Zeus tagged me too, his eyes sharp and alert despite the fact it was three in the mornin’ and he had a set’a twin toddlers that kept him up most nights. He unfolded from the couch where he’d been shootin’ the shit with his son, King.
He and Curtains hit me at the same time.
“You pick up a stowaway at Beaker’s?” Zeus asked, towerin’ over Blue by more than ten inches. His fierce, craggy face was fixed in a scowl that coulda seemed furious if you didn’t know him well.
“What’s in the bags?” Curtains asked next, eyes narrowed at the duffels Blue and I carried. “See, Z, this is why I shoulda gone with him. Boner never does things right.”
I rolled my eyes. “I get things done. Who the fuck cares if they’re right?”
Beside me, Blue smiled. Even outta the corner’a my eye, that shit was gorgeous.
“You deal with business ’fore you picked up a pretty girl?” Z asked.
“A little more business than I was expectin’, but yeah,” I agreed, then handed the duffel to Curtains. “There were trackers in the bag, but they were hot on our tail, so I had to get rid’a them.”
“Dude, I could’a done a reverse––” Curtains started, geeky excitement lightin’ up his eyes.
I held up a hand. “Not sure this is related to Beak, but I came across some thugs robbin’ Evergreen Gas Station tonight.” I winced at the look on both Curtains’ and Z’s faces ’cause they were right, it was fuckin’ dumb to get involved, but… “They tried to fuck up Blue here, and I stepped in. Wasn’t gonna let them hurt or take her, and that’s what they had planned after robbin’ the place. The motherfuckers fucked up my bike, so we took off in their van and found these.”
Lion approached then, his cop instincts probably goin’ off like an alarm after the call I put in to him. “What’ve you got here, Boner?”
I jerked my chin at Blue, who unzipped the top’a one bag to show the glitterin’ hoard within. “Think we might’ve stumbled on the stolen loot from the jewelry robberies you mentioned.”
“Fuck,” Lion and Zeus said at the same time for different reasons.
“That’s about the extent’a it, yeah,” I agreed. “They came after us, but I threw the trackers out and lost them on the Sea to Sky. Figured we could talk next moves here.”
“Good thinkin’,” Lion agreed.
“You’re not gonna call the cops?” I tested ’cause Lion was a private dick now, but old instincts die hard sometimes.
He crossed his arms and glared at me in response.
I grinned.
“We’ll talk ’bout this in private,” Z asserted with a frownin’ nod at Blue, but there was a wealth’a thought behind that gunmetal gaze.
“You got no fear in those eyes lookin’ at me and mine,” he said, slow and deep in a voice rough as gravel under tires. When I was a prospect, just the sound’a that voice used to scare the shit outta me. Now it was as familiar and soothin’ as the hum’a Harley pipes.
Blue shrugged one shoulder but subtly shifted her body into mine. The little move set flame to my lungs and made it kinda difficult to breathe. It was probably my wistful imagination, but I thought she smelled like me. Like us. The sweet-salt of satisfaction. I could still feel the wet phantom clutch of her around my spent cock, and it gave a twitch at the thought of takin’ her again.
“I didn’t know Aaron was a brother in a club.” Her voice was sharp-edged, cutting at me even as she leaned into me, like she resented me for the omission, and herself for not carin’ enough to cut me out for it. “But I should’ve. It makes sense.”
“You didn’t ask,” I pointed out, bumpin’ her with my shoulder. “I did tell ya about my brothers.”
“You weren’t wearing one of those.” She gestured to Zeus and Curtains’ leather cuts covered in a variety’a patches that denoted their rank and chapter in The Fallen MC. “Maybe I wasbeing deliberately obtuse. I don’t usually like to associate with criminals.”
Zeus raised a brow at her, then cut his gaze to me.
You vouchin’ for her? the look asked.
I jerked my chin slightly without hesitation.
Hell yeah.
Maybe I’d only known her a couple’a hours, but that’s the way it’d happened for all the important relationships in my life. Met Curtains when I was on the hunt to save my sister years ago and knew by the end’a the night I’d forged a bond’a brotherhood with the skinny, freckled kid. The story’a how I met Z was more complicated, but followed those same lines.
I knew.
