"If you need a friend, don't look to a stranger. You know in the end, I'll always be there." -When In Rome, The Promise

Urgent Choices.

"Gorgeous girl." His deep voice coated me softly in my dreams, pulling me out of my fitful slumber. My eyelashes fluttered open as my sight attempted to adjust amidst the haze of tiredness. I could feel his strong hand softly graze down my tangled hair. Hair that was tangled from my frantic run and the subsequent few minutes of calm I had when I closed my eyes.

"Hi," I said in a groggy voice.

He let a soft laugh escape his soft lips. "Hey. Wanna tell me why you ran all the way down here?"

I adjusted my body and sat up. Kai grimaced and leaned forward, running his hand over the side of my sore cheek. My flesh burned underneath his touch and I could almost imagine that I had a giant purple bruise coated in a few select layers of shame and betrayal that lined it for all the world to see. If there was ever a truer statement when people said someone wore a badge of shame, I imagined that my picture was provided for reference.

"My dad's pissed about the fight," I admitted and from the corner of my eye I could see Kai's father shuffling on his feet as he looked on. "He's being stubborn and I said some stuff back to him."

"That's no excuse for hittin' a lady," Gas Mask commented, as he pulled a cigar from a nearby ashtray and light the end. A billow of thick smoke clouded the air above him as he blew it out, creating a ring that mimicked a halo to bounce through the garage. "So, is your father mad just about the fight?" he prodded and I shook my head.

"No," I admitted and Gas Mask pursed his lips as he nodded in silent understanding.

"He's mad about my son."

I sat and explained in detail about my father's past agreement with the Hell's Bastards and my uneventful history with their President's son. I talked in great length about the Feds sweeping in to take apart everything my family had ever known, and then I explained about my father's hopes to use me as a bargaining chip in getting the Bastards to help him out of his current bind. When all the words had escaped my lips, I felt more drained than I had ever felt before. It was as if I was shedding pieces of the pain that had clung to the inside layers of my skin for all these months. While it was draining, I felt a sense of calm— a sense of liberation from the cinderblocks of duty.

Sitting there staring at Kai Heyman while I talked, I was shedding the last little pieces of my duty to the Tyrs and my family. Shedding them in hopes of making room for a new club, a new future, and a new hope. I was making room for Kai and everything that came with caring about him.

"So, he's looking to trade a claim for protection?" Gas Mask asked, as he drummed his fingers on an old workbench next to him. The wrenches that lay perfectly lined up across it clanked with each forceful pound of his fingertips.

"Yes, but I don't want—" Gas Mask interrupted me with a raised hand and I slunk back into my seat.

"Seems like there's only one solution to that little problem." He turned his focus towards his son. "You go and stake a claim on her."

Kai sputtered, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed hurriedly.

"In all fairness, I just met your son, and I'm sure that he's not looking to tie himself to anyone after a few days of knowing them. I could be a secret serial killer or collect bags of human fingernails for all he knows. And even if he didn't care, the minute he leaves for boot camp, my father will void any claim whether I like it or not. There's nothing stopping him from shipping me off somewhere," I stated with a hint of sadness. This was my reality. My screwed up, twisted excuse for a reality.

My life wasn't filled with Saturday night movie marathons and posters of kittens with positive affirmations written across the top. It was filled with expectations and the realization that I didn't own my own life. No matter how independent I felt I was, I would always be a club woman, and in being that, I would eternally be under someone else's control. I didn't know a different kind of life. I would someday trade one situation for another. A father for a husband, but both men would dictate how I existed. Behavior. Duty. Expectations. My life was riddled with the fragments of what it meant to live a life immersed within an outlaw club.

Leaving it behind would never be an option— you didn't leave the people or things you loved behind.

"Well, you're in a pickle then, Miss Rachel, but there is a solution. I just don't think you're ready to hear it tonight. So, until then, I've gotta ask the million dollar question here? You going home tonight, Rachel, or should I be callin' my wife to make up a bed for you?"

I looked to Kai and he shrugged. "Would it be alright?" I asked, turning back to Kai's father. He nodded his head, before he took another long puff from his smoldering cigar.

Kai helped me up and took my hand, clutching it firmly in his. With a reassuring smile, he guided me out of the small garage and to a newer looking black truck. Like a perfect gentleman, he opened the door and ushered me inside. He did everything that I had expected at the start of our date, but this time, he was doing it in a different capacity. This time it was executed through not only affection, but friendship.

We took a sharp bend before the town opened up almost immediately before my eyes. The clouds parted and the stars peeked through the dark sky like millions of twinkling fireflies, bouncing their rays onto the open road below. Through the thick pane of glass that separated the warmth of the truck from the chill of the winter night, you could hear the crashing of the waves against the rocks of the bay. They slapped and gushed as they collided with the hard stone, and at precise times, their sound ramped up to compete with the loud hum from the truck's mighty engine. It was like a delicate crescendo, building and retreating the longer we travelled, until we came to a stop in front of a newer looking clubhouse with an old gated pass.

Travelling down an old dirt road, past the small building, a two story home came into view. Through the dark night, the light blue of the wooden siding peered through the faint light from the porch lights. The truck engine died down and the minute I opened the door, the delicate symphony that the world had engaged in climaxed with the first bitter chill that smacked me in the face. Crisp ocean air, laced with hints of sand and salt, mixed expertly with the aromatic scent of discarded seaweed. It reminded me of my childhood, when my parents took me to the beach on those rare occasions. The only thing missing in order to make it perfect, was the warmth of the sunshine beating down on your face, warming you to the core with a single warm kiss.

The front door swung open and Catherine cupped around her eyes to focus in on us. Her eyeglasses hung from a silver chain and knocked against her chest as she stepped out onto the porch.

"Hi, sweetie," she greeted, as she held out her arm and ushered me into the warmth of her home.

The fire crackled and cast shadows across the brown living room, the Christmas tree in the corner trying its best to participate in the dim lightshow. An old Rottweiler snored away on a few old pillows near the tree, kicking her legs outward as she dreamed. I hesitated for a moment, because I had always had a slight fear of dogs. Kai nudged me further inside, just as the dog began to stir. I jumped back a smidge, ready to turn and run from the comfort of the Heyman home.

"Don't mind Poi, she's old and will probably sleep through your entire visit," Kai whispered, "My mama spoils her so much in her old age that she's takin' to being fat, happy, and always asleep."

"Come on, Rachel, I'll make you a cup of tea," Catherine offered, as she flicked on the light switch, bathing the old kitchen in yellowing light.

I sat down on a wooden chair and rested my hands on the mahogany colored table. The yellow wallpaper of the kitchen had a lattice pattern and the starched white curtains that hung over the window proudly displayed hand-embroidered sunflowers and daisies. Catherine fetched a couple of tea cups from an oak cabinet and set them down on the pale green Formica countertop. After she was done, she set a cup in front of me on the table and took a seat. Shooing Kai off to the upstairs to make up a bed, she steadied her gaze on me. Her motherly stare made me feel both nervous and deeply cared for.

My mother was nurturing; not in a picture perfect manner, but she tried. When I was little, she made all of my lunches for school, and tried to bake like other mothers. She tried her best, but in the scheme of life, her duties were always directed towards my father and the club.

Catherine, on the other hand, screamed doting mother. I imagined that she was the type of woman who took part in school bake sales and collected blankets in the winter for charity. I imagined that she was the type of woman who read stories at bedtime, and checked the closets for monsters, before leaving a kiss on a forehead to pay the weaver of dreams for good dreams.

"My husband explained your situation," she started as she took a sip of her tea and looked at me over the rim of her porcelain cup. "Seems like you need to make some hard decisions, sweetheart."

"I know, " I admitted, "The problem is that I'm not sure what I should do."

"You could stay here," she blatantly offered, without even breaking a sweat, and for a moment I wondered if staying in this warm home with loving people was a solution to all of my future problems.

The choice was there in front of me. Kai. If I chose Kai, I was choosing him over everything that I had been groomed for. I was choosing his club, his family, his future, and saying goodbye to everything from my past. After the argument with my father, I realized that there was only one thing I could do to mend what was broken between us— choose Lex Slater. The choice stared back at me from a pit of darkness where it would always be dark. It would always be lonely. Life with Lex Slater would be a rollercoaster of what ifs, broken promises, and lack of trust. It would be a pit of sadness and shame. A pit of never knowing.

I knew that Kai was risky as well. He was leaving for the military and there was the what ifs and the not knowing; but was it permanent? Was it just a building block in the direction of a solid foundation?

Could I say yes—essentially choosing Kai and all of the possible uncertainty that came with only knowing someone for such a short period of time. Was love that simple?

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A/N: Hey Guys!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Don't forget votes/comments.

Rachel needs to make a decision. Should she jump feet first into a forever with a boy she's only known a few days? Or is her youth playing against her and making her naive?

<3 Amina