Rocco and a couple of the boys found her at a bar on Venice Beach the next morning. When they walked her into Wilde’s, her head down, her body practically curled into itself, Hade thought he’d never seen such a scared mess of a woman and his heart sank. What had he done?

“Shit. Are you okay? What the fuck?” Hade went to Lee while scowling at Rocco at the same time.

Rocco raised his hands. “Didn’t do nothing. Found her like you asked. No one touched her.”

Lee flinched away from his touch and he hated that it had been he who’d done this to her. “I’m not someone you need to be scared of.”

She looked up and he saw the hurt fresh on her face when she registered it was him. Her eyes narrowed and her lips tightened. “I left. You don’t get to send your men out after me.”

“That wasn’t the plan.”

“Uh-huh? That’s what all guys say when they’re feeling guilty, and your face reads like a dirty priest’s.”

“Think you’ve got me confused with someone else. This is my happy face.” Hade tried for humor but the joke sank like a pair of concrete biker boots. “I didn’t mean for you to get scared. I tried to find you but I couldn’t. The boys were just the ones to get to you first.”

Her chin jutted out and she finally straightened. “You can’t drag me back here like that. I’m not your bitch. Not here, not anywhere. You asked me to leave. I left. End of story.”

“I’d never want you to be my bitch,” he said quietly.

She stopped and looked at him properly. He saw the calculation in her eye, despite the gloom of the place and the fact she was surrounded by men in bike leather. “No one will stop me from leaving?”

He shook his head. “If you still want to go when you’ve heard everything I have to say, no one will stop you. I won’t let them.”

She nodded. “Five minutes.”

“Five minutes.” He took her elbow and led her to a stool at the far end of the bar. It was quieter, but not much.

Briony gave him a nod but Hade floundered a moment, wondering where to start. Lee beat him to it and straightened her shoulders. “Finally work out that I didn’t have anything to do with the drugs?”

He nodded.

“I tried to tell you.”

“And I didn’t let you.”

“Going to say ‘sorry’?”

He smiled. “Sorry.”

She looked at him properly for the first time and he thought he saw a glimmer of hope in her eyes. “And I’m sorry I brought the girls back to your place. I didn’t know they had gear with them. I know you hate it.”

“I do hate it. More than anything.”

“I get it. Your brother died. And I should’ve known better than to think they’d come to the party clean. Drugs have gotten me in enough trouble to last me the rest of my life.”

There was a pause where the energy between them started to shift. Her jaw softened. Her face lost its haunted look. “And I get that you’re loyal to your gang in a way that I don’t understand.” She opened her mouth to say something else and he put up a hand.

“Thanks,” he said and meant it. “Trust is a hard thing to re-learn.” Her faced softened further and he knew instinctively that he’d said the right thing. Finally.

“You going to add anything to that apology? You know I was trying to make money, not steal it?” she said, a spark finally reappearing in her eye. The glint of sharp laughter he knew and relished.

“Worked it out eventually. Figure you made the school total up to seven grand with your cover charge.”

“Seven thousand, two hundred and twenty-two.”

He shook his head. This was the part of her he was crazy about. The hard-nosed, smart woman who pulled no punches in her quest to help, even when she was completely vulnerable.

“That it?” She stood to go but hesitated long enough for him to grab her arm. “That’s not the half of it. I’ve been an idiot,” he managed.

“Oh, really?”

“I was trying to do everything all at once. Leave a legacy for my brother. Be Mr. Fix It for Rocco. Clean up the shitty drugs so kids like Kenny didn’t get fucked up all the time. Be the guy in charge. No distractions, no disappointments.”

“And?”

“Didn’t work.”

She didn’t say anything, and Hade’s heart released some of its black, viscous casing. If she didn’t leave straightaway, maybe they stood a chance.

“Turns out the only thing I give a crap about is cleaning out the shitty drugs. The rest was just other people’s stuff.”

There was a pause and he took her hand, hoping that this was going to be enough. “You were a big part of me working that out. But you were wrong about me not knowing what family means. And I’d like to prove it to you.”

She chewed on the inside of her cheek. “I already met your gang.”

“Yep,” he said. “But there’s more to me than that.”

“What happened to Hell’s Boys are all the family you need blah, blah, blah,” she said, pulling her hand out of his.

“They are my family. But not all of it. My pop’s dead, my brother’s dead, and I don’t have anyone else. When shit got real, Hell’s Boys were there for me. And then I met you. Despite my own fucked-up sense of what I was supposed to be doing, you showed me that I can follow my own lead.”

“Good for you.” She took a long staggering breath. “So, if that’s it, I’ll take my apology and chug down it with a shot of bourbon.”

“I haven’t finished,” he said and he wasn’t sure, but he thought he saw the hope flare up again in her eyes. “I’m falling in love with you. Have fallen. Hard. Harder than Rocco’s crusty leather jacket.” He was aware that he was fumbling this, but he didn’t know how else to say it so he stammered on. “I mean, I’m in love with you.”

Her jaw dropped. “Say that again.”

“Which part?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Not the part about Hell’s Boys’ fucking obsession with leather.”

There was a rumble of laughter around the room and Hade realized that everyone in the bar was watching them. Listening to his every word. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and threatened to run the fuck away.

Hade gritted his teeth and forced the words he’d never thought he’d say out in the air again. “I’m in love with you.”

There it was, the twitch of a smile at the corner of her mouth.

“Please don’t make me say it again. Third time might turn me into, I dunno, a frog or some shit. Isn’t that how this goes?”

She laughed, the bright warm sound that he’d missed so much all week. “The princess kisses the fucking frog and he turns into a prince,” she said and took his hand.

“Well, that’s clearly not going to happen,” he said, taking both her wrists and pulling her gently toward him. “Do you forgive me?”

“A kid died,” she said. “I didn’t realize at the time. But I get it: you were protecting your family from the big, bad she-wolf.”

“Can we quit it with the fairy tale crap?” he said. “I’m not exactly the bedtime-story type.”

“Oh, but that’s where you’re wrong,” she said and this time the smile creased her mouth properly, opening up her eyes and bringing back the warmth he’d been missing.

From behind him, Rocco cleared his throat and Hade blinked slowly, perhaps to try and make everyone go away. But when he opened his eyes, he was still in Wilde’s, Lee was in front of him, and almost every member of Hell’s had their gaze locked on him.

“What?” he growled.

“Leaders don’t do love. Not like this,” Rocco said simply.

If it could have, Hade was sure the room would have taken a unified breath.

“I know,” Hade said, suddenly sure of what had to happen next. “So I’m bowing out.”

If he’d had a pin to drop, it would have echoed in the silence of the room.

“You sure about that?”

Hade kept Lee’s hand in his and turned to the head of Hell’s. “It was Jason’s dream. Not mine. I still want drugs out of the gang, and I’ll do everything I can to make that happen. But following in your footsteps, following the lonely road. It’s not for me.”

The pause was one of the longest Hade had ever experienced and he saw the faces of all the members of Hell’s as he scanned the room. Was this it? Was he giving all of this up for a woman?

He pulled his gaze back to her and realized that yes, he was. If Hell’s couldn’t take that, then he’d misjudged what it meant to be part of their family and he didn’t need them anyway. Still. It wasn’t until Rocco raised an eyebrow and slapped him on the shoulder that he released the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding.

“All right, then. Don’t think you’re leaving Hell’s though. We need you.” Rocco turned and walked into the crowd and just like that, Hade’s whole future changed.

When he turned back to Lee her eyes were huge: the pupils black with shock, her nostrils flared. “You just quit.”

“Not really. I just moved sideways. Isn’t that what people do in the world out there? You know, with real jobs and shit?”

Her smile turned into a smirk. “I wouldn’t really know. But you sure? If you did that for me, well, wow, but don’t. You’ll only resent me for it.”

“It wasn’t just for you. It was for me, too.”

For a moment the two of them looked at each other and the rest of the world fell away.

“So, am I’m forgiven?” he managed finally.

“Fucking idiot,” she said, “Falling in love was not part of the plan.”

The grin on his face felt better than twenty shots of bourbon. “You do feel it, too?” he said.

“All I feel right now is the need to have that great big cock of yours inside me,” she said then fell into his arms. “Idiot.”

“I’m so sorry,” he said and lowered his head to kiss the crease at the edge of her eye, her nose, her mouth. It quickly turned into a deeper kiss than he’d been planning, and when they came up for air he looked down at her and wondered how he could ever have thought of giving her up. “Let’s go,” he said and she nodded.

“But for the record,” she said, handing him his jacket, “I’m glad you didn’t give this up completely. Leather suits you. You’ll just have to get me a jacket of my own.”

“Now that,” Hade said as he handed her a helmet, “sounds like a fucking great idea.”