They were going to ask D to stay for dinner.
“You really don’t have to do that,” I assured him. “I’ll talk to Diesel outside and get him to leave. We’ll connect later and I’ll explain everything.”
“And spoil the show?” Tabby teased.
“Well, yeah,” I said.
Her face gentled and she replied, “It’ll be okay, Rebel. We’re kinda used to drama. If you didn’t bring it, you would so totally not fit in.”
“That’s the fuckin’ truth,” Tack muttered.
Rush tossed an arm around my shoulders and led me back to the grouping, carrying a screeching-with-joy Playboy under his other arm like the baby’s grandfather had held him.
I looked up at Rush and said under my breath, “I think for the first time I’m really freaking mad at you.”
“You’ll get over it,” he replied nonchalantly.
Okay.
Now super really freaking mad at him.
Though I had to admit, he probably wasn’t wrong.
I huffed.
He took me to the couch, handed me my beer and put Playboy on the floor.
I sat.
Rush sat too.
“Need tequila?” Tabby asked.
“Do you have case?” I asked back.
More smiling and, “Sadly, no. But if Chill is going out to get rolls, we can get him to get us one.”
“I’d say with how pissed your brother sounded, it might be a good idea you stay sober,” Rush advised.
I glared at him as I lifted my beer and guzzled down a huge swallow.
Now he was smiling at me.
Jerk.
“Good you got a brother who loves you so much, he hears you’re up to something that worries him, he hauls his ass up from Phoenix,” Tack said, and the way he said it made me realize why his children were so devoted to him.
It was firm, but gentle and kind.
It said he got I was feeling freaked, but I needed to get over it and just deal with the problem that I created my own self.
“Yeah,” I muttered.
To say I didn’t enjoy the next ten minutes of chatting was an understatement.
So when the doorbell rang, I leapt from the couch, even if it wasn’t my door to answer.
I still didn’t get to the door before Rush, who had longer legs and a shorter distance to lift his butt off a seat.
I felt them all gathering behind me as Rush opened the door.
And it got worse.
Because it wasn’t just D.
Mad was behind him.
And Sixx stood next to Mad.
What was Sixx doing there?
And D had already opened the storm door.
Not wasting a second.
Shit.
D glanced at Rush then his eyes swept to me and narrowed.
Shit!
Rush opened the door fully, stepping back, an indication my brother could come right in.
Goddamned shit.
I started to move forward, saying swiftly, “Diesel—”
He stepped in, and his angry energy was so pervasive it made me stop moving.
“Have you lost your mind?” he asked quietly.
“D, just listen—”
“Have you lost your goddamned mind?” he roared.
“How did you find out?” I asked.
“Not from my sister,” he answered.
“D,” I said low.
“Sixx knows people,” he shared. “A body dump in the middle of some sick-ass shit involving death and picnic tables and porn and MCs, people in her biz buzz about. Your name came up as to where the most recent dump happened. She looked into shit. Some of her people know some cops. They shared. She told Maddox and me.”
I turned accusing eyes to Sixx.
I didn’t know her very well. She was friends with D, Maddox and Molly, and to my understanding the relationship was relatively new. But I’d had dinner with her and her man when I was down in Phoenix last month.
I liked her. She was cool.
Still.
“Sister, with this mess?” She shook her head. “No. I had to tell them.”
She might be right.
I still glared at her.
“Do not give that attitude to Sixx,” Diesel ordered. “And I asked a question. Have you lost your mind?”
“Can we talk about this elsewhere . . . later?” I requested. “I’m in the middle of something.” I paused. “And where’s Molly?”
“Bodies are being dumped, Rebel,” Diesel reminded me. “Do you think we’d bring our woman here when bodies are being dumped?”
They would not.
She might be in Australia, they’d want her so far away from something like that.
Probably where they intended to send me.
“Whoa, you’re huge.”
I looked behind me and down and saw Rider standing there, gazing up at Diesel like he was a superhero.
“And you’re like, ripped,” Rider went on. His dazed-with-little-kid-admiration eyes strayed to Maddox, those eyes got bigger and he whispered, “Whoa.”
I looked to Maddox.
Pitch-black hair. Full black beard. Black eyes. Not as tall as Diesel or as big, but he was a seriously fit guy. Wicked nasty handsome face in the sense he looked like a classic villain from a comic strip, the one you wanted to win over the good guy, mostly because he was the one you wanted to fuck.
Another world that didn’t have D or Rush, I’d totally do him. And it didn’t make me feel queasy to think that. Maddox was just that hot.
He turned his angry gaze from Rider to me.
Angry, he went from looking villainous to murderous.
That was hot too.
I couldn’t appreciate the hotness in that moment.
Oh boy.
“We’ll talk later. You’re done here, you come right home, Rebel. Then you’re packing and we’re taking you to Phoenix,” Maddox said.
Uh-oh.
I didn’t get the chance to get justifiably uppity that Maddox was treating me like a naughty little sister.
Rush moved to stand to my side, but partly in front of me.
“We got her covered,” he declared, his voice very growly.
“That’d make me feel a whole lot better if I knew who the fuck you were,” Diesel returned.
“Diesel,” I snapped. “Kids.”
D looked to Rider who had now been joined by an equally admiring Cutter and said, “Sorry, kid.”
“Dad uses the F-word all the time,” Rider shared.
“To my everlasting frustration,” Tyra mumbled.
“Rebel and I are together,” Rush stated. “And I get you’re concerned, man, but she’s not going anywhere.”
Diesel’s brows went up at me. “So you also got yourself a man and didn’t share.”
“We met on Tuesday,” I bit out.
Diesel’s torso swung back and he looked around, taking it all in, and with the Allen clan being obvious about coming from Tack’s loins, it didn’t take a genius to see what was happening.
But my brother was sharp, intuitive, empathetic and I’ll repeat, sharp.
He saw what was happening.
“Yep, I’m the sister. Those are our baby brothers. That’s my kid crawling around. This is my husband. And that’s my dad and stepmom,” Tabby confirmed Diesel’s look.
He turned back to me. “Meeting the family, Reb? Already?”
“How about this,” Tack pushed in. “You come in. Have a beer. Eat. We’ll talk. You can get to know us, know we got Rebel covered, feel better about the situation. She’s out. Not doin’ what she was doing anymore, but we’re not taking any chances. We’ll explain more over food. That work for you?”
Diesel looked behind him at Maddox.
Maddox settled in and crossed his arms on his wide chest.
That meant, “It’s up to you.”
My brother then looked back at me before doing a top to toe scan of Rush and swinging his eyes through the group.
“We’ll eat,” he grunted.
I let out a breath thinking this might be good.
It might be bad.
But at that point, I had no choice but to let it be.
And that was on me.
I should have told him.
Shit.
Rush looked over his shoulder at me. “Straight up, sweetheart, you got off easy.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Word.” Diesel was still grunting.
“Who wants a beer?” Tabby asked.
“I have things to do, no dinner for me,” Sixx declared, gave Diesel and Maddox a meaningful look and then said to me, “Rebel, good to see you.” And to all, “Enjoy dinner.”
Then she was smoke.
I didn’t even see her use the still open door.
I had no idea what “biz” she was in or why she was there.
But yeah.
She was totally cool.
Tyra moved in and closed the door.
I again planted my hands on my hips, my attention on my brother.
“Are you even gonna hug me?” I demanded.
He gave me a look that would melt steel.
After I successfully avoided becoming a puddle, he moved to me and gave me a bear hug.
“You’re a goddamned lunatic,” he murmured in my ear.
“I know,” I said, holding on.
I saw Maddox watching us over D’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry,” I mouthed to him.
His cruelly handsome face got soft and he smiled at me.
Right.
There it was.
It’d be okay.
I knew that already.
But I was glad to have it confirmed.
I lay on my back in Rush’s bed, staring through the dark at the ceiling.
Rush was lying on his back beside me.
I knew he was awake.
The sounds were distant, and muted, but unmistakable.
In the room down the hall, Diesel and Maddox were fucking.
“You awake?” I asked to confirm.
“Yep,” he answered.
Great.
“This is rude,” I declared.
“It’s late, Rebel. They probably thought we were asleep.”
He was right, it was very late, and I had been asleep.