Chaos series by Kristen Ashley

So recruits got paid because they also worked in the store or the garage but they got paid less.

The Club made no distinction on pay according to terms of membership for full brothers. Although the cut went up and down with the profits, according to Shy, the checks tripled between recruit and member. The amounts, even in leaner months, were also not shabby.

This meant, with Shy keeping a low-profile apartment and not buying clothes for about six years, he was sitting on a mountain of money.

So Shy, like all the brothers, did his bit at the store and he also worked in the garage. As far as I could see, he pretty much did both in equal measure. Therefore, he didn’t keep a schedule, he went when he went, came home when he was done working, but he was at Ride often.

He also did things with his brothers and for the Club in daylight hours and sometimes at night that he didn’t share with me, and I knew enough about the life not to ask. No, strike that, never to ask. If he wanted me to know, he’d tell me. I’d heard my mom and dad fighting enough to learn that lesson.

I knew the Club was clean, Dad fought to make it that way.

But the golden rule for any Chaos old lady was to take her man’s back when needed, stand at his side when needed, ask no questions in order to get no lies, and know the goodness of her man outweighed the things he might need to do to keep the Club thriving. If she didn’t follow this golden rule, she would find herself no longer an old lady.

In other words, Shy was around, we spent time together, we talked, we made love, we ate together, we watched TV together, but Shy also had his own life, his own things to do, and his own things on his mind so not sharing about Dr. Dickhead had been successful.

“He still f**kin’ with you?” Lan asked, and I focused from my thoughts onto him.

“It’s his way,” I tried to blow it off, but his eyes narrowed on me.

“Better or worse?”

“Depends on the day, Lan.” I shook my head. “It’s just him. He does it to everybody.”

Though not as much as he does it to me, I thought, but didn’t share.

“Not cool, you’re quiet, off work, at a party with your man and family, and it’s on your mind,” Landon pushed.

He wasn’t wrong.

Still, I shrugged again and muttered, “That’s life.”

He dropped his arm from around my shoulders and turned to me. “Tab, I know you wanna make sure you don’t have a reputation as flighty or trouble at work, but if a bunch of folks are eatin’ this guy’s shit, maybe someone should do something. Maybe you can talk to a few of ’em, strength in numbers, so it isn’t just you swingin’ your ass out there.”

That, actually, wasn’t a bad idea.

So I nodded and replied, “I’ll think about that. I know some of the other nurses are over it, so I’ll talk with a few of them. Test the waters.”

“You do that, honey, but you quit ’cause of things with Shy but also because you couldn’t put up with that ass**le anymore. I don’t know if you told them then but even if it rubs you wrong, life’s too short for that bullshit. So if you gotta look for another job, you do it no regrets. If they were loyal to you, they wouldn’t let this guy f**k with your head. So you just be loyal to you, yeah? Find somethin’ that won’t make you quiet when you should be havin’ fun. You with me?” he finished on a gentle question.

“I’m with you, Lan, thanks,” I replied.

He grinned down and me and, seriously, Shy told me he didn’t have a girl and I thought that was miraculous.

Then his eyes wandered over my shoulder and stopped. I looked over my shoulder, saw a big-boobed, full-hipped, big-haired, blonde biker groupie giving Lan the eye, and I knew it wasn’t miraculous.

He was like his brother, chasing tail, enjoying gathering lipstick, but I suspected when he settled, he’d find ways to make his badass man-ness worth it.

“Right, Tab, gonna take you to my brother. I got things to do,” he stated.

Oh yeah, he had things to do.

“Luckily, Shy’s at my place all the time or I foresee I’d need to change his sheets,” I mumbled through a grin as Lan hooked his arm around my shoulders and started us toward my man.

“Absolutely,” he muttered, I looked up at him and gave him my grin.

He looked down at me and smiled.

Then he looked at his brother. “Your girl needs company.”

His arm fell away.

Shy’s replaced it instantly.

Then he pressed his lips to the top of my hair and kissed me.

Seriously. Loved my man.

Lan jerked up his chin, and I encouraged, “Go get her, tiger.”

He shot me another smile, took off, and Shy asked, “What?”

“Landon is about to see if he’s lucky,” I shared.

Shy’s eyes went to his brother and mine followed. The girl was looking under her lashes at him as he approached. Lan was grinning at her.

Something caught the corner of my eye, I turned my head and saw, in the shadows at the edge of the revelry, Hop dragging Lanie toward the Compound. He had her hand in his and was definitely dragging her, but her high-heeled boots were moving double time and she didn’t appear to be struggling.

Quickly, I scanned the crowd and saw Tyra laughing with Big Petey, her back to the Compound. She still had no clue.

But I also saw Dad, and I knew he had a clue seeing as he was following Hop and Lanie with his eyes, his mouth tight. I knew my dad’s looks and that one didn’t say angry, it said impatient.

My gaze went back to the doors of the Compound to see that Hop and Lanie had disappeared inside.

Them keeping things under wraps confused me. They were both consenting adults, and Lanie wasn’t anyone’s daughter.

But in that moment, I found that I hoped like hell that worked out for them, no matter how, on the face of it, it never could, what with Hop being a rough and ready badass biker and Lanie being chic and sophisticated.

I hoped this because, after all that happened to Lanie, she was still Lanie. Crazy. Fun. But there was something off about her that I found troubling, and I knew Ty-Ty worried about it and even Dad did too.

Also, I didn’t think she’d had one single man since she lost Elliott. Not one. And it had been years. For a woman as beautiful, crazy, fun, not to mention sweet as Lanie, that was sad. She deserved a good man in her life that could make her happy.

And Hop was a good man, no matter the ugliness of his break with Mitzi and that business with BeeBee. I’d known him a long time. I knew he would never go there with Lanie, knowing who she was to Ty-Ty, if he didn’t intend to do right by her.