his way out. “So fuckin’ sick and tired of you being a useless asshole when we need you. Lay off the fuckin’ booze tonight and keep guard. The slightest noise and you call me.”

Sober Fritz was a man that you could depend on. Drunk Fritz was a useless piece of shit that deserved a beating. At the moment, he was in between, so the bastard needed to lay off the alcohol for one goddamn night.

“What do you intend on doin’ to Jaxon?” Prez asked Remy before he climbed on his bike. “Because that’s the real problem here – not the Scorpions.”

“That douchebag dug his own grave,” Remy replied. “For now we wait and see how the night goes and if he will actually be stupid enough to set fire to our shit.”

“So you trust your girl’s word?”

“You saw the tape yourself, Manny.”