Page 106 of Praying for Thunder

That made me feel… a little shitty. “No.”

“Huh.” Diesel sanitized my chest while asking, “Outside the club?”

Well… fuck. “I think he’s on his own.”

“Huh.”

“What?” I asked, accusingly.

Diesel lifted his hands in surrender. “Nothing. Just thinking that’s a shitty place to be.”

“He. Lied.”

“Nope.”

“Yep.”

“He didn’t go against his club pledge.”

I was done talking about it. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?” I asked, even more irritated. “What does that mean?”

Diesel lifted a brow at Dio—who was laughing. “Hey, this teenager shit is new for me.”

“Thanks for the help, Bastard.”

Dio grabbed his chest, laughing harder. “Okay, wolf man.”

With my life in dangerously high gear, I hadn’t paid attention to Diesel’s club emblem. It was a wolf, howling. “Pup,” I said to myself while thinking how the wolf’s fur, blowing in the wind… was very similar to the Stallions’ horse mane doing the same. “Stallions and Ryders are connected, aren’t they?”

Diesel smirked. “You are proving to be far more intelligent than the man you’re prospectin’ for.”

“You have to be intelligent to be dangerous, I suppose.”

The older man dipped his chin. “Very true.”

There was a moment of quiet as Dio lifted his tattoo gun, then he barked, “Oh, shit! I almost forgot something that would’ve got me castrated.” With his free hand, he reached into his cut. “I have something for you from someone who wished she could hug you.”

Moola… God, I missed her. “Why can’t she?”

Diesel explained, “Her Old Man wants her free of these current complications.”

My eyes popped. “Old Man?”

Dio said, “Yeah. Stew. He and Moola were so frustrated that I couldn’t share club business with them, when it came to a certain Little Guy, they became part of a club.” He smiled at Diesel.

I was flabbergasted. “You? Stew is with you now?”

Diesel gave a nod. “Hell of a man. He patched in pretty fast.”

Dio proudly stated, “Yep. He’s a Redemption Ryder now.” Then handed me a chain wallet. The one I wanted with the lightning bolt. “And she is his Old Lady.”

To say my heart exploded would be an understatement. I could barely talk. They had altered their lives for me. “Dio…Tell her I love her, like a mother.”

A gloved hand held my cheek as he kissed my forehead. “I will. That will mean the world to her.” He hovered over my head. “She insisted she would recognize her ‘shitting bandit’ no matter how old he was now.” His voice cracked. “And she did. Within minutes of being here.”