Perfect Collision by Lina Andersson

each other forever. The kind of connection you find with a person once, maybe twice, in your entire life—and that's if you were lucky as fuck.
    They'd picked up odd jobs or jumped small scams when they came their way as they continued through the country. Eventually, they'd ended up in Greenville.
    The Marauder Riders hadn't been the first club they'd hung out at, but they'd both liked it. When Brick'd met Donna, Mac and Mitch's mom, Bear had known he either had to continue on his own or stay there with Brick. He'd decided to give it a year to see if it was a temporary lay for Brick or the real deal. During that year, the two of them decided to prospect into the club, and that was it. Bear had never thought about leaving since then.
    When Brick a few years later, told Bear about his plans for the club, Bear had decided to back him. It honestly hadn't been much to think about to him. When the shift of power eventually came, there had never been a question of which one of them should be president. Brick was the brain, the one who could reason, see the long-term plan and who had the big ideas. Bear was his support, the one he liked to reason with, and the one who could pull Brick down when his ideas were a bit too far off. Because they sometimes were.
    Bear would've loved to have sons of his own, and Mac and Mitch had been his substitute sons. When the pink shit, periods, and the girl talk at home became too much, he'd taken Mac and Mitch out for a fishing trip.
    That wasn't the only reason he was backing off, though. If it had been Mitch he wouldn't have been as calm. But this being Mac—in combination with Brick having the balls to bring this up with him—he was going to take it easy. For now.
    “I'm keeping a close eye on him,” he said.
    “If he does something, think you can talk to me before you kill him?” Brick said.
    Bear laughed. “Unless he knocks her up, I'll talk to you first.”
    “If he knocks her up, I'll hold him down while you force feed him his dick.”
    “We have a deal.”
    They sat in silence for a while and then Brick looked at him. “He wouldn't hurt her.”
    “Can we stop talking about my seventeen-year-old daughter and your twenty-four-year-old son?”
    “She's almost eighteen, and he just turned twenty-four. It's six years.”
    “Wow, thanks, bro, that makes me feel so much better!”
    “Go get laid. You're less of a bitch when you've gotten some pussy or ass.”
    Bear looked around and saw Samantha, one of the strippers, standing by the jukebox, and when she noticed him looking she winked.
    “Yeah, I'm gonna go get laid.”
     
    -o0o-
     
    As far as Mac was concerned, Mel was the best fucking cook there was. He'd missed her food when he was in Kansas. He ate at his dad's place most days. No one minded, especially not Mel, because she loved having a full table. It wasn't uncommon that one, or a few, of the other members were there as well. But tonight it was just the family, including Mitch.
    They ate, talked, and laughed, just as usual. This was when Mac felt better than okay. It was all good—really good even. That wasn't the case most of the time.
    He hadn't seen Vi in a month, and the others had started talking about her, and that she hadn't been to the clubhouse in a long time. He'd overheard Wolf asking Bear about it, and Bear admitting he had no idea what was up with her.
    He, of course, knew why she wasn't at the clubhouse. She was avoiding him, and in the process she avoided the entire club. He hated that he'd fucked that up for her. He knew how much she loved being at the clubhouse, how it was a second home to her. He knew it, because it had been the same for him. And he'd taken that from her.
    After dinner they hung out in the TV room, and when Eliza asked him to read to her, he agreed. And once he got into her room, he was surrounded by Vi. The walls in Eliza's room were filled with pictures drawn or painted by Vi. They were all brilliant.
    One was a beautiful redhead in a