“Christ, God loves me,” my dad had said. “Gave me the perfect woman and then gave me her carbon copy so I get double the goodness.”
I remembered him saying that. We were living outside San Francisco then in a little two-bedroom house where we could smell the sea and Mom had a big garden. I remembered how happy he was.
Always happy.
Always right where he wanted to be.
With his girls, his bike close, the world at his feet…or in Dad’s case, his wheels.
I remembered those words he’d said nearly every time I looked at my mom.
And I hoped I never forgot.
“Who’s here?” I asked.
“Kane Allen and his old lady,” she said softly.
Damn.
“And also, um, his lieutenant and his old lady,” she went on.
Damn!
Shy was his lieutenant.
I’d run into Shy and Tabby in a mall not long after he’d dumped me. I was now over him and not just because I had no choice since he was not only married to Tab, they also had a baby, but because I just was.
And now I was even more because I’d figured out I wasn’t over Shy because I’d had Beck.
But because I’d wanted Snapper.
“I don’t want to see them,” I told my mom.
“It’s Hopper Kincaid, not the other one,” she replied quickly.
Well, at least Shy and Tabby didn’t march their way to my mother’s house to do whatever Kane “Tack” Allen and Hop Kincaid were there to do, this after the guy who came next when Shy was done with me got done with me.
“I still don’t want to see them,” I said.
“Honey, they…” She looked down the hall then back to me. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to refuse an audience with Kane Allen.”
She was right.
The Chaos Club had left their outlaw ways behind and was now clean, but that didn’t mean the brothers were men you trifled with. And of all of them, you didn’t trifle with Kane Allen.
It wasn’t just in the physical (though he was physically intimidating). It was that the man was known to be killer smart. If he perceived a slight and wanted to act on it, that could come in so many different ways, none of them pleasant, it wasn’t funny.
“Right,” I muttered to Mom, then, being careful with my body because other parts might be healing, but my ribs still hurt like hell, I rounded her and walked stiffly down the hall, feeling her at my heels.
And there they were. Two fabulously handsome brothers of Chaos—Tack Allen and Hop Kincaid. They were older, sure, but they were still crazy-hot.
They were also, right then, the instant their eyes touched on me, crazy-freaky-scary.
It was not unknown in the Denver biker world that Chaos took the mistreatment of women seriously, as in, they seriously one hundred percent did not like it (one of the reasons why I used to hang at their Compound a lot, where I’d met Shy).
Now I was getting a dose of that in my mom’s living room.
As the keeper of a vagina, I had to admit, it was cool.
That didn’t make it less crazy-freaky-scary.
To avoid the crazy-freaky-scary, I looked to the women with them.
Tack had had Tyra when I was with Shy. She was gorgeous, curvy, and had deep-red, beautiful hair.
The tall, slim, beautiful brunette with Hop was familiar, but for Hop, as far as I knew, she was new.
“Hey,” I greeted.
“How you doin’, darlin’?” Tack asked.
“Healing. Good. Thanks for checking but it wasn’t necessary. Every day it gets better and soon I’ll be back to new,” I answered.
Or new with scars, so a new kind of new.
“That’s good,” he muttered, staring intently at me.
“So, well…” I hesitated because I didn’t want to say what I said next but I’d grown up around clubs, I knew the drill, and respect needed to be shown. “Do you all want something to drink or something?”
“We’re here to share that we’ve got your place sorted out,” Tyra spoke up.
“I…” That threw me. “Sorry?”
“Throttle’s still in the hospital,” Hop’s deep voice sounded and I looked to him. “He’s being released today into police custody.”
I’d heard about my ex-man, this coming from the police who were keeping me informed about my situation. Thus I knew, before the cops got to him, someone had carved into his face with a blade.
My guess, Hound. I’d heard rumors when he went to work he didn’t mess around.
I had mixed feelings about this.
As a human being, I did not condone slicing someone’s face with a knife.
As the woman who’d been strangled and beaten by her boyfriend only to be turned over to all his friends to have a go, it didn’t bother me all that much.
“Doesn’t matter,” Hop went on. “We figure you wouldn’t want to go back there so the boys went and got your shit, moved it into a new pad. It’s Chaos. We’ve had it secured. The women have sorted your things. So you’re good to move in whenever you’re healed up.”
As he finished, Tack walked to me, lifting his hand.
Dumbly, I lifted mine too and he dropped a key ring in it with a number of keys on it.
I stared at the keys in my palm as my mom asked, “How is it secured?”
“Security system,” Tack answered. “Doors, windows, garage. Direct dispatch callout if breached. When you go in, the garage door openers are on the kitchen counter.”
I looked to him then I turned to my mother.
The relief was practically glowing a golden aura around her body.
Damn.
“The system is top of the line and those Bounty boys broke their bond agreements so they won’t be let out prior to their hearing, and now most of them will be standing trial for more than just the runs they were making,” Tack continued. I looked back to him to see his attention directed at Mom. “Still, we’re not takin’ any chances,” his eyes came to me, “so we’ll continue to have a brother on you.”
Okay.
That wasn’t happening.
“That isn’t necessary,” I murmured.
“We’ll agree to disagree on that,” he returned firmly.
That meant: You’re moving into the space we’re offering you and accepting our protection and there will be no discussion on either.
I, however, was feeling a discussion was necessary.
“Mr. Allen—” I started.
“I’m Tack to you, darlin’,” he cut me off, now speaking gently. “Always have been, nothin’s changed that.”
I stared him right in the eye.
“Mr. Allen,” I repeated resolutely, watched his jewel-blue eyes flash and his mouth set tight but I didn’t care, and this time he didn’t interrupt me. “I’m sure you can imagine that I’m keen to move on from all that’s happened and I appreciate your concern. But if you’ll tell me where you took my stuff, Mom and I’ll go get it. I’m not Chaos’s problem anymore.”
“’Fraid at this point that’s not something that’s ever gonna change,” he replied. “Not that you’re a problem, sweetheart. Just that you’re ours and we take care of our own.”