Mama Carter winks at me from the kitchen. Hard conversations happening. She asks. I nod. Don't worry, she says.
Your mom is smart. She'll make the right choice. Later, after Hawk and Mama Carter leave, mom sits beside me on the couch. How much did you hear? She asks.
I smile sheepishly. Most of it. Of course you did. Do you want to go? I ask to the clubhouse.
It's not about what I want, she says. It's about keeping you safe. But do you want to? She thinks for a moment. I want you to have friends, to feel protected, to not be afraid all the time.
She looks at me. What do you want, Eli? I want to be somewhere I belong. Mom nods slowly. Then that's what we'll do.
My heart leaps. Really? Really? She smiles, a real smile that reaches. But I have condition.
School comes first. No club business. And when things calm down, we reevaluate. Deal. I say quickly before she can change.
She laughs, ruffles my hair. You've already decided they're your family, haven't you? I touch the packet. They decided first. We moved to the clubhouse two days later.
The house is small but nice. Ramps instead of steps, wider doorways, lower countertops, and who lived here before? I ask Patch as he carries in the last of our boxes. Hawk's uncle, he says. Club's founding member.
He was in a chair, too, his last few years. I wheel around the living room. It feels like it was waiting for us. Patch grins. Maybe it was.
Mom settles into a job at the club's office. Bookkeeping, answering phones. She seems lighter here, less burdened. I start at a new school the following Monday. Hawk and Patch escort me the first day.
Heads turn as we roll up to the entrance. Everyone's staring, I whisper. Let him, Patch says. You've got nothing to be afraid of now. The principal meets us personally.
Hawk and Patch tower over him. We'll need a list of all his teachers. Hawk says, "Their phone numbers, emergency protocol. " The principal nods quickly. Of course, whatever you need. And if anyone anyone bothers Eli, you call us first, Patch adds.
Not the police, not the parents. Us. The principal swallows hard. Understood. No one bothers me that day.
Or the next. Word spreads quickly about my connection to the hell angel. On Friday, Emily appears in the cafeteria. Eli, she calls, rushing over. You're back.
I stare, surprised. Emily, you go here? She grins. Transferred last week after everything that happened. She sits across from.
You're living with the angels now. That's the rumor. On their property, I clarify. In a house. Cool, she says.