Wolf (The Henchmen MC #3) (32 page)

"On it," she said simply, but I saw her tense. It didn't take a genius to know how heavy a keg was and she knew there was no way she could take one down, but she'd be damned if she let that weakness show.

"You guys are assholes," I declared, turning away from them and jumping up into the bed, shoving the shoulder of the probate who made some sort of comment about Maze's ass as she hopped up. And, granted, she had an ass to kill for, but that didn't give them the right to comment. "Funny, I don't hear you telling Cash or Reign or Wolf what nice asses they have," I shot at them as I reached for the handles at the top of the keg.

"Don't want to fuck theirs," one of the probates said, shrugging.

"Are you fucking serious?" I asked, straightening and advancing him across the bed. "You do realize this is a brotherhood right? You're not supposed to..."

"Have to deal with a sister? And her fucking mood swings when she's on the rag like you obviously a..."

I bent low, planted my feet, and shoved with everything in me. I had the element of surprise on my side, making the man who outweighed me by a solid seventy pounds of muscle go toppling off the back of the truck, landing hard on his back.

"Hey, bitch..." the other probate, obviously his brother if their looks were anything to go by, said as his hand landed hard on my shoulder.

Down on the ground, Wolf started to growl and Cash and Repo straightened. Reign put Ferryn on the ground and patted her butt till she toddled off. But before they could even move toward the truck, the probate's wrist was grabbed and twisted. Maze moved fast, spinning behind him, locking his arm against his back, and slamming him forward over a keg.

"Apologize," she growled, hiking a knee up as he squirmed and pressing it into his lower back.

"Fuck you."

"With what? While we're talking about our
brothers
body parts, I've seen you changing, Moose. You don't have anything a woman wants in those pants."

"Maze..." Repo called, his voice holding warning.

"What?" she almost screamed back, frustration bouncing off of every nerve ending. "Last night Duke and Renny got into a knock down drag out and all you did was stand there and place bets! But because it's me you're going to pull the fucking 'boss' card a-fucking-gain?" she asked, still yelling, pushing away from the probate. I was right; they were giving her a hard time. There's no way she would be flipping out like she was if they were giving her a fair shot. This was just the icing on the cake for her after god-knew how long of god-knew what she was forced to put up with. "He put his
hand
on someone else's old lady. He's lucky it's still attached to his body!" All her rage was focused on Repo who looked like he was struggling with some kind of self-control, his hands clenching hard into fists at his sides.

What the hell was going on?

"She ain't wrong," Wolf agreed, reaching up into the bed and pulling my leg until I hopped down toward him, his arm closing around me tightly.

"Maze you need to calm down," Repo said, his voice sounding almost like a sigh.

"You need to stop..."

"Alright, enough," Reign broke in, obviously done with the situation. "Moose," he said inclining his head toward the guy in the truck bed, rubbing his wrist where Maze had twisted it, "Maze is right; you don't put your hand on a woman. Ever. And you certainly don't put your hand on your fuckin' road captain's woman. What the fuck were you even thinking?"

"She could have broken my brother's bac..."

"Then your brother should show a little more respect. You're out," Reign said in a lethal way that brooked no argument. "Your brother can stay if he shapes the fuck up. Now you've ruined enough of this party so get the fuck gone so we can all enjoy the rest."

Moose's face was that of barely-contained rage and he shoved Maze hard as he passed, almost knocking her off balance. But she didn't react, just gritted her teeth and jumped down off the bed after him.

"Maze..." Repo said, trying to reach for her arm as she passed, but she jerked it violently away.

"Don't you fucking touch me," she hissed under her breath, taking off toward the compound.

I waited a minute for Moose to clear out, his brother following him toward the gate where they both started gesturing wildly, shoving at each other and, I assumed, yelling.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, looking at Repo.

Repo rubbed a hand down his face and shuffled away without saying anything. I turned my attention to Cash who was scratching his cheek, trying to not look as guilty as he obviously was.

"Spill."

Cash smiled, shaking his head. "You won't like it, kid."

"Still want to hear it."

"Repo is in charge of making Maze's life a living hell until she quits or fucks up bad enough to get kicked out."

"Did you know about this?" I asked, turning my head to look up at Wolf.

"Yep," he said with a nod, not even thinking about evading or lying. It was a quality I genuinely appreciated about him, but I wasn't in the mood to be pleased by him. I wrenched away and he let me, sighing hard. "You don't get it," he said with a shrug.

"You're god damn right I don't fucking get it. Have we met? On that note, have you met Lo? Or Alex? Hell, even Summer and Amelia have got steady trigger fingers and good foot work. You are surrounded by strong, badass women and you think you can pull some Neanderthal shit just because..."

"Because of what just happened, babe," Reign said, tucking his hands into his pockets.

"What just happened was two immature dickheads pulled some immature dickhead moves."

"Kid, have you met the guys? They're all immature dickheads," Cash put in. "This kind of thing would be never-ending."

"Only because you three, as the leaders here, don't set the precedent of respect."

"She has to earn that," Reign said.

"She just fucking did!" I shouted, waving a hand toward the empty truck. "But instead of praising her and telling her she did the right thing, you had her chastised. She's not looking for an easy ride here. If she wanted that, she wouldn't be here in the first place, putting up with your sexist bullshit. And you guys can roll your eyes and think I'm on the rag all you want, but you know that I'm right. I'm so fucking right. You're deliberately trying to make her quit and she isn't bending, no matter how much you jump on her, no matter how much Repo is all up in her shit." I paused, taking a breath, trying to calm down as I focused my attention on Reign. "How would you feel if someone did to Ferryn what you just did to Maze, Reign? If she did something right, but got scolded for it just because she's a girl? I know how you'd feel and I bet it's one one-millionth of how fucking furious and disappointed I am in all of you right now. Shape the fuck up."

I tore through the back of the compound, looking for Lo and Summer to tell them what their, and my, men were up to.

To say it did not go over well would be an understatement.

To say our, and by extension, Amelia's and Alex's moods, made it a very tense party would also be an understatement.

"Don't," Repo said when I moved to sit down next to him on top of one of the picnic tables. He'd been sitting alone for the better part of an hour, nursing a beer and staring off into nothing. I made sure I had calmed myself down before I approached him.

Repo and I... we'd gotten close over the years. Some nights he would come up to the cabin and hang out with me when Wolf went to sleep, or we would meet up at an all-night diner. While I still didn't know his story, we were as close as I had gotten with the girls club.

"I'm afraid I have to," I said, looking off to see where his focus was. I felt my lips turn up when I saw Maze leaning against the fence, flanked by Lo and Alex and looking down at her feet. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would you agree to do it?"

"Got an order," he shrugged.

"Right and you're just too damn loyal to question an order."

"Something like that."

"She doesn't deserve it."

"Doesn't matter."

"So you have no moral compass of your own?"

"Brotherhood above all."

"So if Reign told you to put a plug between her eyes right now..."

Repo's face tilted toward me, his eyes empty, haunted. "I'd go get my gun."

"God Repo... that's so fucked," I said, shaking my head.

"How I am, honey, take me or leave me." With that, he hopped off the table and took off toward the back of the yard to his mostly dismantled cars.

"Woman," Wolf's voice said from my side a minute later.

"No."

"No what?"

"No I don't want to talk to you right now."

"Too bad," he said, sliding onto the picnic table, snagging me around the waist and hauling me up and between his spread legs, pulling my back against his chest. "Janie, won't always agree."

I felt myself snort. "Obviously." We agreed on very little a lot of the time.

"You wanna talk?"

"No."

"Wanna fight?"

"No."

"Then get over it," he said, curling around me to rest his chin on my shoulder.

"No. I mean I've disagreed with things The Henchmen have done here and there, but this is just unacceptable."

"Let it play out," he said, turning and kissing the spot right under my ear and making me pretend it didn't send a shiver through my body.

"Why?"

"Look at Repo," he suggested.

I swiveled my head toward where he was down the field, sitting on the roof of one of his cars, his gaze on Maze.

"Okay, so?"

"Janie, look at Maze," he said softly, his fingers moving down my arm until his hand found mine and held it.

She was standing a few feet away from Cash and Shooter who both looked like they were trying their damndest to make her smile, but she was apparently the only woman in the world immune to their charm. She would nod at them or shrug, trying to look like she was paying attention, but every few seconds, her eyes would drift across the field and spot Repo then look away before she could be seen.

I felt my lips curving up and shook my head. "How long have you known?"

"She walked in," Wolf started, "he was interested."

"Does Cash or Reign know?"

"Dunno."

"But you knew," I said, leaning into him. I guess it came along with being so quiet, but Wolf was hyper observant. He noticed everything.

"I knew."

"So you aren't being a Neanderthal," I said, turning my head backward so I could look up at him. "You think that if they keep butting heads that it will eventually make something happen there."

Wolf grunted. "Be good for him."

"Why's that?"

"Good man needs a good woman." His arm went around my belly and tightened. "Like mine."

I pressed my lips together to keep the smile in. Three years and he still said stuff like that, off the cuff, sweet things that made my belly do flip-flops.

"Think I'm a good woman, huh?" I asked, needing to lighten the mood.

"No," he said, making me jump and turn in his arms, sliding my legs up against his sides as his hands went around my back. "The best," he clarified, pulling my body closer. "You gonna marry me already?"

"Do I have to wear a dress?"

"Can wear my tee, you want," he said with a shrug.

I smiled then, big and as happy as I felt inside, long since over the fear that if I got too happy, it might be ripped away. Three years ago, the Earth started revolving around the moon, and for me and Wolf, it never stopped.

"Well, I guess I can marry you then," I said, resting my face against his chest.

Two months later, I did.

Though, not in his tee.

The girls had talked me into a simple white sun dress. For easy access reasons only. I hated every moment of wearing it, but loved the three seconds it took for Wolf to pull it off me.

I stuck to my guns and we got married at Hailstorm with Lo ordained and officiating. Simple. And my bridesmaids wore whatever the hell they wanted to. And we were surrounded by so much love it was almost suffocating.

At the time, I had no idea that our son was with us on our wedding day. But he was. And eight months later, he was with us in our cabin.

I may have led a life of action and intrigue, but the greatest adventure I came across was that of loving a good man and being loved in return and pouring the overflow of that love into our son until he overflowed too.

Oh, and Wolf was right about Repo and Maze.

And let me tell ya... their story was a doozy.

Though, personally, I would always think mine and Wolf's was the best of the bunch.

xx

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