SIXTEEN
Cyrus
It was only a matter of time.
Once the news was out to the girls club, no matter how loyal Elsie and Alex may have been about allowing Reese to clear the air in her own time, those two being the biggest threats to the secret getting out there to them, the group was simply too big for it all not to get around. Everyone knew everyone who knew everyone else.
It was going to happen.
Soon.
I just maybe hadn't anticipated how soon though.
"Wait," I said, shaking my head. "They're still keeping V locked up?" I asked Reeve, not understanding the logic there.
"Yeah, we don't get it either. I guess maybe whoever this is, isn't from around here, doesn't know the problems V caused. Or, if they do know, they don't know how to handle it yet. She's got contacts they might want. She's a conniving, evil, unpredictable person though too. And, you know, she's a woman. Maybe it is as simple as not wanting to kill a woman. Who knows."
They still hadn't seen the new player's face. Not since Michael fucking Jackson was someone so devoted to keeping their face hidden. It was only a matter of time though. Roan, it seemed, was obsessive when given a job. Reeve claimed he would pull a sixteen-hour surveillance shift all by himself night after night if everyone else needed to get some sleep.
"He's a machine," Reeve agreed when I said that to him though. "He won't stop until he knows. Did you get the text from Wasp this morning?" he asked.
"I don't even know where my phone is," I admitted.
His smile then was a little devilish, something you didn't often see on Reeve, likely thinking I was too come-drunk to remember shit like my phone. "Of course not. Well, she's still in town."
"Wait, what?"
If there was one thing you could count on with Wasp, it was her wanderlust. I swear she started to twitch if she stayed in one place for too long. She was always on the move, always seeing new places, experiencing new things, bringing down new men. She had always been an antsy kid, always needing to be up and doing things, not lounging on the couch like the rest of us. She wanted to be out. And then when she was old enough, she wanted to be out of our little corner of the world.
She would blow into town on a whim, then was gone before you could even fully catch up with her. If we got to see her the whole day of Christmas, it was a small miracle.
"Yeah, apparently the situation with Raven isn't clearing up as fast as Wasp was hoping."
"So this guy isn't a mark?"
Reeve shrugged. "If he was, it seems like he isn't anymore. And Wasp doesn't want to leave her behind."
They had been attached at the hips for too long for that. I didn't know how they did it, spending every waking (and sleeping) hour in a small RV together, in each other's space, never able to get any true privacy. But they had somehow always managed. Actually, not just 'managed' because that implied there was some form of hardship. No, they seemed to love every minute of it. There were Instagram posts to prove it.
This must have been driving Wasp up a wall, staying put for so long, but also being away from her partner in crime as well.
"Where is she holed up?"
"She drove the RV up to some place by the beach where they let her keep it. She's trying to make the best of it. She wants to have dinner or come hang here one of the nights this week. And I think she wants to meet your girl."
"Speaking of," I said, looking over at him. "You didn't come out and introduce yourself."
"Figured she had enough on her plate with the rest of them. We'll meet eventually."
The back door opened, bringing in a bunch of the guys with guns in their hands, likely having come back from doing some target practice, something Reign insisted on not only because it meant we could defend ourselves, but because he felt it helped keep any festering tensions low. Fights in an MC were inevitable, but he preferred everyone walk away from them.
"This fuck," Reign said, waving his gun at Virgin, "has been shooting since he was five. Fuckin' five years old."
And it was right about then that I realized how soon 'soon' was.
Because the front door burst open.
And in they walked.
There was a family resemblance between them and Reese, sure, but these men that were only half-brothers looked almost identical to each other.
Which was to say... fucking intimidating.
They were close to six-and-a-half feet, solid, strong, tattoo-covered, and carried themselves with the calm, but determined gait of men used to sticky situations.
Having run a street gang, that wasn't surprising.
The real similarity I saw to Reese was they all had the same light-skin mixed-race complexion and the same unusual light green eyes.
"'Sup Paine, Enzo," Reign said casually, rubbing his brow with his gun, trying - if the lip twitch was anything to go by - not to smile. He knew exactly what was going down, and he was amused by it. "Nice of you to drop in."
"Where the fuck is he?" Paine asked, obviously having no fear of a notoriously violent biker president. Then again, I had no idea what Paine's reputation as a gang leader was. Maybe he put Reign to shame.
"Don't be coming into my club hot, Paine. You got something you need to handle, do it with some fuckin' respect."
"We're not even getting into the fact that you didn't have the respect to tell us that one of your men is fucking around with our sister," Enzo cut in, a dangerous kind of calm. "And don't try to pull that you didn't know who she was thing since we know she was here last night, and we sure as fuck know that you know who she is. And that you also know we've made it clear as fucking glass that your men were to stay away from her."
"Something I might have made clear to him had I fuckin' known about it ahead of time, E. Literally found out last night. Was I supposed to drive my ass all the way out to the city to tell you? We told him about you. We told him to expect an issue. That is all you can expect from me. Now, I'm the fuck out of here if you're done stinking up the joint with that testosterone. This is Cyrus. He's the one fucking your little sister," Reign declared, not sparing me in the least as he whacked me in the shoulder as he passed, then disappeared out the front door.
I didn't stand up, not wanting to cause any kind of confrontation. The fact of the matter was, I had to gain their favor if I wanted to keep seeing Reese. Her family meant the world to her. If I didn't get in good with them - and all of them - there was a good chance things with us wouldn't work out in the long-term.
And, well, I was starting to think in the long-term with regards to her.
I raised my hand at them in a defensive gesture. "I didn't know about you guys. She didn't tell me," I said, shrugging a shoulder.
"We're supposed to believe that because..." Paine invited.
"Look, when I met Ree, I knew she wasn't the kind of girl I should get involved with-"
"And yet your prez just said you're fucking her," Enzo cut me off.
"I offered her friendship," I went on, ignoring that. "And we were friends. For over a month. We went places. We talked. That was it. I had no intentions for it to be anything more."
Maybe hearing the sincerity of my words, and possibly putting two and two together about Reese's sudden exposure to the real world, Paine's head tilted to the side. "And then?"
"And then I almost fucked up and kissed her. So I walked away and cut off contact."
"You want us to think you're just that good of a guy?" Enzo asked, half-smiling, but he wasn't exactly amused. "I've asked around about you this morning," he went on, making me steel myself for the inevitable. "It seems you get more ass than the rest of these probies combined," he declared, waving a hand around.
While I knew at least a few of them took offense to that, they had the good sense to keep their mouths shut right then.
"Ree was in a funk for over a month," Paine cut in, voice reasonable. "Ma even called me about it. She was worried about her being depressed. Not saying he's not a dog, E, but I'm saying maybe stop interrupting him so we can get the whole of his story."
At that, their eyes went back to me, and I figured it was my place to go on.
"Look, I'm not going to try to sugarcoat it. I used to get around a lot. I'm not ashamed of that. But I wasn't in any relationships; no one could fault me for it. And Reese wasn't the only one who had a hard five weeks when we cut off contact. I don't think I need to tell you this since you know her better than I do - and I know her really fucking well - but your sister is a game-changer. And I figured that if you found someone who made your life miserable when they weren't around, then maybe that was a sign that you needed to trade in your manwhore card, and give the relationship thing a shot."
There was a long pause at that, the brothers exchanging a look. It was Enzo who spoke next. "You're in a relationship with Ree?"
"Dude, he gave her fucking eighty-grand to build her teen center thing," Pagan declared out of nowhere. "Think he wants to do more than just fuck her, don't you?" Pagan wasn't exactly one for saying things in the most tactful way, but he could always be counted on for dropping some truth.
"You paid for that?" Paine asked, brows low. "That was a big part of conversation at Sunday dinner, all her plans for that thing. She's wanted that for years."
"It was an apology for dropping off the face of the earth," I explained. "Reese isn't the kind of girl who trusts easily, and she trusted me, and I dicked around with that trust. Figured I owed her big to make up for that."
"Did she talk about that book place too?" Maze asked, coming out from the kitchen, mixing a bowl of something. She didn't often cook, claiming she was given the lion's share of that task when she was prospecting, and she had enough of that sexist bullshit, but once in a while, the mood struck, and she cooked us up something amazing.
"Bookjam?" Enzo clarified, looking over at her.
"Yeah," Maze said, jerking her chin over at me.
"You took her to Bookjam?" Enzo asked, his whole body seeming to relax suddenly.
"Yeah."
"You let her browse around for seven fucking hours, dragging around all her smutty romance books with naked men on the cover?" Paine asked, lips quirking up, clearly amused by the image.
"She was fucking cute as hell about it. Like a kid on Christmas," I agreed. "Apologized a thousand times just for enjoying herself."
"Yeah, that's Ree for you," Paine agreed. "Took her for ice cream once, and she said she just wanted to dip into the book store for five minutes. I was there two and a half fucking hours. There are only so many car magazines you can read, y'know?"
"Look," Enzo said, releasing a breath he had been holding onto. "I can't say you are who I wanted dating Reese. And it's not just because you were a slut. You were single; you're entitled to that. But this gun-running biker shit..."
"I would never..."
"So far, the club shit hasn't ever touched the women," Paine cut me off. "Don't think that because I'm out, I don't keep an ear on the underground. I know the shit you've all been dealing with the past couple of years. And I know you shuffle the women off up to Hailstorm at a drop of a dime. But the thing is, I never wanted that life for Ree. She's soft. And she doesn't need this shit in her life."
I figured this wasn't the best time to mention the fake-out, but very real drive-by. You know, not if I wanted to keep my balls, that is.
"We get that she's a grown woman, and she is going to make her own decisions, no matter what we say," Enzo conceded, it obviously not something he wanted to do. "I got a world of shit from Kenz when I questioned her settling down with Tig. And his line of work isn't nearly as dangerous as yours. I don't know what a world of shit would look like coming from Reese since she's never been pissed at me before, but I can't imagine it is a wrath I want to be faced with. So I'm just going to leave it alone. But understand this, if anything ever fucking happens to her because of your profession, you are going to become intimately acquainted with why Third Street never lands murder raps, even though plenty of enemies have gone, ah, missing."
"If anything happened to her because of my profession, I'd offer myself up willingly," I agreed, standing. "I am more than aware that I don't deserve her, for a multitude of reasons. But she, for some unknown reason, ended up wanting me as much as I want her. I'm not pushing away that kind of opportunity. But I can promise you I am going to be working on being the kind of man who deserves her."
Paine nodded at that. "With the teen center and Bookjam, man, I think you're well on your way there."
"Have you met Kenz yet?" Enzo asked, watching me with just a tiny bit more skepticism than his brother.
"No."
To that, he smiled. "Any threat I can give you is going to pale in comparison to what Kenz would do if you hurt her sister. So you have that to look forward to at Sunday dinner," he said, moving toward the door, then turning back. "Oh, and you will be at Sunday dinner. It's mandatory. Gina now owns your ass once a week until your death. Get used to it."
With that, Enzo was gone.
Paine hung back for one last moment. "Take care of her," he said, his voice a half-demand, and half-plea.
Having a sister, having the female friends I did, I understood that tone perfectly.
"I will."
Then Paine was leaving as well.
The silence in the clubhouse was damn near deafening for a long moment before Pagan declared, "That was lame as fuck. Not a drop of blood?"
"Over the course of Paine and Enzo's leadership, at least twenty men who had beef with Third Street 'went missing,'" Repo declared. "You don't want them getting pissed off. Cyrus did the smart thing in deescalating the situation."
"Ex-gang leaders as your future brothers-in-law," Sugar said, giving me a smirk. "You sure as fuck know how to pick them, huh? She gets a splinter walking around barefoot at this clubhouse, they are going to be coming for your ass."
I laughed at that, but had a feeling that we had come to an agreement about the situation. They didn't like my job. They didn't like Ree being around it. But they would respect my being in her life so long as I made her happy and kept her safe.
All in all, it was reasonable.
And I knew because I knew Elsie that Paine was a good man, reasonable, more laid-back than prone to violence. He just deeply loved his sisters. Maybe that came from not being able to be physically there for them for so long.
We would all be fine.
Once they got to know me over Sunday dinner, which I was actually looking forward to because I kind of wanted to experience the Wrath of Kenzi first hand, they would all be able to accept my place in Reese's life. I would have Elsie, Amelia, and Alex there to back me up too, to be sort of character witnesses that would help convince the others.
That being said, I had to get a move on. I needed to hit the food store, figuring anything Reese had in her apartment of the fresh variety was likely garbage after the long weekend, and thinking it would be nice to make something to eat instead of ordering in again.
You know, after I got acquainted with her bed.
Maybe her couch.
Her shower.
Her kitchen counter.
Because, apparently, all those things you heard about the shy girls being the most fun in bed, the most open, the most unexpected, yeah, that shit was right on the money. At least in Reese's case. I had barely gotten a taste, and I was fucking ravenous for more.
Luckily, I had plans on being around for a good, long time to get my fill.