Kristen Ashley - Own the Wind

I got close, gently peeled back the tape and looked.

The boys told no lies. It was just a nick that took only a few stitches. My man was fine.

Thank God.

Carefully, I pressed the tape back and sat on the bed beside Shy.

“Happy?” he asked me.

“That my best friend is an idiot that led my man into a situation that included an exchange of bullets and the Club buying problems?” I asked back. “No.”

Shy moved, gathering me in his arms and hauling me onto the bed.

When he had us arranged, him on his back, me mostly on him, he slid his hand into my hair and informed me, “As much as I don’t wanna let anything slide with that bitch, Club’s been havin’ problems with Benito for a while. We got Chaos territory around Ride that’s drug and hooker free. This message is clear to everybody, but lately Benito’s been encroaching.” He held my eyes, took in a deep breath and stated, “You tell him, I won’t be happy, but this is why Rush was undecided about the Club.”

“I don’t get it,” I told him.

He rolled me to my back, pressing into me, hovering close. “Right, Tab, the people who keep Chaos territory clean are Chaos.”

“Okay,” I stated.

Shy studied me then explained, “The brothers, babe. Not the cops.”

I blinked then too little sleep, too much tequila mixed with too much coffee cleared away and it hit me.

“Are you saying you’re vigilantes?” I breathed.

Shy nodded. “Our territory, our rule, our law, all in our hands. Five-mile radius around the shop and garage. All the shops. All Chaos territory.”

Oh crap. I didn’t know this.

I mean, I wasn’t stupid, and I heard my mother and father fighting all the freaking time, so it wasn’t like I didn’t know the Club had a rocky history. Furthermore, it was a motorcycle club. That right there said a lot. Dad had plans from the start to get the Club clean. I’d been mostly shielded from what it took to get Chaos clean, but stuff was extreme when he went about doing it so it wasn’t like it was lost on me.

But Dad did it. He got the Club clean.

“Shy—”

His hand cupped the side of my head and his face got closer. “Baby, leave it be.”

“I’m not sure—”

His hand pressed gently into my head. “Not bein’ a dick, you know it, but still gotta say it. Sugar, you don’t get to be anything. This is Club business. Just know your dad is no fool. He has it goin’ on. But Rush is his father’s son. He didn’t live the nightmare your dad lived with the Club’s past history, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a mission. Tack pulled the Club through some serious shit, but he’s still Chaos and is used to doin’ it his way, takin’ care of Club business, lookin’ after what’s ours. Rush thinks Tack’s job is not done. He wants us to protect what’s ours and get our hands clean of all the dirt we gotta rub up against to keep our patch clean. Rush thinks that’s the job of the Denver Police Department and our job is to look after our own, not everything within a five-mile radius. My guess is, he talked with your dad about this, Tack knows that shit can encroach if you don’t keep a safe perimeter, and they didn’t see eye to eye. My other guess is, instead of keepin’ his distance and makin’ his statement by stayin’ out of the Club, he decided to take his chance at making change by joining us.”

This did not sound good.

Like, at all .

“You mean, overthrow Dad?” I asked, my voice shaky.

“I don’t know what it means,” Shy answered. “I do know your brother is no fool either. I can tell by the way he’s taking his shit as a recruit that the Club means somethin’ to him and, gotta say, Tab, that shocked the shit outta me. If I had this as my legacy, I turned eighteen, I’d be workin’ toward my cut. He jumped on board when he was twenty-five. But there’s no denyin’ he’s all in. Dog and Brick are in Grand Junction, Hop and me have Tack’s ear and he shares. Which is somethin’ you don’t do. As far as you’re concerned, you don’t know this. You gotta watch it play out just like everybody. You don’t intervene. You don’t have words with either of them. They’re your dad and brother but bottom line, it’s Club business, Tabby, and you know what that means.”

I did.

I also knew not long after the business went down with Lee Nightingale and the boys had Shy’s back, Shy approached Dad to ask if his offer to be lieutenant was still open. Dad shared he was holding the position for Shy until he was ready for it, no one else was even a consideration. This meant Shy was in the inner sanctum, an elevated position within the Club and, at his age, that was huge.

Therefore, as his woman and with his position in the Club, I had to stand by his side.

This meant not getting into his face about Club business.

So I simply stated. “Shy, I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

“You wouldn’t ’cause you’re a daughter and a sister. What you aren’t is a son or a Chaos brother. They might not see eye to eye but your brother loves his father, he respects him and, when he earns his cut, they’ll add a different relationship to that. We all don’t get along all the time. There’s friction, differences of opinion, politics, even clashes. But there’s always the brotherhood and we all know it. That will never die.”

Well, at least there was that.

I backtracked, my eyes moving to his bandage then back to his face.

“How big is this problem with the porn guy?” I asked quietly, and I got what I expected.

“That’s not somethin’ you worry about.”

This was something, as his woman and him my man with a bandage on his neck, I had to get in his face about.

“Wrong, Shy,” I whispered.

He dipped his face close. “Your bitch is a mess. She hit bottom but, stuff she’s into, that won’t mean a thing. She might be shaken up and get her shit sorted but she might not. It isn’t cool she called you, dragged you and, because of you, Chaos into her mess, but this was going to happen, it just came sooner. You were dragged in, now you know. But that’s all you know and you don’t worry.”

“That’s impossible,” I informed him.

“If you think this Club hasn’t weathered worse storms than this guy, you’re wrong.”

This was not welcome information.

“Shy, you got shot and you’re okay but—”

His head moved, his mouth touched mine and when he lifted his head, his thumb slid to my lips. “Tab, baby, after what you lost, do you think for a second I’d do anything, your father would do anything, to make you lose me?”

This made me feel slightly better, because I didn’t think that, not for a second, but that didn’t mean I didn’t repeat, even with his thumb still on my lips, “Shy, darlin’, you got shot.”

“A nick,” he clarified.

“But—”

“I’m not leaving you.”

“But, Shy—”

His thumb pressed against my lips lightly.

“Tabitha, I’m not leaving you.”

I held my silence and his eyes.

Then I lifted a hand, curled it around his wrist, pulled his hand away and whispered, “You better not.”

He grinned and whispered back, “You’re stuck with me.”

God, I hoped so.

I took in an unsteady breath.

Then I told him, “Sorry my ex–best friend got you nicked by a bullet.”

His grin turned into a smile. “Shit happens.”

It was kind of forced but I grinned back.

He pulled against my hold so his hand could come back, his thumb gliding along my lips as his eyes watched. His smile was gone when his gaze again met mine.

“Always and forever, baby, you’re stuck with me.”

I drew in a deep breath that miraculously was calming and I nodded.