This has to be one of the best ideas I’ve had. I watch as my woman and Red are lying on lounge chairs looking over the lake. I decided it was time to get the family together. We’re having a big picnic and bonfire at the Twin Rocks picnic shelter and camping area, overlooking Laurel Lake. Red and Nicole are resting, the men are scattered around talking to a couple of the Twinkies that came, or shooting the breeze with each other. Dance and I are manning the grill. Heck, even Bull came. He’s kind of quiet and off to himself still, but I saw Frog and Hawk go over to join him. It’s a perfect, relaxing day. The only thing I’m finding troubling is the way Crusher and Dani are sitting in the sand talking to each other. You’d be stupid not to see what’s going on.

I know it’s because of everything that went down with Nicole and her getting shot. I should let it go like my woman asked, but I can’t. I almost lost Nicole. Maybe it is unfair, but there-the-fuck-it-is. I look at Dani, and I feel anger. So, I’m not exactly filled with good vibes watching my brother fall for her.

“That looks like trouble,” Dance says, echoing my thoughts.

“Pretty much,” I agree, taking a sip of my beer.

“Carrie says Dani’s leaving?”

“Yeah.”

“Think it has to do with the shit Freak found on the tapes?”

“Probably, fuck if I know. Neither her nor Nicole are talking.”

“Should we step in?”

“Who the hell knows? I…”

Where once the area was filled with talking and laughter, now there’s screaming as gunfire erupts around us. Dancer and I take off running at the same time to cover our women. I see out of the corner of my eye that Crusher is doing the same with Dani. I’m useless in helping the other members scramble. I pull Nicole off the chair, trying to be gentle. I flip the chair to its side. It won’t stop a bullet, but it might mess up the aim of the shooter. I keep my woman covered as much as I can, even though she’s begging me to protect myself. Fucking woman has zero survival skills when it comes to taking care of her own hide.

As quick as the gunfire begins, it stops when Freak and the other brothers start firing back. I look over the top of the chair, trying to get my bearings. I focus on an old black Ford truck peeling out of the parking lot.

“Hold up!” I shout. Slowly the brothers stop shooting. “Follow those fuckers. If they get away I’m going to make sure heads roll!” I stand, helping Nicole to her feet. “Mama, I’m going to go find out who the fuck that was. Are you okay? The baby?”

“We’re fine, Dragon,” she whispers shakily, the side of her face covered with sand and there are tears in her eyes. I bend down and kiss her hard, taking her taste inside of me, because I need it. She’s my air. The reason I live.

“Bull, protect the women and get them back to the compound.”

“Yeah, alright Drag,” Bull says, but something in his tone grabs me. I don’t have time to address it. “Dance, Crush, you’re with me.”

I’m fucking tired. It’s been hours. We followed the fuckers and found the truck abandoned at the base of one of the hiking trails through the Daniel Boone National Forest. Crush and I managed to grab one of the fuckers, but the other one or two (I can’t even be sure how fucking many there were) managed to get away.

We brought the weasel back to the cabin for interrogation. It didn’t take long. He sang like a fucking canary. Weak-ass, sniveling son of a bitch. I would probably be doing him a favor if I ended him, but I didn’t. We have plans for him.

I slam into the front doors of the compound, and I’m pissed for many reasons. Bull looks up at me and his face goes tight.

“What’s up?”

“Crush and Dance will fill you in. Where’s my woman?”

“She was feeling bad, went to lay down.”

“Thanks, man. Church meeting in two hours.”

Bull nods, and I’m preoccupied, but I see something flash in his eyes. I should stop and ask him what the fuck is going on, but I can’t. I put it on my list. I know Bull is dealing with shit. His voice is ragged and hoarse, he has a scar on his neck and his body is weaker. Rehab helped some, but he’s having issues. I need to be here for him, but I just don’t have the time right now. I put it on the back burner and go to find my woman.

She’s lying on the bed, but she’s not asleep. She’s wide awake, staring at the door, with those same damn tears in her eyes.

“Mama, we need to talk,” I close the door behind me and lean on it, waiting.

“I don’t think we do. It’s done now.”

“Done? Nicole, what the fuck are you talking about? It’s not done. I’ve just spent the last hour interrogating some jerk to find out that there’s a freaking lunatic out there gunning for my woman and Dani, because it seems Dani was married to the fucker and ran out on him fucking five years ago! How did I not know this, Nicole? How could you not tell me about this?”

“It wasn’t my secret to tell, Dani has a right to her privacy, Dragon—even from you,” she says getting up.

“She’s married, Nicole. To a rich-ass lunatic who thought she was dead. She stole five hundred grand off of him. You had to know he’d never give up trying to find his damn money. You had to know that he’d eventually hunt you down for answers!”

“He had no reason to. He had no idea that Dani and I were still in touch. We covered our bases damn good,” she says calmly. I swear if the woman didn’t own my soul, I would be tempted to slap some sense into her.

Covered their bases? What the fuck? She’s an amateur trying to take on the big boys. I had Freak research this Michael Kavanagh. What I found out still fucking leaves me with chills just thinking what someone like that would do to Nicole. I don’t want my woman anywhere around this fucker. I do not want her in his line of fire.

I look at her like I have no idea who she is, because honest to God, I don’t right now.

“Well guess what Nicole, it appears he plays connect the fucking dots pretty damn good, because he found not only Dani, he’s found you and the club, too. All because you and Dani were too stupid to give me a head’s up.”

She steps back like I slapped her. I realize I didn’t say it right, but I’m fucking pissed. I step away from the door and come closer to her.

“Damn it, you should have told me! We’re supposed to share this shit, we’re a team.”

“Don’t you pull that crap, Dragon. There’s a whole shitload of stuff you don’t share with me.”

“Club business only—I have to keep that between me and the boys. You’ve been around long enough to know how that goes. Don’t start crying about it now, just because you fucked up.”

I know that’s a fucked up way to put it. Shit. I can tell by the way her blue eyes glitter with so much anger that this is going from bad to worse in a hurry. I just can’t get a handle on it. She’s left me feeling betrayed. Still, the look in her eyes hurts me. Has Nicole ever looked at me like that before?

“Club business. How fucking convenient. Newsflash Dragon, Dani is my girl and our business is just that, our business. I didn’t fuck up shit, you’re just being a self-righteous prick.”

“We’re having a baby. We’re getting married in a few fucking days and you say this crap to me?”

“Yeah, well…I don’t see that happening.”

“The fuck you say, woman, I’ve about gone my limit with your ass.”

“That’s good Dragon, because I think I’ve done the same with yours,” she growls, as she stomps away from me.

“Where in the hell are you going?”

“I need time away from you.”

I watch as Nicole opens the door to our bedroom. Her words play over in my mind. Since the day we met, I don’t think we’ve spent more than a complete day away from each other. I need her like air. Her words cut open a piece of me that I thought was healed. The wound is even more intense now, however because it’s inflicted by my woman.

“Mama, don’t do this. Whatever this is, we’ll work it out, but don’t take us to this place.”

She turns around and we’re only standing about three feet apart, but it feels like a fucking ocean.

I need time away from you.

“You don’t get to decide this, Dragon. To say that I have to tell you everything, when you aren’t willing to do the same. You don’t get that. It can’t work that way.”

“Your secrets almost got us killed today, Mama. They almost ended the life of our son.”

Her hand goes to her the swell of her belly. She presses against her stomach, the ring I gave her glitters in the semi-dark room.

“And your secrets don’t do the same?”

My mind goes back to the day on the mountain when she got shot.

“You always knew there was shit going on, I didn’t keep you in the dark Nicole, even if I couldn’t give you all the details.”

“I was going to tell you,” she whispers.

“When? After the fuck-wad already killed someone I care about? Or worse, you? Do you know what the fuck it would do to me if I lost you?”

“I promised Dani I would wait until she left.”

“Left? She can’t leave, Nicole. This fucker will grab her the minute she tries to run. It’s too late for that baby, and hell, as much as she pisses me the fuck off, I like the bitch. She’s not facing this shit on her own.”

“It’s too late,” she whispers, and her hands go around her stomach, cradling it as her tears fall harder. I’m getting fucking tired of seeing those tears fall from her eyes all the time.

“What do you mean it’s too late? I got this, Mama. You know I’ll always protect what’s mine. Dani’s your girl. That makes her part of the family. I won’t let this Kavanagh fuck get her.”

“She’s gone, Dragon.”

“What? What do you…?”

“She left, not long after we got back. She’s been planning it for days.”

“Sit down on the bed Mama, I think it’s time you and I talk this out,” I say, uneasiness grabbing me at the idea of Dani out there alone.