Kristen Ashley - Own the Wind

“Tabby—”

I shook my head. “No, you don’t get to talk. I gave you chance after chance to talk for months, and you didn’t take me up on any of them. You left me hanging until you fell so far, you were buried and needed help digging yourself out. I offered you my hand months ago, Nat, you refused to take it. Right now, you are dead to me. Dead. The only way you get resurrected is if you kick that shit, for good, Natalie, pay your dealer with your own fucking money and figure out a way to make this good for my family. You pull off that miracle, you breathe for me. Until then, you do not exist.”

“Tab, you were right, you—” she started, leaning toward me beseechingly, but I stepped away from her and turned to Boz.

“Take me to Shy,” I demanded.

“Honey, shit’s hot and Shy wants you at the Compound where you’re safe,” Boz replied.

“Take me… to my man! ” I shrieked, losing it. I needed Shy, needed to see for myself he was okay.

Boz opened his mouth but Hound moved in.

“Yell, scream, scratch, slap, bite, woman, whatever you do, not gonna happen. We get you, you lost a man, you’re tweaked. But we’re tellin’ you, he’s fine and we’re yours, Tab, you’re ours, we would not shit you about something that important. Now, Shy says you stay here. You stay here. You wanna be away from this bitch, you’ll get that. We’re lockin’ her down so they can’t get to her and she can’t get into more trouble. What we are not gonna do is take you to our brother when he told us to keep your shit safe. You try to go, woman, you’re locked down too. Your choice, sit your ass down and have a drink or find yourself locked in your man’s room. Make it. Now. We got shit to do.”

I glared at Hound, but even angry I took in the look in his eyes and knew I could throw a fit and not get my way. Anyway, they had shit to do, and I was no old lady if I kept them from that. Since I was Shy’s old lady and my behavior reflected on him, I backed down.

But, since I was Tabby and he was Hound, I didn’t do it gracefully.

“You’re off my Christmas card list,” I announced.

To which he replied immediately, “Didn’t know I was on it.”

My eyes narrowed. “You don’t open my Christmas cards?”

“Tab, you want me to stand here talkin’ about Christmas cards or do you want me to take care of business?” Hound fired back.

I kept glaring then I declared, “I need a drink.”

“Color me a bartender,” Elvira stated, hopped off her stool, aimed a look at Malik, who was still leaning casually into the bar, then she strutted her round ass covered in a designer dress around the bar.

“Lock her in Hound’s room and get Joker. Speck’s here to help out. You boys lock this place down and patrol Ride. You’ll get reinforcements soon,” Boz said to Rush. Rush jerked up his chin and led a pale-faced, silently weeping Natalie away.

I ignored my best friend’s emotion (which was hard) and hitched my behind up on a bar stool.

Malik slid close while Elvira poured coffee.

“Scared straight works, honey,” Malik said, and I looked at him. “Seen it time and again.”

“Not sure at this moment I care,” I replied.

“At this moment, no. I see that.” He leaned closer. “Get to that point though, girl. Your man might have shed blood but he’s breathing. You need to find forgiveness because you care about her. To get her out of a porn movie nurse’s outfit and on a healthy path, she’s going to need all the help she can get.”

“Not to be a bitch or anything, but what are you, a drug counselor?” I asked.

“No, I’m a vice cop,” he answered.

Well, that explained that.

I looked to Elvira. “You’re seein’ a cop?”

Elvira, done with the coffee, was now pouring shots of tequila. She glanced at Malik then looked at me. “I was.”

I turned to Malik to see him grinning at Elvira like he thought she was adorable.

I turned back to Elvira to see her slugging back a shot of tequila. She then chased this with a sip of coffee.

Only after that did she reply, “To get a badass I had a choice. Biker, commando, military, or cop. My clothes do not say back of a bike. Commando screams ‘messy’ and, trust me, I know this from experience. I do not wanna spend my days learning the different ways of getting blood out of cargo pants. And military men are deployed and I’m sure not takin’ out the trash for months and worryin’ myself sick while he’s off somewhere gettin’ shot at, even if it is to keep my people safe. So I got stuck with a cop. He gets shot at and keeps people safe, but at least he’s home to take out the trash.”

“I’m not sure you did that bad, Elvira. Just saying, breakfast in bed?” I pointed out and her eyebrows flew up.

“Girl, don’t tell me. I’ll remind you, you held a grudge for three days over crushed ice. You witnessed his transgressions. For that, I get at least a week and you know it.”

She was not wrong. He yelled at her in front of an audience. Shy would buy a freeze-out for that, definitely.

To communicate that, I sipped coffee.

“You go a week, baby, we got problems,” Malik said low.

Elvira rolled her eyes at me but didn’t reply.

“You talk to your girl any longer like I’m not standing right here, we also got problems,” Malik carried on.

Elvira transferred her eye roll to him.

“You roll your eyes one more time, you lose my mouth,” he warned.

Elvira glared at him.

What she didn’t do, I will note, was roll her eyes or talk about Malik like he wasn’t there.

I kept sipping coffee.

I watched Rush and Joker walk through the Compound giving Malik looks to which he gave an affirmative, nonverbal, macho man, I got this chin lift. I didn’t know what he had, but I was guessing what he had was his woman in a biker Compound, so even as a vice cop he was going to do his bit to make sure the Compound was safe.

Then I watched my brother and his brother walk out the front door.

Then I waited patiently for my man to get to me.

As any biker babe from birth would do.

“Babe, I’m fine.”

“Let me look at it.”

“Tabby, sugar, I’m fine .”

I leaned away from Shy and planted my hands on my hips, staring up at him. “And I’m a nurse, Shy Cage. I’m also your woman. And I’m gonna look at it .”

“It’s all good,” Shy replied. “Baldy knows what he’s doing.”

Dr. Baldwin, a man I’d known for years, did know what he was doing but he did it for cash and he didn’t come cheap. This meant that even though he owned a Harley, needed a haircut, had tattoos, and looked like a bruiser, he also had an extremely well-equipped clinic whose back door saw more action than the front.

Regardless of the knowledge that Baldy knew what he was doing, I took Shy in with a professional eye.

He’d returned about ten minutes before, which was about ten minutes after Malik performed a miracle, got Elvira to lose the attitude, and by the time Shy, Dad, and the rest of the boys strolled in, all seriously pissed off, Elvira was standing between his spread legs as he sat on his stool and they were bar-stool cuddling.

It was cute.

Now, Shy and I were in his room at the Compound. He looked like what he said he was except for a small, white bandage at his neck and discoloration on his black tee under the bandage which I knew as dried blood. His color was good. He didn’t appear lethargic, and he’d had stitches with only a local anesthetic.

Still, I wanted to see.

“Honey, sit on the bed and let me see,” I requested quietly.

He held my eyes for a few beats before sighing and sitting on the bed.