Own the Wind (28 page)

His face changed, I held my breath at the change as he growled, “There will never come a time when you don’t mind my clothes are on the floor at the Compound.”

A vow.

Absolutely.

Not an apology but I got him and I’d take it.

I was smart enough not to gloat.

“Right, so, I’ve brushed my teeth, you haven’t, so you’re free to eat something before you go to sleep,” I declared. That intense look left his face, his eyes flashed with heat, then I was off the vanity, in the bedroom, tossed on the bed, my panties were gone, and Shy ate something before he went to sleep.

Truth was, I used my mouth before finally falling asleep too, but fortunately what I used it for wouldn’t give me any cavities.

Also, before falling asleep, Shy proved he intended to make it worth it, and it wasn’t by giving me two orgasms (or it wasn’t only that).

It was by muttering right before I fell asleep, “Just so you know, babe, the kind of biker I am does not fuck around on his woman.”

Other women might not think it was worth knowing she was the one who would be cleaning the toilets without a break for the rest of her life, but it worked for me.

That was the worst run-in we’d had. Although we’d butted heads a couple of times, it was nothing that sent me to fuming alone in my bedroom.

And in an effort to continue that run, I was not sharing with Shy about Dr. Dickhead.

Shy, like all the members of the Club, got a monthly cut of the profits from Ride Custom Car and Bikes as well as the three auto supply stores they ran, one in Denver, one in Colorado Springs, and one in Fort Collins. The boys moseyed their badasses into the store to work the counter, stock the shelves, keep the inventory, and those, like Shy, who had the skills worked in the garage on the cars and bikes. No one scheduled it but such was the loyalty to the brotherhood, not to mention their livelihood, no one sluffed off either.

The cut of profits was only graduated as to whether you were a full member or a recruit.

Every member had to pledge the Club and put up with however much crap the brothers made him do for however long they decided it lasted. Chaos wasn’t into rules, so it wasn’t like if they pledged, they’d be facing six months or a year and the boys knew when the torture would end, they’d get their cut, ink their tat on their back, and they could sally forth as full-fledged badasses. It was never six months or less, but it could be over a year before the boys sat down and voted a new man in.

And by crap they had to take from the members, I meant anything.

Anything.

And anything was really anything when you lived in a biker world.

So recruits got paid because they also worked in the store or the garage but they got paid less.

The Club made no distinction on pay according to terms of membership for full brothers. Although the cut went up and down with the profits, according to Shy, the checks tripled between recruit and member. The amounts, even in leaner months, were also not shabby.

This meant, with Shy keeping a low-profile apartment and not buying clothes for about six years, he was sitting on a mountain of money.

So Shy, like all the brothers, did his bit at the store and he also worked in the garage. As far as I could see, he pretty much did both in equal measure. Therefore, he didn’t keep a schedule, he went when he went, came home when he was done working, but he was at Ride often.

He also did things with his brothers and for the Club in daylight hours and sometimes at night that he didn’t share with me, and I knew enough about the life not to ask. No, strike that,
never
to ask. If he wanted me to know, he’d tell me. I’d heard my mom and dad fighting enough to learn that lesson.

I knew the Club was clean, Dad fought to make it that way.

But the golden rule for any Chaos old lady was to take her man’s back when needed, stand at his side when needed, ask no questions in order to get no lies, and know the goodness of her man outweighed the things he might need to do to keep the Club thriving. If she didn’t follow this golden rule, she would find herself no longer an old lady.

In other words, Shy was around, we spent time together, we talked, we made love, we ate together, we watched TV together, but Shy also had his own life, his own things to do, and his own things on his mind so not sharing about Dr. Dickhead had been successful.

“He still fuckin’ with you?” Lan asked, and I focused from my thoughts onto him.

“It’s his way,” I tried to blow it off, but his eyes narrowed on me.

“Better or worse?”

“Depends on the day, Lan.” I shook my head. “It’s just him. He does it to everybody.”

Though not as much as he does it to me,
I thought, but didn’t share.

“Not cool, you’re quiet, off work, at a party with your man and family, and it’s on your mind,” Landon pushed.

He wasn’t wrong.

Still, I shrugged again and muttered, “That’s life.”

He dropped his arm from around my shoulders and turned to me. “Tab, I know you wanna make sure you don’t have a reputation as flighty or trouble at work, but if a bunch of folks are eatin’ this guy’s shit, maybe someone should do something. Maybe you can talk to a few of ’em, strength in numbers, so it isn’t just you swingin’ your ass out there.”

That, actually, wasn’t a bad idea.

So I nodded and replied, “I’ll think about that. I know some of the other nurses are over it, so I’ll talk with a few of them. Test the waters.”

“You do that, honey, but you quit ’cause of things with Shy but also because you couldn’t put up with that asshole anymore. I don’t know if you told them then but even if it rubs you wrong, life’s too short for that bullshit. So if you gotta look for another job, you do it no regrets. If they were loyal to you, they wouldn’t let this guy fuck with your head. So you just be loyal to you, yeah? Find somethin’ that won’t make you quiet when you should be havin’ fun. You with me?” he finished on a gentle question.

“I’m with you, Lan, thanks,” I replied.

He grinned down and me and, seriously, Shy told me he didn’t have a girl and I thought that was miraculous.

Then his eyes wandered over my shoulder and stopped. I looked over my shoulder, saw a big-boobed, full-hipped, big-haired, blonde biker groupie giving Lan the eye, and I knew it wasn’t miraculous.

He was like his brother, chasing tail, enjoying gathering lipstick, but I suspected when he settled, he’d find ways to make his badass
man-ness
worth it.

“Right, Tab, gonna take you to my brother. I got things to do,” he stated.

Oh yeah, he had things to do.

“Luckily, Shy’s at my place all the time or I foresee I’d need to change his sheets,” I mumbled through a grin as Lan hooked his arm around my shoulders and started us toward my man.

“Absolutely,” he muttered, I looked up at him and gave him my grin.

He looked down at me and smiled.

Then he looked at his brother. “Your girl needs company.”

His arm fell away.

Shy’s replaced it instantly.

Then he pressed his lips to the top of my hair and kissed me.

Seriously. Loved my man.

Lan jerked up his chin, and I encouraged, “Go get her, tiger.”

He shot me another smile, took off, and Shy asked, “What?”

“Landon is about to see if he’s lucky,” I shared.

Shy’s eyes went to his brother and mine followed. The girl was looking under her lashes at him as he approached. Lan was grinning at her.

Something caught the corner of my eye, I turned my head and saw, in the shadows at the edge of the revelry, Hop dragging Lanie toward the Compound. He had her hand in his and was definitely dragging her, but her high-heeled boots were moving double time and she didn’t appear to be struggling.

Quickly, I scanned the crowd and saw Tyra laughing with Big Petey, her back to the Compound. She still had no clue.

But I also saw Dad, and I knew he had a clue seeing as he was following Hop and Lanie with his eyes, his mouth tight. I knew my dad’s looks and that one didn’t say angry, it said impatient.

My gaze went back to the doors of the Compound to see that Hop and Lanie had disappeared inside.

Them keeping things under wraps confused me. They were both consenting adults, and Lanie wasn’t anyone’s daughter.

But in that moment, I found that I hoped like hell that worked out for them, no matter how, on the face of it, it never could, what with Hop being a rough and ready badass biker and Lanie being chic and sophisticated.

I hoped this because, after all that happened to Lanie, she was still Lanie. Crazy. Fun. But there was something off about her that I found troubling, and I knew Ty-Ty worried about it and even Dad did too.

Also, I didn’t think she’d had one single man since she lost Elliott. Not one. And it had been
years
. For a woman as beautiful, crazy, fun, not to mention sweet as Lanie, that was sad. She deserved a good man in her life that could make her happy.

And Hop was a good man, no matter the ugliness of his break with Mitzi and that business with BeeBee. I’d known him a long time. I knew he would never go there with Lanie, knowing who she was to Ty-Ty, if he didn’t intend to do right by her.

Further, like good women, good men deserved happiness. So Hop deserved all the crazy, fun, sweet, beauty Lanie could give him.

Staring at the Compound door, I sent invisible good vibes to two people I cared about that they’d find happiness together.

And, of course, that what they were doing wouldn’t tick off Dad and Ty-Ty too much.

“He’s lucky,” Shy muttered, taking my mind off Lanie and Hop, and bringing my attention back to Landon and the biker groupie close in each other’s space, and I mentally agreed. Then Shy’s lips came to my ear. “I’m gonna be lucky in about five minutes too.”

All thoughts of Lanie, Hop, Landon, and his groupie fled, a shiver went over my skin but I turned my head and caught his eye. “You are?”

“Time it takes me to walk you to my room, yeah, I am,” he whispered.

Another shiver, then, “But we haven’t even started raisin’ hell.”

“Somethin’s gonna rise but it won’t be hell.”

I knew that.

It would be paradise.

I grinned.

He bent his head and brushed his lips against mine.

Five minutes later, in his room in the Compound, Shy got lucky.

* * *

“At the risk of pissin’ you off, gotta share. More than once in the last five years, laid on my back in this bed, my hand on my dick, thinkin’ of you doin’ what you just did to me.”

That did not, in any way, piss me off.

It turned me on.

I lifted my head from his shoulder and looked down into his green eyes.

“What else did you think of me doin’?” I asked quietly, my legs shifting restlessly.

His eyes went to the ceiling. “Got her off, seconds later, she’s rarin’ to go again.”

“It’s been minutes, Shy,” I pointed out, he aimed his eyes at mine and grinned at me.

Then his grin faded and he declared, “Right, before we tear each other up again, gotta talk to you about something.”

I registered the grin fade, sensed his mood, and therefore melted into him.

“Okay,” I said softly.

“Boys voted. We’re takin’ on the mountains.”

I felt my brows draw together. “Pardon?”

“Expanding Ride, sugar. Boz and Brick went out, scouted locations. Durango or Grand Junction. It’s lookin’ like it’ll probably be Grand Junction. We’re movin’ out of just havin’ places along the Front Range and opening a new shop out west.”

I smiled and cried, “Wow! That’s cool!”

His lips twitched and he replied, “Yeah.”

I studied him. His lips twitched but I got the sense he wasn’t committed to his “yeah.”

So I asked, “What’s on your mind, darlin’?”

Shy didn’t hesitate to share. “Brick, Dog, and Boz are goin’ out next week, makin’ the final decisions on the locations we might buy. They’ll bring the info on the options to the Club, big meeting. All the boys from Fort Fun and C. Springs will come to town, we vote on one, it’s a go. Dog and Brick have already volunteered to up stakes, head out, and oversee start-up. We’ll be findin’ new recruits, gettin’ ’em started, since more boys will be needed when the store is up and running. Bat, Arlo, and Tug have already made it clear they’re good to go out and be part of that team. Leaves us down in numbers, so it’s time to build the Club.”

I nodded.

Shy kept talking.

“Brick and Dog both say already they wanna stay in the mountains for a while, change of scenery.”

“Right,” I prompted.

“That means Tack’s losin’ his lieutenants.”

My heart flipped.

“Right,” I said again but this time slowly.

“Deal’s done. Those two brothers are goin’ and gonna be gone at least a year, probably more. So Tack is makin’ decisions. He asked Hop to step up when they go.”

My shoulders drooped.

“He also asked me,” Shy finished.

My face split into a grin, Shy’s eyes dropped to my mouth then he rolled me so I was on my back and he was up on a forearm, looming over me but bent so our faces were close.

His other hand framed the side of my head and his thumb slid along my hairline when he muttered, “Don’t get excited, babe.”

“But that’s cool. That’s respect. That’s an honor, Shy.”

“Yeah. It is,” he agreed. “But you gotta get that, for you, that also means I might not be around as much. It isn’t like Dog and Brick are called to duty daily, but they got extra shit to do the other brothers do not.”

“Okay.” Again I said this slowly and when he didn’t speak, I asked, “What aren’t you saying, honey?”

“Not sure I wanna do it.”

I blinked.

Then I asked, “What?” I paused, but before he could speak I asked, “Why?”

He sighed, looked at my throat, then looked back at me as his hand drifted down to curl around the side of my neck. “My commitment to the Club is there. My commitment to the brothers…”

He let that hang and didn’t go on but my stomach tied in a knot.

“Really?” I asked quietly.

“Really,” he answered firmly.