Chapter 06

Two fucking days later and I was so goddamn glad to be done carting around Violet. The woman was a never-ending sound machine that grated on my every fucking nerve. Why did a grown-ass woman need to constantly have a goddamn sucker in her mouth? I liked Violet but fuck. If I didn’t see her for a while, it’d be better for everyone involved.

“This is such a cute little town,” Violet exclaimed as she slipped off the back of my bike when I stopped in front of the clubhouse. The Stone Outlaws MC was a front for the Stone pack. The Stones were mostly nomads—wolves with no homes. They liked it that way. Sure, there was a huge population of wolves who stayed in Blackstone Ridge, Colorado, but the freedom to come and go as they pleased was the whole point of the Stone pack. But keeping track of those wolves? That was a fucking feat, which was where the club came in. A patch made it easy to tell who members were.

Hell, the Ironwoods did the same with their club, the Iron Renegades.

The pack house was the clubhouse, but it was tailored for wolves. A high fucking fence with no visibility wrapped around the huge clubhouse, closing it off to the rest of the town. Roan’s patch got us through the gates—they’d been expecting us. Motorcycles were parked in rows out front, people gathered and drank in small groups, and loud music blasted from somewhere. But the real commodity was behind the clubhouse. The Stones owned acres of fucking land that backed right up to the desert. It was all wrapped up neatly in a fence with a sliding gate, letting wolves move about and disappear into the desert if needed.

Blackstone Ridge was none the wiser to the wolf shit that went on inside the fence. And the Stones worked their asses off to keep it that way. The club took care of the town, helped the people, and made their presence known. It kept the town quiet and happy.

“Yeah, you’ll love it,” I told her, my voice tense. Every part of me fucking hoped she walked her pretty little ass inside to give me a fucking break. Granted, from the way some of the men on the porch stared at her, I realized maybe letting her wander off wasn’t the best idea either. Fuck, she’d need a babysitter.

Rotating slowly, I glared at Roan. Violet may have grown up in an MC but the Renegades were different than the Outlaws.

“You get to babysit her,” I snarled under my breath.

“I know,” Roan replied.

“I’m not doing it, you furry fucker.”

“I wouldn’t ask you to. Besides, I can watch her hands now.”

“You made it, you slow fuckers!” Axel shouted, strolling out the front door with a beer in hand and a stupid grin on his face. He was shirtless and showing off his tattoos, shoeless and barefoot, and wearing only a pair of black sweatpants. His dark hair swept across his forehead and a pair of sunglasses hid his eyes. Yeah, that’d probably be most of us for a few days. Or naked. There’d be a lot of naked fucking people.“What the hell took you so goddamn long?”

“Roan and his small fucking bladder,” I said loudly.

“Haven’t you learned to take a piss before you leave yet?” Maverick demanded as he joined Axel. He was dressed damn near the same—only in gray sweatpants instead of black and his sunglasses were shoved in his wild curls.

“Yeah, I deserved that one,” Roan muttered. Grabbing his pack, he started for the front door, but I planted a hand on his chest to hold him in place.

“You know what you’re going to do for me?” I growled. “You’re going to find every goddamn sucker in this fucking town and buy it because if I have to listen to her with a fucking sucker on the drive back, I’m going to kill her. I’m going to kill her, and I’m going to leave her on the side of the fucking road, you hear me? I’ll kill her, Roan.”

Because who were we kidding? He wouldn’t be able to handle her on the way back either.

“I got it, I got it!”

“Better yet, if you don’t, I’m giving her a key to your house and giving her all the fucking pointers on how to win your furry ass over, got it? And that will include the advice to show up at your house fucking naked as often as she can, you hear me?”

“You wouldn’t dare,” he snarled. Just watch me, fucker.

“I know your goddamn schedule inside and out,” I reminded him. “I’ll have her naked in your house at the most inconvenient fucking times. Just try me.”

His blue eyes narrowed, and I knew I had him.

“Next time, Byrne.” The words came out like a threat, and I fucking grinned.

“Bring it, Ironwood.” Yeah, this every day shit with Roan I’d miss when I moved back.

“Unless you two are going to kiss, you want to get your dumb asses inside? We got day drinking to do, fuckers!” Axel yelled, making Maverick laugh. I flipped them both off as I unloaded my bag off my bike. I wasn’t planning to drink with them—they knew that—but everything else was on the table. Let the Fall Games begin.

“I’m drinking for you, Byrne!” Roan announced before he even showed up in the doorway with two beers in hand—and they clearly weren’t his first. I chuckled. This year’s Fall Games would hit differently. I wasn’t about to compromise two years of sobriety for any of their bullshit and games, but fuck if I didn’t have an escape route planned in case I needed it. I just hoped I didn’t need it.

Like his brothers, Roan had stripped down to a pair of sweatpants, showing off his tattoos. Me? I opted for a pair of running shorts. While all my jewelry was magicked to survive unexpected shifts, I still took all of it off.

Except for my wedding ring. But I kept it on my right ring finger. Not quite married but not quite ready to let go either. Was I pathetic for it? Probably. I was still a work in progress.

“Get your ass outside, Byrne!” he ordered and pointed dramatically down the hall.

“I can’t,” I told him and nodded to my gun on the dresser. “Cole put a box aside for me to use while I’m here, and now Alice can’t find where he put it.”

“Who’re you shooting in the desert?” Roan demanded. He let himself into my room, flopping down on the bed and taking a long drink from one of the bottles.

“I go everywhere with my gun, you know this. Well, sober you does.” My gun wasn’t the only thing I wanted to put in the box, but I wasn’t about to talk to him about that while he was drunk.

“Just carry it around!” he exclaimed. “No one cares. It’s Colorado. I want to go outside!”

“Shut your furry ass, Roan,” I retorted. “You can sit there and wait a few minutes, or you can walk your dumbass out the fucking door. I’ll meet you there.”

“Okay, look,” Alice cut in as she stormed through the open door. Her delicate face was set in an angry expression—something amplified by the violent shades of red and orange in her long hair. Her piercings and tattoos showed off by a sports bra and shorts did nothing to tone down her mood. And truly, Alice was a fucking force of nature. If she was pissed off, I knew to get the fuck out of her way. Unfortunately, that mood was coming right at me, so I braced for it. She slammed a box down on the dresser as she raged, “I don’t know what the fuck he did with it. I don’t care what the fuck he did with it. I bought you a fuckin’ new one.”

“I could’ve waited until he got back,” I told her, even though I appreciated the gesture. The sooner I got my gun locked away, the sooner I could hang out with everyone. The sounds in the clubhouse fucking taunted me. I hadn’t realized how much I missed pack get-togethers until I found myself stuck in my room listening to it all. My body vibrated with excitement.

“He’s on a rescue,” she said. “He ain’t comin’ back any time soon.”

That made sense. Cole’s passion project was his search and rescue team. Blackstone Ridge was a huge tourist spot, and tourists were fucking morons. The number of idiots who got lost in the desert doing stupid shit was obscenely high. So much so that Cole used the club to start a specialized search and rescue team. There were two groups: the smoke show and the searchers. The smoke show group manned the town, making a huge fucking thing out of it all to draw the attention from the real group going out as wolves to track down those who went missing.

“Well, thank you,” I replied. “Just let me know what I owe you.”

“Nothin’. I’m makin’ Cole pay for this shit. We’ll just keep it in the room for the next time you’re around.”

“Sounds good.” I chuckled. Fuck. I didn’t want to be around when she told him.

“Bonfires are goin’ up, and grills are goin’,” Alice informed us as she started out the door. She waved in Roan’s direction. “Obviously, y’all figured out where the fuckin’ beer is at. I did my job, so don’t fuckin’ ask me for anythin’ else.”

“We love you, Alice!” Roan shouted after her with a stupid ass grin on his face. “You’re my favorite Stone!”

“Fuck you, Ironwood.”

“God, she’s fucking hot.” He sighed. “If she didn’t scare the crap out of me, I’d bang her.”

“You’d fucking try,” I scoffed. I took my time setting up the bio lock safe. For as eager as I was, I wasn’t about to rush it.

“I so would,” he readily agreed. “I like them feisty:”

“Ain’t that the fucking truth,” I muttered as I put away my gun. The amount of fucking women I’d punt-kicked out of that man’s life was fucking ridiculous.

My phone vibrated. I caught a glimpse of Declan’s name and grinned.

DECLAN: Get your scrawny ass outside. I’m here. I want you to meet Raven before everyone is drunk off their ass.

About fucking time. In the months since conspiring with all the pack leaders to protect Raven from the Lochlans, I was the only one who hadn’t met her yet. Declan and her kept to Cedar Harbor, where I wasn’t. Granted, Declan kept me updated about all the shit he could. Some of it I didn’t need to fucking know—oversharing fuck—but I listened nonetheless.

I wanted to know all the things going on with my brothers, but it felt weird trying to reconnect. They had three years together—years I didn’t fit into. Trying now was the best fucking option I had. Would it be enough? They made me think it would for the most part. But that nagging voice in the back of my fucking mind had a goddamn field day with planting doubts though.

I won’t be.

DECLAN: Yeah, but I plan to be. And once she gets going, there’s no controlling her.

I can’t wait to see that shit. Be right down.

With my back to Roan, I opened up my bag and took out three pill bottles. Roan knew about them—fuck, he’d helped me get on them— but I still felt weird about anyone seeing them. When they were stashed away, I locked the safe. I dropped my bag to the floor and kicked it under the bed.

“Come on, you furry asshole.” I held out a hand to Roan and yanked him to his feet. “We have so much fucking shit to get into.”

“Fuck yes.” Roan’s face looked damn near ready to break in half. “I want taquitos.”

“Jesus fuck, Roan,” I snorted. He followed me out the door.

“Spicy fucking taquitos!” he exclaimed over my door as he slammed it.

“Okay, Roan.”

“With the little green peppers inside. You know what I mean? You know the little green peppers, Killian? What’re the little green peppers called?”

“Jalape?os?” I laughed. This fucking man.

“Yes! Those! I fucking love jalape?os!” he damn near shouted. Slinging an arm around his shoulder, I kept him close as he bumped into a wall. The fucking moron was going to hurt himself.

“Let’s go, dumbass,” I said. “I have a surprise for you, and then I’ll find you some fucking taquitos.”