CHAPTER SEVEN Maisy

CHAPTER SEVEN

Maisy

I was pissed.

Really pissed.

On a scale of one to ten, I was sitting at a thousand.

I couldn't believe my dad and brother had showed up at the bar tonight. At my workplace. They had some balls, I'd give them that. The club was surprisingly cool, or so they pretended to be. Though I didn't miss how LT, the President, showed up not long after my family did. I also didn't miss the way he watched their every move out of the corner of his eye, or how he sent me a reassuring nod as if he knew I really needed one.

In my mind, I took it as him saying he had my back. Which was probably blowing it way out of proportion, but at the very least, it had to mean he wasn't blaming me for bringing this shit show into his house. Yeah, I had a good feeling that the club knew about my family. I'd been honest when Payback hired me and told him straight out. I gave him a chance to cut me loose before I even started if that was better for the club. I also assured him that I tried to have as little contact with my family as possible, even if they constantly tried to run my life. Payback had shrugged but I knew he was taking it all in. Now that I'd been around the club a while, I knew how these guys weren't about keeping secrets from each other and especially, their Prez . So I had no doubt that LT knew what was going on.

Look, I wasn't saying the club did anything illegal. I had no clue if they needed to be a little nervous with my law-enforcing family there. I would assume they didn't until I saw otherwise. But that wasn't even it. Law-abiding or not, cops tended to set most people on edge. Hell, I grew up with cops and I still tensed up whenever a cop was around. The club was already tainted because people looked down their noses at burly men who rode motorcycles and didn't abide by a lot of standard rules our society had. Like how just being working class meant you should be looked down on. It was fucked up. Which might have been why I bucked against it as hard as I did.

Regardless, Dad and Cliff knew what they were doing when they walked into that bar tonight. They had one thing in mind and they came close to accomplishing it. To make their presence known and make everyone around them uncomfortable. But no matter how uncomfortable they intended to make me, I wasn't going to quit. I wasn't walking away from this job. I got it on my own, I made enough to support myself, and I liked it. So, fuck no, I wasn't giving it up. With LT and a few of the other members seeming to have my back, I didn't feel like I needed to either.

My blood was boiling by the time I reached Dad's house. My older brother's car was in the driveway and my mouth curled into a satisfied smirk. They both were about to feel my wrath.

I didn't bother knocking. I pulled out my key and walked right on in. Dad looked up at me stunned, already reaching for the handle of his recliner to lower the footrest. Cliff was on the couch, looking less surprised to see me. I hadn't expected Dell to be here, but there he was, sitting beside Cliff. There was an amused smile on Dell's face like he knew what was about to go down.

"What is wrong with you?!" I might have been a little dramatic, waving my arms like a fired-up bird flapping its wings. "That's my place of work. How would you like it if I came to your place of employment and just sat there? Huh? Maybe wear my beer-stained apron and tight leggings and boots?" However, I didn't think it was anywhere near the same thing as them coming into my work in their uniforms and lawmen attitudes, not even if I added blood-red nails and matching lipstick to the image.

"Now, that's no way to talk to me," Dad said, eyes set in a stern glare as he got to his feet. He didn't take a step toward me, but I saw the message loud and clear in his eyes. I was pushing it.

"I am a grown-ass woman," I said, done with this being under-his-thumb shit. I'd pushed back most of my life, but I'd never stood up like this before. I think this was what some would say was a breaking point. "I do not need— repeat, do not need — you to try and live my life for me. I don't need your shit-stirring and stupid man-posturing messing with my job. You're lucky the members don't give a shit about you. And thank God they don't because otherwise, I might not have a job for the stunt the two of you pulled today."

My finger went from my dad to my brother, Cliff. Dell, the asshole, was unsuccessfully trying to hide his snicker behind a fist.

Cliff, ever our father's son, looked to the man standing in front of the recliner for guidance on what to do. He never could handle me when I "womaned out" like this.

I swung my gaze back to Dad. He didn't look amused. In fact, he was wearing that flat expression that used to terrify me as a child. It was the calm before the storm. Dad wasn't a man who lost his temper quickly, but that didn't mean the wrath wouldn't be deadly. It might not happened the same day or the next, or even a week later, but it would come, and it would cut deeply.

Dad took a menacing step forward. Only one. A warning. A threat. A hint that he was about to gain control of the situation by any means necessary. Cliff and Dell were on their feet now, Cliff looking like he wanted to step up and get between us, but he didn't. I wondered if he'd be on my side at all.

"Let's take a breath," Dell said. Usually, he was upbeat and playful, but there was something timid in his voice now. I didn't like it. I wasn't sure I'd ever heard him sound like that. Guilt hit me like a ton of bricks. Had I been the one to make him a little fearful?

"Shut it, Dellard," Dad clipped out, but his eyes were narrowed in my direction. Though my gaze was locked on Dad, I didn't miss the way Dell shrunk away slightly out of the corner of my eye. "I think this has gone on long enough. I let you have your play time, but now it's time to do your duty to the community. You will take the secretary job for Judge Rover. I will not demand that you take the fine Judge's son up on his offer to take you to dinner, but I will suggest that you consider it. The way you've been running around reflects badly on me, on this family. How do you expect the community to take me seriously when my own daughter is hanging out with a bunch of low-life thugs?"

It took everything in me not to roll my eyes.

"One," I started, letting his words be the gasoline to the flame that had been flickering inside all these years, "you do not own me. Two, I can guarantee that no one keeps tabs on me and no one would give a shit about where I work. Three, I'm not your little pawn. Maybe they are." I gestured in the direction of my brothers. It might have been a bit mean, but it was true. I'd be sure to apologize to Dell later. "Following in your footsteps because they thought they had to. Living in your shadow because it was clear you'd be disappointed if they didn't."

Dad opened his mouth to speak but I kept on going.

"I don't want to be some bitch secretary to a judge who will only see me as some woman who can get him coffee and do the things he thinks are beneath him." I glared hard at Dad. "And I'm sure as hell not interested in dating his son, who is likely the same as him because he was raised in an environment where women are nothing more than pretty, little trinkets with no opinion and wouldn't dare think for themselves. Where they are merely servants to a man."

Dad took another step forward.

It didn't stop me.

"You are controlling and overbearing," I said, clearly having reached my limit. This was a lifetime of dealing with his shit, building up until it was spilling over. "I can't blame Mom for leaving. I'm only pissed that she left me here to deal with it."

I snapped my mouth shut the moment the words were out.

The whole room was dead silent. I stared down the man who raised me, unblinking even as my chest heaved and my heart felt like it was going to pound out of my body.

Mom was a subject that was off-limits. She left us when I was eight. Just up and left. No warning. No letter. Nothing. The only time we heard anything about her was two years after she took off. She'd sent Dad divorce papers. She didn't want to see him. Didn't want anything, including me. She washed her hands of the life she'd made with Dad. After that, Dad became super strict and I was never allowed to do anything. I was my mother's daughter until she wasn't here anymore, and then I was only good for the things Dad thought I needed to be. The woman of the house. The perfect, pretty daughter. The wife-in-training.

It was a surprise that I had the backbone I did. Maybe that was something she left me with.

For a second, I wondered if my comment had gone too far. But then I realized it was true. It was everything I'd been feeling for the last ten years, even if I didn't really understand the feelings fully. She left because of him, I didn't doubt that. As much as I hated her, there was a part of me that understood.

Dad's nose flared, his gray eyes were cold as he stared at me. I'd always known who he was, or so I thought, but this was a part of him that I'd never fully seen. I'd only gotten glimpses, heard whispers about it, felt the aftermath shake the world around me.

"Get out," he said, voice as cold as his eyes.

"Gladly," I shot back before turning and walking to the front door. "And stay away from my work," I called out, slamming the door like a pissy teen as I left.

I did feel a little bad for leaving my brothers there to pick up the pieces or calm him down or whatever, but I didn't regret what had happened.

It was time. Clearly. The explosion of emotions and word vomit had been the obvious signs that I couldn't hold it in any longer.

I wasn't sure if Dad would forgive me or if we'd ever talk again. I wanted to care, but I didn't have it in me to. Maybe tomorrow I would.

As I got in my car and pulled out of the driveway, I realized that it felt like a giant weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.

It sucked that it had to happen, but I'm glad that it finally did.