I raced across the forecourt and felt the vibe the minute I opened the door to the Compound. Bikers had auras, and even at rest they forced out other auras, they were so badass dominant.

Now, they were not at rest and the vibe inside the Compound was so far from happy, it was unreal.

I didn’t care because I had an idea of why and that was not happening.

I stormed in and saw the bad vibe was centering around a faceoff with Shy and Dad in the common area with all the men at Dad’s back.

All of them.

“What the hell is going on?” I snapped loudly, and all eyes came to me, including Dad’s and Shy’s, and those two, scarily, had been nose to nose.

“Compound’s closed to anyone but brothers,” Dog growled, moving toward me.

“You put one hand on me, I swear to God, Dog, I will never even look at you again, and ask Shy, he knows I hold a mean grudge,” I told him, my voice lethal.

Dog rocked to a halt, his expression ferocious then he turned to Dad, as I heard Tyra’s heels clicking up behind me.

I didn’t turn to her or look at Dad.

I looked at Shy.

“Are you okay?”

“Babe, go home. I’ll be there in a while,” Shy said quietly.

“You didn’t answer my question,” I told him.

“Then no, I’m not okay,” he gave me the answer I already knew. “So do me a favor, honey. Go home. I’ll be there in a while.”

He was not okay. I was not going anywhere.

I looked at Dad.

“Why is Shy not okay?” I asked Dad.

“Club business, Tabby,” Dad said to me.

“And how does Club business make Shy not okay?” I asked.

“You wanna know, Tab?” Boz, one of the members cut in. “Not cool, daughters aren’t safe. Daughters are always safe and Shy should know that.”

“And how am I not safe?” I shot back. Boz’s chin jerked but he didn’t speak. “Apparently you have no answer to that, seeing as I’m standing right here”—I swung my arm out to the floor under me—“obviously totally safe, healthy, and, by the way, even though you didn’t ask, also deliriously happy but, I’ll point out again, you, not any of you, asked.”

“Tab. Out. Now,” Dad growled.

“Meeting. Vote,” Arlo put in, and my stomach twisted.

That was not good.

“Oh no,” Tyra whispered behind me.

Yep, not good.

“Vote about what?” I asked.

“Club business, Tabitha, move your ass out,” Dad clipped.

Oh no, that “Tabitha” business was not going to work on me. Four years ago, yes.

Now, absolutely not.

“Vote about what, Dad?” I clipped back.

“Shy, she’s yours, that’s what you say. Control your woman,” High demanded. “Get her ass out.”

My eyes went to Shy to see him looking at High, and he wasn’t looking pissed.

He was looking reflective.

Then he said, “Tab and I don’t play it that way. You wanna order your old lady around, do what you do, not for me to say. I asked her to go, she didn’t go. Not gonna make her. But you try, you’ll deal with me.”

God, I loved my guy.

“She don’t mind you?” Boz asked, brows to his hairline but Shy ignored him and looked to Dad.

“Vote,” he agreed, and my throat got so tight, I suddenly was having trouble breathing. What he said next didn’t make it any better. “You want my cut, vote doesn’t swing my way, I’ll leave it with you and you’ll see the back of my bike. I’ll black out the Chaos ink. What I won’t do is give up your daughter. So fuckin’ vote. You don’t want me there, text me the results and send a man to pick up my cut. You know where I’ll be. I’ll be with Tabby.”

Oh God. Shy’s cut, any of the boys’ cuts, were held sacred to them. They were given the leather jacket with the Chaos patch on the back upon induction to the Club. Their “cut.”

Once they earned it, they never gave it up.

Never.

Not for anything. Not unless forced, say, should they do something heinous to get kicked out of the Club.

“No. No, no, no,” Tyra breathed behind me, but I couldn’t move or speak.

“You’d give up your brothers for a woman?” Brick asked incredulously and Shy’s eyes moved to him.

“Abso-fucking-lutely.”

“Seriously?” Boz asked.

“Not any woman,” Shy nodded my way then invited, “Now, ask again.”

God.

God!

God, I loved my guy.

“Holy fuck,” Tug whispered.

Shy looked at Dad. “You vote. Let me know. But you move to take my family from me, Tack, know this, you’re dead to me. Tab loves me, it’ll suck for her to have a man separate from her family but she’ll deal. But you call this vote, no matter which way it goes, you will be dead to me.”

Oh my God.

“No. No, no, no,” Tyra breathed again.

“Shy,” I forced out.

He ignored me and his eyes moved through the men standing behind my Dad. “I do not get in your business. I might make a call about what you do and who you fuck but I keep that shit to myself. And some of your shit is almost as close to home”—his eyes pinpointed Hop—“and you know it.”

What did that mean?

Shy didn’t explain but he did continue to look through the men and speak.

“Not once has this Club had a sit-down about how they feel about who a brother has in his bed. Tack calls that sit-down, you boys sit down, I’ll say now, it doesn’t matter how the vote goes. You sit down, your message will be clear. You’ll get my cut. Part of bein’ in this family is me bein’ free to be me. Not me answering to my brothers about the woman I fall in love with or, actually, any-fucking-thing. You take my freedom away from me, there is no longer any reason for me to be here. So I won’t be.”

Shy looked back at Dad.

“Just so I’m clear, if you make it Tab or my cut, I pick Tab. You’ll get my cut and you, personally, will not ever, brother, not ever again see me.”

“Well, fuckin’ hell,” a familiar voice I hadn’t heard in years and wished it had been decades said from behind me. “I’m gone for-freakin’-ever and it looks like Tabby’s still causin’ mayhem and heartbreak.”

Woodenly, I turned to see my mother, defying all reason because I knew that not only Dad but all of Chaos threw down with her and told her she was banned from their property.

I felt the unhappy vibe ratchet up to apocalyptic levels then I felt movement, looked over my shoulder, saw Dad shifting toward Mom but Shy was already on the move.

I’d never seen anyone move that fast.

One second he was six feet behind me, the next he was passing me.

I knew why. Even though it happened well before Shy and I hooked up, all the brothers knew my mom and I didn’t get along. They knew how she tore me down. They knew how relentless she was with that. They knew the hateful things she’d said to me, done to me, how it made me feel and how it made me act out when I was younger.

It was my doing, my fault, but it was my mom who made me feel like nothing, and then I found myself at sixteen with a boyfriend way too old for me who hit me when I didn’t put out.

It wasn’t just me. Mom threw down with Tyra, they even had a catfight in the forecourt of Ride, and she was always a screaming bitch to Dad.

In the end, she tried to sell custody of me and Rush to Dad in order to get her now-dead husband out of debt with drug dealers. I wasn’t supposed to know that, but family talked and Chaos was family, so I found out. Dad had made the deal in order to get her out of our lives, mine especially, because her abuse cut me that deep.

Dad succeeded. She’d disappeared. But her memory lingered.

As for me, everyone in the Club knew if it wasn’t for their love, Dad’s love, Tyra’s, things might have gone differently for me. Acting out against the unrelenting cruelty from Mom, I was on the wrong path and if I didn’t have their care, right now, I could be like Natalie, coked up or doing ice, hanging with people that were no good for me.

Or worse.

I knew this. Everyone knew this.

And my man loved me.

With him advancing on Mom the way he did, I would get an indication of just how much.

“She does not…” Shy’s hand hit Mom in the chest and Mom scuttled back, face filled with shock, arms wheeling “… see you…” he shoved Mom straight into the door so her back banged against it loudly before it swung open. Shy pushed her off. She went reeling and Shy finished, “Unless she fuckin’ wants to see you. Heed me, bitch, you are not the mother of my children, so I do not have to go gentle with you. I do not know why the fuck you’re here. I also don’t care. All I know is, Tab does not see you or hear your voice unless she wants to. Now, I can teach you that lesson now or you can get in your fuckin’ car and go. Decision. But remember, not a man in this building will step up for you, so take that into account when you decide how you’re gonna spend the next five seconds.”

I hurried through the still-open door, my mouth open to say something but I didn’t get the chance. Mom stared at Shy for one of those five seconds then she actually raced to her car the other four.

As she slammed her car door, started up, screeched out, and sped away, I looked at Shy’s profile and I pressed my lips together, getting why Mom did not dillydally.

Shy turned to me. I braced. He lifted a hand, hooked me at the back of the head, and pulled me to him.

Lips to my hair, he said quietly, “See you at home.”

I tipped my head back, caught his eyes, and nodded.

He let me go, didn’t look back, sauntered to his bike, and I watched him start it and I kept watching him, my heart racing, my throat burning, my brain not functioning, as he roared off.