Why in the fuck had I pointed out his goddamn boner? That shit just blurted out of my mouth before my brain could stop it. Thank fuck he’d left the room. Things were still tense between us, but with time, I hoped they would settle. Christ, they’d better.

I was over waking up dreaming of Lan’s lips on mine. Worse was when it morphed into watching Lan and Easton on a bed kissing while I stood in the doorway.

Why? Fucking someone tell me why.

Why in Christ did I wake up harder than just a normal morning wood?

It confused me, but not enough to know I wanted his lips on mine again. I didn’t. Hell no. Not at all. They were just stupid dreams.

Shaking my head, I walked into the compound on Thursday to pick up Lan. He’d been out hunting with the brothers, and when I’d called to say I was on my way to grab him before heading to his place, he told me there’d been more dead ends to the information we’d had on Miller’s whereabouts.

It seemed the fuckhead had disappeared from Victoria. Dodge had even talked to Talon, who put the word out to the other charters with Miller’s full name and photo. Again, no one had seen or heard anything about him.

“Yo, Parker,” Dive called with a chin lift as I entered the common room. I lifted my hand in greeting and spotted Lan sitting on the couch talking to Dallas, Knife, and Vicious. I made my way over and took a seat in the empty chair.

“How’s it goin’?” Vicious asked.

“Same as always, brother.”

He nodded.

“Want a beer?” Knife asked.

“Nah, I’ll get back to Lan’s first.”

“Was just tellin’ Lan, we’re not sure his neighbour is gonna get Gamer outta his house. Never seen a brother in love with animals as much as that guy. He doesn’t shut up about them,” Dallas said.

“I should bring Neveah and Vin out there one day,” Knife said.

“Sure,” Lan agreed. “Make it when Easton’s home. He’s got more control over the mutts than Gamer.” How’d Lan know that?

“After this shit is done with Miller, I’ll have a barbeque. Invite everyone to get to know Easton.”

“Rumours are true?” Dallas asked.

“What rumours?” Lan asked with a smile.

“That, you know, you and that guy.”

Lan’s lips twitched. “What’d you mean?” Lan asked, messing with Dallas.

Dallas glanced to all of us. We made sure to keep a straight face. He cleared his throat, red coating his cheeks. “You’re with that guy,” he blurted.

Lan chuckled. “Yeah. Knew what you were sayin’. Just messin’ with you.”

When had they decided to become a thing again? Knew it was in the cards, just didn’t know it was official. Then again, seeing Lan…. Yeah, that was a good indication it was happening.

“Dickheads,” Dallas grumbled, and took a swig of his beer while everyone else there laughed. Hell, I even smiled.

“I think it’s awesome, and I know I can’t wait to meet him,” Low said, sliding up to Dallas’s side. “Even though you got shit goin’ down, I never saw you look content before, Lan. Loving it. The sisters are gonna go crazy. Shit, I better email them all. Get sorted with who’s bringing what.” She disappeared again.

“Now you’re in deep shit,” Dallas said with a chuckle. Once the Hawks women got something in their bonnet about any type of party, they were all over it. And usually, it ended up being something fucking big. Easton would freak no doubt. I snorted at the thought.

“Now all we need is Parker to hook up with someone to make him less broody,” Knife teased. I shot him the middle finger.

“I could help with that,” a woman said, and I recognised her voice right away. It’d be the bird I screwed the night of Lan’s lips on mine. “Hey, handsome. You come back for seconds?”

Fuck.

My gaze locked onto Lan’s. I was surprised to find him glaring with a clenched jaw.

Ignoring that thought for another time, I looked up at… fuck, I couldn’t remember her name. She must have seen my dilemma and supplied it, “Bonny.”

I offered her a rare grin; it wasn’t her fault I was just about wasted that night. She slid onto the armrest and glided her hand over the back of my shoulders.

Shit, I shouldn’t have smiled.

“Bonny, take a hike,” Knife said.

We all glanced at him. Bonny giggled. “Don’t be jealous, honey. Just because you’ve turned and are now taken, I’m sure our resident cop won’t say no.” She shifted her gaze to Lan. “Unless you want to have a go, sweetheart. I could take you both on.”

“No,” Lan clipped, his upper lip raised.

She winked. “S’all good, sugar, maybe another time.”

“Barking up the wrong tree, Bonny,” Dallas said. “And unless Parker shows interest, fuck off from here.”

She rolled her eyes and glanced down to me. Her hand squeezed my shoulder. “What do you say, handsome? Feeling like some Bonny?”

“Not today, babe.” I tapped her fingers on my shoulder, and she stood and walked off.

“That bitch is in heat,” Knife commented.

Vicious grunted. “She’d just come from Elvis’s room.”

A look of disgust crossed Lan’s features before he replaced it with a neutral expression. He tipped his beer up and drank the rest of it in one go.

My phone rang. I pulled it out and looked at the caller ID. Blackie. He was the president to the Venom MC. One I’d been undercover in a while ago. He’d known I was in the force towards the end and hadn’t ratted me out. Instead, when Stoke and Vicious came calling to their compound for answers about Nary, he passed me back over to the Hawks. Stating that since he was in charge, they wouldn’t need a snitch because he kept a clean club.

Fang, a brother of Hawks now, had also been a part of Venom but wanted away because he hated his father, and his pop used to have ties to the Venom MC. So did Fang’s woman, which was why eventually Hawks and Venom had come to an agreement for allegiance between the two clubs.

“Yeah?” I answered.

“Heard you and the other cop are after someone.”

I sat straighter and caught Lan’s eyes. He shifted to the edge of his seat. “Know anything about it?” I asked.

Blackie chuckled. “Got a surprise out the front.”

Hanging up, I stood. “Blackie’s here. He’s got a surprise for us,” I told Lan. He straightened and followed me out. I knew he wouldn’t be the only one coming either.

Out the front, Blackie leaned against a Hyundai iLoad. He grinned, moved away from the back door and slid it open. Someone crouched over something in the back. That something was rolled, and it tumbled out onto the gravel.

It was Miller.

“Surprise,” Blackie said.

“How’d you find the fucker?” Lan asked, strolling over to crouch down beside an unconscious Miller.

“Stupid motherfucker came to the club. Asked for protection. Roda tasered him to the ground before he’d even finished speaking.” A few chuckled. Roda was Blackie’s crazy-arse woman; no one wanted to mess with her.

Lan’s head came up, then glanced over his shoulder to me. “He probably thought Venom and Hawks were still on bad terms.”

“Yep.” Blackie clapped his hands. “Right, we done a favour bringing him to you. Means you detectives owe Venom now.”

“Hold up,” I called.

Blackie glared over at me. “What?”

“If I remember correctly, Blackie, and tell me if I get this wrong. But it was Lan and I at a house answering a call to help out in a Venom situation where you were shot, and we asked for nothing in return. We covered it all in fact. Do you remember that, Lan?”

He chuckled, stood, and nodded. “I’m recalling it now.”

“We owe Venom nothing. If someone thinks we owe them, we don’t like being told that. We don’t do well with orders. Nice friendly requests are best for us, or we just get pissed. Got it?”

He glowered. “Fine.”

“Good. Now you’ll remember for next time if you ever do need our help with something how things happen. Just because we don’t wear a patch of any kind doesn’t mean we don’t deserve respect.”

“Not that long ago you were Venom, kid.”

I shook my head. “I was never Venom, and you know it.”

“Kinda wish I had’a made your time a little hellish when you were there now.”

I grinned. “Too late.”

“Fuck it,” he grumbled and slid the door shut as the guy in the back swung over to the driver seat.

“We do appreciate your assistance, Blackie,” Lan offered.

He eyed him and then looked back to me. “See, that’s how you should do it.”

I chuckled. “That ain’t in me. It’s why he’s my partner.”

Blackie snorted. “Yeah, I can see that. Later, arseholes.”

“Later, Blackie,” Knife called, as did a few others.

As soon as Blackie drove off, I said, “Let’s get this fucker nice and comfortable in a room.”

Lan grinned.

I threw the bucket of water over Miller and the chair he was tied to. He spluttered and coughed. Finally, he opened his eyes to see us standing around him. Immediately, he paled and started to beg. Nothing would help.

We’d already spoken about what we’d planned. What helped make that decision were the photos he had on him. We now understood how he got the teenage girl who had helped him at Lan’s to cooperate. Through drugs. In one photo, they were shooting up together. In another, she lay on the couch with Miller over her. Her eyes told us she was out of it. We saw a few more photos we all wished we hadn’t. The last was of the girl frothing at the mouth and yet he still.... Fuck, I couldn’t even think what he’d been doing or I’d lose my lunch and temper.

I wasn’t the only one who wanted a piece of his flesh by the time the photos were shown. Lan would go first, then myself. Knife, Vicious, Dallas, and Dodge would also be taking a chunk of Miller. We’d make him suffer until his last breath.

There’d been an option of sending him back to jail, but Lan made the final decision, and after he’d stared down at the photos for some time, he declared, “He’ll die and be delivered to hell like the scum he is.”

Since we were all in agreement, we set about making him pay.

His screams could be heard down the hall.