Chapter 11

11

brITTA

A lthough Shaw had called to let me know that my mom was okay and he was bringing her to me, I needed to see her for myself. I paced back and forth in his room for the first couple of hours, then I headed downstairs and did the same in front of the bar. When I’d ridden down here with my mom two years ago, the drive had felt like it went so fast. But the three hours that I waited for them to pull into the compound felt as though it took forever.

Finally, Fox announced, “They just pulled through the gate.”

I raced to the door, my gaze searching for my mom. Tears welled in my eyes when I saw Shaw help her out of an SUV. She must’ve been lying down because I hadn’t seen her back there until he opened the door. As I ran toward them, I flashed him a grateful smile before throwing myself at my mom. “I’m so glad to see you. I was worried that we wouldn’t find you in time.”

“I’m okay, sweetie.” She wrapped me up in a big hug. I had missed feeling her arms around me so much, all I could do was lean into her and cry.

After everything she had been through, I should’ve been the one to comfort her, but she seemed more pulled together than I was at the moment.

“We have so much to do to get our lives back.” My mom scrubbed her hands down her face. “I’m sure our landlord has evicted us from the apartment in Chicago by now. It’s been so long that he might have gotten rid of all of our stuff, too. We’re probably going to need to bunk in a cheap motel for a little while, unless you want to go back to the place the Hounds of Hellfire got us instead. If we do that, maybe they’ll let me keep my job. In Chicago, I’ll have to start looking for a new one right away.”

“Oh…um…” My gaze darted toward Shaw, and my mom’s eyes narrowed.

“Who’s that guy?” she asked. “He’s been watching you the entire time we’ve been talking.”

“Shaw,” I whispered. “He’s the Iron Rogues Captain here at the head chapter.”

She quirked a brow. “And why is he looking at me like he’d gladly strangle me for talking about where we’re going to live?”

“Because he’s…um…” I struggled with finding the right word to describe our relationship without telling her that I loved him since I hadn’t said the words to him yet. “Stone. My boyfriend.”

It sounded almost ridiculous to use that word since he was so much more, but it was all I could come up with at that moment.

“You hooked up with Stone? The guy you’ve been thinking about for the past two years?”

Shaw closed the distance between us and slid his arm around me. “She did.”

His answer didn’t make my mom happy. Planting her fists on her hips, she huffed, “I might not know everything about MC life, but from what I understand, my daughter has not been claimed unless she’s wearing your name on her back.”

Shaw slid a loaded look at Fox, who headed down the hallway leading to Shaw’s room. “Britta is very much mine.”

“She’s young and?—”

Fox returned, holding a scrap of leather in his hand that he tossed to Shaw, distracting my mom from whatever she’d been about to say.

Turning to me, Shaw showed me the back of the smaller version of his cut. I traced my fingers over the patch that said, “Property of Stone.”

Happy tears streamed down my cheeks as he slid the leather vest onto my back. “How long have you had this?”

“Two long years.”

His answer blew me away. “Really?”

He gripped the front of the vest and tugged me closer, his blue eyes filled with emotion as he confirmed, “It was the only comfort Fox could give me when he wouldn’t share your location. I struggled hard with not knowing where you were. Knowing that I was going to make you my old lady as soon as we took care of the bastards who were after you and your mom was what allowed me to hold on for so long.”

“That is…wow,” I breathed.

“I almost gave it to you a dozen times, but it didn’t feel right with what was going on with your mom,” he explained. “I wanted to get you answers about her first.”

“And you did better than that,” I sniffed. “You brought her home to me.”

There was a slight gleam of uncertainty in his eyes as he asked, “So this is home now?”

I nodded. “My home is with you, and you belong here. In Old Bridge. With the family you’ve built.”

“Thank fuck because I wasn’t looking forward to talking to Fox about me transferring to the chapter up in Chicago.” He shook his head with a laugh. “I still hadn’t come up with a plan for what to do if you and your mom decided that you wanted to head back to Hounds of Hellfire territory.”

“Let me get this straight.” Mom looked between the two of us. “You two barely interacted with each other the last time we were here but never forgot each other. Now you’ve been together for barely more than a week, and you’re already his old lady?”

I beamed a smile at her. “Yeah, that’s exactly right.”

“Actually, it’s not,” Shaw corrected. I turned toward him, my eyes widening when he pulled a diamond solitaire out of his pocket. Sliding the ring onto my finger, he added, “She’s not just my old lady. She’s the woman I’m going to marry as soon as I can get her down the aisle.”

“Oh my gosh.” I blinked down at the sparkling gemstone, even more stunned than I’d been when Shaw had shown me the property patch. “How about tomorrow?”

I meant it as a joke, but Shaw took me seriously. “I’m sure Molly and Dahlia can get a wedding organized for us that quickly with the help of the other old ladies.”

“I was being held hostage only four hours ago,” my mom grumbled. “There is no chance I’ll be ready to walk my baby down the aisle to you by tomorrow.”

“Take a little more time, but not too much,” Shaw offered. “I’m not gonna wait long to make the woman I love my wife.”

“Love?” I echoed, pressing trembling fingers to my lips.

“I can’t fucking believe I forgot to give you those three little words while I proposed.” He brushed his lips against mine. “It didn’t go how I planned, but I was thrown off by the possibility that your mom was gonna convince you to leave with her.”

“That was never going to happen, Shaw.” I stroked my palms up his chest before twining my arms around his neck. “I love you too much to ever leave you.”

“Thank fuck,” he rasped, claiming my mouth in a deep kiss that had everyone from the Iron Rogues cheering while my mom shook her head with a laugh. “Because I love you so damn much, baby.”