Chaos series by Kristen Ashley

I had to go into damage control. I just had no clue how.

Still, I had to try.

“I… you…” I looked around then back at Shy, knowing what I had to say, needing to tell him what he exposed when he talked about his family and thinking he wouldn’t want an audience. So I asked, “Can we talk about this somewhere else?”

“No, darlin’, you talk about this shit here,” Dad growled, and I turned surprised eyes to him to see he looked just as angry as he sounded. “After Shy gets what he needs outta you, I’ll be askin’ some questions about why you took shit like this outside the family.”

What?

“I—” I started.

“Tabby, eyes to me,” Shy ordered tersely and when I looked back at him, he repeated, “What the f**k?”

“You talked about them,” I explained.

“Yeah. So?” he clipped.

I studied him wondering how this had turned so bad.

Then I tried, “You… you were doing a lot for me. I wanted to do something for you.”

“So you f**k me up?” he asked and I flinched.

It took a lot but I recovered and pointed out carefully, “Obviously, I didn’t think I was doing that, Shy. I thought I was giving you closure.”

“Well, you didn’t think right, sugar. You didn’t give me closure, you reopened a nightmare,” Shy fired back.

“How?” I whispered and looked around. “How?” I repeated then I looked at Lee. “What’s going on?”

“We found him,” Lee told me.

Oh my God!

“Seriously?” I whispered.

“Seriously,” he didn’t whisper.

“You’re sure?” I pushed.

“Absolutely,” he stated firmly.

“I see you’re not gettin’ this, darlin’,” Dad put in at this point and his voice was now gruff but gentle. He was also angry at me, but he saw I didn’t understand why so at least he was giving me a break. “Nightingale’s got this guy in his holding room and now he has a difficult decision to make ’cause he knows we got a job to do. We also got a relationship with Nightingale and his team. If we don’t agree on what goes down now, there’ll be friction. We try to avoid friction. But there’s only one thing that can go down now, so if we can’t negotiate with Nightingale, we got a problem.”

I didn’t get it.

Then I got it.

Just like Natalie said, the Club wanted this guy so Shy’s loss could be avenged, and Lee Nightingale knew it and he might not be hip to being involved, even on the periphery, of what they had planned.

“This is not a we,” Shy declared, his furious gaze now on Dad. “This is a me.”

“Brother, this is a we,” Dad told him.

“Was,” Shy spat the word out. “If this shit happened a coupla months ago. Now this is mine.” Dad’s brows snapped together, but it was Hop who spoke.

“This is not somethin’ a brother does alone.”

Shy looked to him. “Yeah it is. This is about me. My family. I deal.”

“You got another family now,” Dog put in.

“I do?” Shy asked and my heart sank. “Didn’t feel that way when you all made your call about Tabby.”

Oh God! There it was.

Something bad was getting worse. I knew that by Shy’s words, the tightening of the mouths of some of the men and others looking away and shuffling their motorcycle-booted feet.

Shy looked to Lee. “You turn him over to me.”

Okay, there it was again. Now it was even worse!

“Authorities would make him pay longer, Cage,” Lee said quietly.

“Authorities didn’t get their mom and dad popped. You turn him over to me,” Shy shot back.

“Shy—” I started and his eyes sliced to me.

“Quiet, Tabby, we’ll have our words later.”

Okay, and now it was even worse.

I decided the best thing to do at that juncture was shut up, so I did.

Shy looked to Lee. “You turn him over to me. Whatever happens, whatever blowback, it’s on me. Not you, and this does not have f**k all to do with Chaos.”

I turned pleading eyes to Dad, but Dad had his eyes locked on Dog. Then he moved his gaze to Lee.

It was then Lee said to Shy, “Don’t make a mess.”

Oh God, God, God!

Worse!

Shy jerked up his chin.

“Usual Chaos drop-off, bring him there. I’ll be waiting,” Shy ordered.

Usual Chaos drop-off?

Yikes!

I didn’t have a chance to process the scariness of that. Shy shifted, his eyes moved through me, through the brothers, all of this like we weren’t even there and he prowled out of the Compound.

I will repeat: his eyes moved through me.

Never, not once, not even back in the day when I had a crush on him and he was too old for me, did Shy make me feel invisible.

Never.

My feet moved to launch me toward Shy, but I didn’t even get a step in before Dad’s hand locked on my arm.

I tipped my eyes up to look at him.

“Go home, darlin’, wait it out. It’ll be okay,” he said softly.

“I think he’s going to—”

Dad’s face dipped close, his eyes were dark, intense, he was feeling a lot of things but still his gaze was somehow gentle on me, and he reiterated, “Go home, Tabby. I got this. The brothers have this. It’ll all be okay.” He held my eyes and when I licked my lip he whispered, “Tab, trust me.”

“I don’t want to be visiting him in the penitentiary,” I whispered back.

“You won’t,” Dad told me.

“You either,” I went on.

“You won’t be doin’ that either,” Dad assured me.

“Or anyone,” I carried on.

Dad’s look, still gentle, flashed with impatience. “Tabby, honey, your message is clear. I get you but we got this. Do you think we don’t got this?”

I held his eyes.

Then I nodded.

He had this.

I hoped.

“Okay, Dad.”

“Got shit to do, darlin’. Go home.” His fingers tightened on my arm, they didn’t hurt but they sent a message. “Your man will be home tonight.”

I stared up at Dad and read it in his eyes.

My man would be home that night. What would happen when he got there was up to me, but my dad and his brothers were going to get him back to me.

I nodded.

He held my eyes before he said, “I see your play and it was filled with beauty. But, darlin’, I’ll say this once, we won’t go over this ground again. Shit like this is kept in the family.”