Chapter 1

Demo sat at the bar with a beer in his hand, watching the chaos around him. He was never so grateful to be single in his entire life as he was in this moment.

When Demo had first joined the club, he’d seen it as a way to reconnect with society after the military and his medical discharge. The explosion that had taken the pointer, middle, and ring fingers on his left hand forced him back into a civilian lifestyle he was no longer used to. He had seen the club as a way to have that camaraderie with fellow veterans without the illegal shit most motorcycle clubs were known for.

And he was also willing to admit, he saw it as a way to get a lot of convenient pussy.

In the nearly eight years since the club had been formed, they had gone from keeping their hands clean to dirtying them for the right reasons. Demo did not have issues with breaking the law, so long as it was to protect and not to harm the innocent.

The club had grown a lot, especially in recent years. Jenna had been the only ol’ lady for five years before Harper came around, followed closely by Tessa and Abby, then Jasmine. Though not an ol’ lady, Jasmine brought her best friend, Sophia, with her. The sassy minx was anywhere Jasmine was and had somehow become a fixture amongst the club’s ol’ ladies. She might not be claimed, but Demo wasn’t blind to the looks a certain club brother gave the other single men if they got too close to her.

Not only was there now a distinct feminine touch to the club, but the club kids seemed to be multiplying. In the nearly five months since the club Honey position had been dissolved, the clubhouse had become more of a family hangout center.

Demo didn’t mind, per se, but his blue balls raised the occasional argument. There was something nostalgic about once being able to just curl his finger at a Honey from across the room and know he was about to get blown.

Now, Demo was watching the chaos unfold and just prayed that, if he ever did find his woman, she was on the best birth control on the market.

Following the December holidays, Lucky and Bear had made the announcements that their ol’ ladies were pregnant— again . Shortly after that, Harper had been found in the clubhouse reorganizing the bar and putting laundry away inside the refrigerator. Shortly after that , Tessa had been discovered on the kitchen floor surrounded by half-eaten tubs of ice cream, a bottle of maple syrup, salt and vinegar chips, Skittles , and a jug of orange juice while crying and watching a Titanic documentary on her phone.

Nearly a week after those instances, Tessa came storming up into their Church meeting to demand where Maggie was because she’d forgotten her daughter was at her in-laws’ house. After Bear had calmed her down, he’d taken her back to their house to rest. The meeting had gone on for another hour or so until Sara, one of their prospects due to be patched over in another month, had come up to get Lucky.

Harper was down in the clubhouse in a panic because her car wouldn’t unlock and she had to get Conner, their son, to a doctor’s appointment. Lucky had to calmly explain that she wasn’t holding her car keys, but the television remote. Then he had to remind her that Conner’s checkup appointment wasn’t until the next day and that Lucky would be going with her.

These instances seemed to be just the tip of the iceberg for this round of pregnancies.

Around mid-January, both Tessa and Harper were reaching the halfway mark of their pregnancies. While they were over their morning sickness, they were overheard in the clubhouse one afternoon complaining about their lack of bladder control, swollen ankles, cracked nipples, hemorrhoids, the sharp pains of their baby moving around inside them, and the one-eighty mood swings.

To which Starbucks, because he was an utter dumbass, made the very loud statement, “Please. If pregnancies were that difficult no woman would willingly get pregnant. Personally, I think you guys are just saying all that to butter up your men. Pregnancy, periods, labor…” He waved it off. “Annoying, sure, but they’re probably not painful at all.” Then he rolled up his sleeve to show a round-ish scar. “Now this was painful.”

This suggestion then prompted an all-out gender war between the couples. Even Angel and Cage were taking sides.

Like many of the single members, Demo was staying safely on the sidelines. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind that the women would win though—mostly because their men couldn’t stand to see them upset and Harper at least seemed seconds away from bursting into tears.

Then DeeDee, Bear’s mother, and Louisa, Bulldog’s mother, came storming through the clubhouse doors, followed closely by Lawrence, Bear’s father. The man stood at six and a half feet tall, yet it was his pixie of a wife whom everyone moved out of the way for.

DeeDee walked right up to Tessa and handed her a box. “Finally! I’ve been waiting years for this.”

Which was how Lucky, Bear, Bulldog, Cage, Starbucks, and Lawrence found themselves hooked up to electrical stimulators that mimicked period pains and cramps. In a surprisingly short amount of time, the women created an obstacle course of sorts that the men had to complete to, quote, win the Gender War .

Lucky went first. He moaned, groaned, whined, and cried his way through doing fifty jumping jacks, moving the clubhouse couch and lounge chairs around, balancing a serving tray of plastic glasses of water—of which he dropped four—and then finally had to carry his wife twenty feet between two pieces of masking tape that had been placed on the floor.

Harper was laughing so hard at Lucky’s pain and torture that she had to be let down halfway to Lucky’s finish line to run to the bathroom to pee. As soon as his wife was out of sight, Lucky curled up into the fetal position on the floor and let out the most pitiful whimper.

It was not looking good for Demo’s gender.

Angel, Jasmine, Sophia, DeeDee, and Louisa were representing Team Vagina. They were doing the exact same challenges with the stimulators on even higher settings with such ease that Demo was ashamed for the first time in his life to be a man. Since Harper and Tessa were pregnant, they couldn’t put the stimulators on and, while Bulldog was completely on Team Penis, he adamantly refused to allow Abby to participate. Bulldog claimed she was already subjected to her biological symptoms once a month and he would not see her uncomfortable just for a “stupid fucking bet”.

Jenna and Steel were the only couple not participating since, per Steel, he already knew his wife was better than him in every way.

When Team Vagina prevailed, Team Penis would be paying for a kid-free spa weekend at a fancy resort. Demo saw Keys already researching the closest five-star places that they could take the women to. It would seem none of the observing men had any faith in Team Penis. It wasn’t until the challenge had started that Demo realized that Team Penis didn’t have faith in themselves either, because no victory prize had been named should Team Penis win.

Abby cheered for her man from her seat next to Demo on the bar stool. Bulldog was sweating bullets and looked ready to puke—even though Tessa only had the stimulator on level five out of ten.

A small hand on his arm startled him, making Demo look over at the redhead. Her bright green eyes held concern. “What’s wrong?”

Demo’s eyebrows drew down. “What do you mean?”

“You’re pressing your elbow into the bar, almost like you’re trying to push your shoulder further into the socket,” Abby explained.

Demo glanced down at his left arm. He hadn’t even realized he’d been pushing so hard. In recent months, he’d been trying more subtle ways of relieving the pain. None were working that well. He was sleeping like crap because every time he twitched slightly in bed, pain would radiate like someone had jammed a hot poker into his shoulder.

He forced himself to sit up, trying hard not to flinch as he did. “Just tired.”

Her eyes narrowed, not believing his lie. “Did you ever go see Paige?”

Paige Hannigan was Harper’s sister-in-law. He knew of Paige, as she was around the clubhouse often with her two boys, Michael and Nelson, but he’d never spoken to her. In truth, he knew more about her finances than he did of her . As Treasurer, it had been Demo’s job to work with Keys to fake a life insurance policy and deliver monthly checks to help her out. Her husband, Richard, had been Harper’s brother—and a complete dickwad. The club didn’t want to see Paige and her boys suffer for the man’s sins.

Richard was dead, but no one who wasn’t a patched member knew that fact. Harper and her parents suspected, because they weren’t stupid. There was no proof, though, no body. As far as the world knew, Richard Hannigan was just another missing person. Keys faked the insurance policy to make it look like it was a preemptive stipend to hold Paige over while missing the family’s primary income. Such a policy didn’t exist, nor did any life insurance policy in Richard Hannigan’s name, but the club had wanted to do something to help Paige out without delivering a suspiciously large wad of cash to her.

Harper and her parents knew Richard’s sins. As far as Demo knew, his wife and young sons did not.

Paige owned an acupuncture clinic in town. She’d opened it just under a year ago. Abby had been one of her first clients, seeing her for pain and stress management. Demo didn’t know much about the practice of acupuncture, but Abby swore by it. Bulldog still took her weekly for a session.

Before Demo could think of something to say to Abby, whether the truth or a white lie, Lucky’s phone rang.

After releasing the Honeys from their positions, the club had voted to hire two housekeepers who were actually housekeepers. Yelizaveta, a wife to a local plumber and the mom of one of Harper’s students, and Frankie, a college friend of Sissy’s, were hired on. However, Frankie soon became more of a nanny to the club kids than a housekeeper. She lived in one of the trailers the club kept on the property too, since she needed a place to live when she had moved to town.

While Ollie, Aaron, Bree, and Scotty attended high school and Lila attended the local elementary school, Cassie was homeschooled due to her agoraphobia. Frankie helped out with Cassie’s lessons, though her primary job was to take care of Conner, Maggie, Georgie, Caleb, and, most recently, SJ. With two other babies on the way, Demo wouldn’t be surprised if Frankie was going to be getting an assistant or two soon. The club kept joking about opening up a daycare.

With it being a Saturday, Lila and Scotty were hanging out with Frankie and the infants at Bulldog and Abby’s house. Since they had the biggest house, that tended to be the residence where the club kids were babysat.

Demo saw Tessa turn off the stimulators attached to Lucky’s abdomen and groin area as he pulled out his phone. No matter a bet or challenge or adult antics, the club kids came first. Demo assumed Lila and Scotty had gotten into some mischief and the caller was Frankie until he saw Lucky’s scowl when he looked at the Caller ID on his phone screen.

“It’s Mitch,” he said to no one in particular.

Mitch was the prospect on the front gate. He was in his sixties, a former Marine and POW, and a recent widower. His prospect year would be up towards the end of March, almost two months after Sara’s and Will’s year. The club was going to need to start recruiting again.

Lucky answered the phone with a short, “Yeah?” He listened for a moment, his eyes landing across the room on Harper. His ol’ lady hurried over to his side, their opposite teams forgotten. Lucky pressed his lips to Harper’s raven hair before instructing, “Give us ten minutes and then let him in. We’re at the clubhouse.”

After disconnecting the call and pocketing his phone, he turned to Steel. “Game’s over. Officers need to stay.”

Steel’s eyes narrowed but he trusted his VP without needing further explanation at this time. “You heard him. Everyone clear out.” More gently to his wife, he said, “Ollie is at Angel and Cage’s with Aaron and Bree. Why don’t you go with them?”

Demo exchanged worried looks with some of his brothers. Though no one had said anything, it was becoming rather obvious that Jenna wasn’t well. She’d lost a lot of weight recently, looked tired and rundown, and her complexion was paler than usual. Demo knew Bear was keeping an eye on her, but neither Steel nor Jenna had offered up an explanation as of yet. Demo had a sinking feeling whatever was going on, it wasn’t good.

The fact that Jenna didn’t argue with Steel practically handing her over to Angel and Cage to babysit also sent up a lot of red flags.

Everyone cleared out. Husbands kissed their wives, helping them don their jackets and escorting them to the door. Tessa and Harper walked on either side of Abby, almost like bodyguards. They would see to it that she got back to her house okay. Demo heard Pirate offer to take Jazz and Sophia out for pizza since Jumper had to stay behind. They were trailed behind by three nearly grown Pitbull puppies, Enola Bones, Winnie the Pooch, and Kidd. Aerial, Jumper’s service dog, remained with him.

Though Keys was not an officer, he remained behind too. More often than not, when a problem arose, Keys’ computer expertise was needed anyway. It had been mentioned more than once to call for a vote to make Keys an officer with the title of IT Specialist or as a second Enforcer. However, in doing so, it would create eight officer positions, which would mean there was no longer a tie breaker. Bear’s position as Road Captain did not qualify him as a voting officer unless there was a tie or another officer needed to pass their vote onto him for whatever reason.

While the others understood Keys’ value as a computer genius to the officers, Demo could also understand how unfair it was that Keys was privy to officer-only information when he wasn’t an officer.

Steel turned to Lucky. “Who’s at the gate?”

“Hannigan,” Lucky told him. Ronald Hannigan was Harper’s father, Lucky’s father-in-law, and Mount Grove’s former (dirty) sheriff. “And he’s alone.”

Steel’s eyes narrowed. While Hannigan had been on property before to visit with Harper and his grandson, it generally was with his wife, Cindy, and with knowledge he was coming. The club did not trust him, even though he’d been tortured and nearly died for his part in his son’s sins. The fact that he was dropping by unannounced did not sit well with any of them.

As SAA, Bulldog was in charge of security. Ghost, as Bulldog’s Enforcer, followed his lead and command when it came to club protection. While Jumper was the club’s Secretary, Demo generally ended up taking the minutes for the meetings. Demo didn’t mind. As Treasurer, he took notes anyway and sometimes Jumper spaced when his anxiety was high, though that had been happening less and less since falling in love with Jazz.

There was a running joke around the club about Demo and his obsession with yellow legal pads. Even in the age of computers and how often Demo had to use his accounting programs to keep the club’s finances and businesses running appropriately, he still preferred to write everything down using a pad and pencil.

“Did Mitch say why he’s here?” Steel inquired.

Despite his relation to the former sheriff, Lucky had no love for the man. None of them were going to forget the time Hannigan pointed his loaded gun at Scotty after he’d crashed Lucky’s fortieth birthday party with a search warrant. The only reason Hannigan was alive and not six feet under with his son was because of Harper. Demo knew the man was trying to make amends, but some things were just unforgivable. Even though Cindy had chosen not to divorce him, she was no longer the submissive, docile wife she’d been for most of their marriage. Per Lucky, the man’s life was miserable and he got a kick out of seeing Hannigan’s guilty conscience torture him on a daily basis.

“Just that he wants to speak with you.”

Steel’s hard expression did not change. The look exchanged between President and VP was understood by all. If Hannigan was here alone and wanted to speak with Steel, it was not a family matter. Lucky was right to send the others away, especially if Lucky did not want to stress out his pregnant wife with whatever news her father was bringing.

Keys was already typing away on his laptop behind the front bar. There was a good possibility he would find out what was going on before Hannigan even parked his cage.

Several minutes later, they heard the rough echo of tires and the groan of an engine in the parking lot. There were enough cameras around the property that they didn’t need to have a prospect escort him in. Bulldog was watching Hannigan’s progress from the app on his phone.

Like his daughter, Hannigan was tall and endomorphic. In the years since the entire Hannigan clan had come to Mount Grove, Demo had seen many different sides of the former Detroit detective. When he first arrived, he’d been stern, cocky, and vindictive. After the truth had come out about his involvement in Richard’s crimes, he’d been remorseful but still arrogant. It hadn’t been until after Mateo Castillo had captured, tortured, and nearly killed him that Hannigan had shown any signs of true regret and sorrow for his actions.

Since resigning in August, Hannigan had lost a lot of muscle. The man had been fit, taking pride in his body and appearance. Not so much anymore.

Hannigan looked old . His once salt and pepper hair was now completely salt, and his skin had a sagginess Demo had never noticed before. The dark circles under his eyes indicated that he hadn’t been sleeping much or well.

Lucky hadn’t been kidding when he’d said the guy was miserable.

Steel gave the man a once over, clearly picking up on the same things Demo was. Lucky stood directly behind Steel with his body slightly turned, as if he wanted to give Hannigan his back but his instincts wouldn’t allow him to.

“Hannigan. This is unexpected.” Steel’s voice was not welcoming. The fact that Steel did not offer Hannigan a seat or indicate they should take this meeting upstairs to their Chapel also hinted at a disrespect towards the man. Carlos was not a member of the MC but he’d been up in the Chapel several times in the past two years.

“Steel, thank you for seeing me.” Hannigan’s eyes danced around the room, taking in the unfriendly gazes. He cleared his throat. “Is there somewhere we can talk in private?”

“No,” Steel said shortly. “My officers stay. Say what you came to say or leave. The choice is yours.”

Silence fell. Hannigan looked to Lucky, but his face was just as cold as Steel’s. Finally, he nodded slowly. “Very well. It’s my daughter-in-law.”

Lucky unfroze. He dropped his arms from their crossed position over his chest. He shifted to face Hannigan fully. “Paige?” Lucky couldn’t give a crap about his father-in-law, but he certainly cared about his sister-in-law and young nephews. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“She just left our house.” Hannigan looked sheepish as he admitted, “She needs help. Financially, I mean. Her clinic is not bringing in enough revenue. She’s swimming in debt Richard left behind.” He swallowed hard, cheeks reddening. “Cindy and I are barely getting by ourselves. As much as I want to help her, I can’t. I offered for them to sell the house and move in with us, but her house has negative equity with the second mortgage. Selling it wouldn’t help her. Plus, our house is small. We have a very small guest room. It would be doable only in the short term.”

Demo didn’t look away from Hannigan but heard Keys’ fingers on his laptop’s keyboard behind him. He schooled his features to give nothing away, though inside he was deeply confused. Keys and Demo had set up a recurring monthly system for Paige Hannigan to be receiving a couple thousand dollars. She was depositing the checks, because it would have flagged Keys’ system if she didn’t. But if she was taking the money, why was she in such debt? Where was that money going?

Hopefully Keys would be able to answer some of those questions once Hannigan left. No one in the club wanted Hannigan to know Paige was getting money from them. While Hannigan had selflessly given up his life savings to help get his son out of debt with a cartel loan shark, no one believed he had a right to any of the money the club had stolen back to help the victims of the cartel’s human trafficking scheme or the two rape victims of Deputy Mark Connelly. Recently, Keys had taken funds belonging to a one-percenter motorcycle club in Pittsburgh, the Black Pythons. That money also helped their victims, as well as a large donation to a rehab center in Alexandria for the club women who had been hooked on drugs.

Steel’s face betrayed none of his knowledge about Paige’s situation. “I fail to see what Mrs. Hannigan’s finances have to do with us.”

“You have pull in this community. Help her get some business to her clinic.” Hannigan’s voice was turning frantic, almost pleading. Demo saw Lucky’s concern increase, though he continued to allow Steel to take the lead. “Maybe host a fundraiser for her. Anything to help out is better than nothing.”

Demo tried to think back to the last time he’d seen Paige. Over the summer, she’d been around during some of the women’s ol’ lady get-togethers. The patched members would take the kids for the day or afternoon while the women had a carefree day to do as they wished—most of that time included wine, snacks, and a lot of giggling. Lucky would occasionally bring his nephews, Nelson and Michael, which meant Paige was with the ol’ ladies. Despite the name of their gathering, it was for more than just the ol’ ladies of the club members. Female family and friends of the ol’ ladies were also included.

Hell, even Cage called himself Angel’s ol’ lady and would hang out with the women while Angel went off with her club brothers and the club kids. He originally did it as a joke, but now was an honorary ol’ lady despite being a patched member. Demo had a feeling he also did it because calling himself her ol’ lady never failed to bring a smile to Angel’s face.

Love had a funny way of changing a man. Not that Demo knew from experience, but he’d seen it enough times in his life to know the truth of the statement. Some men thought that love made them weaker—and it did. But Demo had also seen the strength the love of a good woman gave a man. Looking around the clubhouse, his eyes fell on Steel, Lucky, Bulldog, Bear, and Jumper. Men who would do, had done , anything for their wives.

Demo had witnessed the pain and the suffering Bulldog had endured when his Abby had returned to him broken and abused. At first, Demo had pitied him, thinking that his intense love for Abby made him seem wounded. How could loving a woman so much be a good thing? If Bulldog lost Abby a second time, it would have destroyed him.

Like it had Demo’s dad.