“Hell yes,” I muttered. “Hell fucking yes.”

• • •

Shaking out his fist, Cage glared down to where Anger lay sprawled out on the floor with a bloody nose and a split lip. “Don’t fuck with me,” he growled. “Don’t you ever fuck with my shit again.”

Anger turned his head to one side and spit out a tooth along with a mouthful of blood. “Fuck you,” he said, coughing. “Since when is Tegen your shit? Been soundin’ to me like the bitch jumped beds, which makes her nothin’ but club ass.”

Cage could feel the black veil of rage begin to take hold. It always started out with a slight tremble, growing and growing, until it was a full-body rumble from deep within, one he couldn’t contain, one that left him waking up in the midst of a full-on brawl and not quite sure how he’d gotten there.

“Not seein’ why you’re givin’ a shit, brother,” Anger continued as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. “The bitch ain’t even all that hot.”

The next thing Cage remembered was yelling. Yelling and screaming and his arms being wrenched behind his back, his feet flying out from under him as he was dragged backward across the room.

Eva appeared in his line of sight, peering worriedly at him. “Cage!” she yelled, snapping her fingers in front of his face. “Cage!”

Confused, he blinked up at his stepmother.

“Calm the fuck down!” she demanded.

He calmed right the fuck down. Eva was damned pissed. And pregnant. The last time Eva was pissed and pregnant she’d nearly lost Ivy and almost died in the process. Glancing over toward the bar, he found Anger slumped against it, holding a beer to the side of his face, giving him the stink eye.

What the fuck ever.

Whoever was holding him suddenly yanked him upward and onto his feet, then shoved him not so lightly off to the side. Cage turned to glare and found Hawk glaring back at him.

“I’ll knock you out, brother,” Hawk boomed. “This club is packed solid with women and children and if you’re gonna be actin’ straight-up crazy, I will knock you the fuck out.”

Yeah. Hawk would knock him the fuck out, if he didn’t knock Hawk the fuck out first. But after one more glance at Eva, who knew exactly what he was thinking and didn’t appear to be very happy about it, he shoved his thoughts aside and gave them both a brisk nod.

“You’re lucky your dad’s in the back,” Eva hissed. “Not sure I could have saved you from his fists this time.”

Cage’s jaw locked up tight. Save him? The old bastard had taught him how to fight. They were the same fucking size, had the same hot angry blood flowing through their veins. Forget that his old man was closing in on sixty too.

Fuck. Who was he kidding? That tank of a man could still take out six men if he had to. He’d always looked up to his father for that shit. Wanted to be just like him when he was older.

Now he’d just settle for a thank-you or a “job well done” tossed his way. At least once before one of them kicked it.

“Cage,” Eva warned. “Do I need to make you listen to some Billie Holiday? Because I will, you know I will.”

His lips twitched. Seeing this, Eva outright grinned. “Go fix what you just did,” she whispered, leaning in close to him and shoving him in the direction Tegen had run off in. “And by fix it, I don’t mean try and get her naked. I mean actually fix it.”

“She’s gonna kick me in the junk,” he muttered, wincing just thinking about it.

Hawk’s hand came down on his shoulder and squeezed. “Don’t be a fuckin’ jackass,” the man said. “You sittin’ pretty ain’t gonna win you any favors. You’re just gonna end up sittin’ alone in the end. And, brother, the way you been actin’ with the hippie, you and me both know you ain’t wanna be sittin’ alone no more.”

Both Cage and Eva watched as Hawk turned on his boot heel and stalked silently through the club. The brother was hurting bad, it was in his expression, in his voice, in the way he walked. His shoulders slumped as if the weight of the world rested upon them.

Cage turned back to Eva. “For real,” he said. “She’s gonna kick me.”

Eva shrugged. “Take a look around you, Cage. From chaos, the strongest sort of love is usually born.”

Chaos. Well, he and Tegen definitely had that shit down.

But real love, mutual love, the sort of love Eva was talking about? How did you know if you had something like that?

Time, he figured. Over time, you would know. And then it dawned on him…

Wednesday! I have to be back at work on Tuesday!

Tegen didn’t live in Miles City anymore. Tegen lived in motherfucking California. She had an apartment, a job, and probably friends. She’d spent years building a life there.

Fuck, he’d been so caught up in her, inside of her actually, he hadn’t given much thought to what was going to happen when lockdown ended.

He didn’t have time.

Cage stormed off in search of Tegen. Several short breaths later, he found her closing Danny and Ripper’s bedroom door with a bundle of clothing in her arms.

“Was that fuckin’ necessary?” he demanded, marching up to her. “Actin’ like a goddamn lunatic?”

“You have got to be kidding me,” she said. “You’re mad at me for reacting to what you did? Groping me like club ass in front of everyone! Then saying you’d need a crowbar to pry my legs back open? You’re a sick, sexist motherfucker and, what? Did you expect me to do a fuckin’ jig? Or giggle and swoon and bend over the bar so you could fuck me in front of everyone?”

Cage opened his mouth, then promptly closed it. What the fuck did he say to that? She was right. He had been doing exactly what she was accusing him of.

He just hadn’t thought…

Fuck. He hadn’t thought. Period.

Snorting, Tegen pushed past him. “You think I don’t hear half the boys talking about how I jumped beds? I know they think I’m a slut, but you know better, don’t you?”

Pausing in front of his door, she glanced over his shoulder. “You do know better, right?”

Jesus, he was not going to get into another argument about whether or not Tegen was a club whore.

“Get inside the fuckin’ room,” he demanded, stalking toward her. Grabbing her arm, he pushed open his door and shoved her inside.

“Goddammit, Cage!” she screamed as she threw her armful of clothing at him. “Stop treating me like that! Stop shoving me into rooms, stop talking about me as if I’m not right there and, seriously, stop acting like your Neanderthal father!”

“What are you going to do about Z?” he demanded, ignoring her. “You need me to make that call, or you got that shit covered?”

Tegen went still. “What?” she asked.

“You dumb?” he shot back, feeling his patience quickly waning. “You need to tell him the two of you, whatever shit you had worked out, is done with. Give him the apartment, whatever, just get it done. We can worry about gettin’ your shit outta there later.”

Tegen’s eyes flared wide and Cage got the answer he’d been seeking. She’d planned on returning home.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Tegen asked. “Why would I give ZZ my apartment?”

And stupidly, he took it one step further. “I told you I wanted you to be my fuckin’ girl. You agreed.”

“I know that!” she snapped back. “I still don’t see what any of that has to do with my apartment?”

Cage lost it. For such a smart kid, she sure as fuck turned out to be a dumbass adult.

“Because ain’t no girl of mine is gonna be livin’ three states over! Especially with another dude! What the fuck kinda shit you thinkin’, Tegen?”

“Oh, really?” Tegen sneered. “Can you tell me what else I should or shouldn’t be doing? Is there a back-of-the-bike handbook around this fucking dump that I should be reading?

“Oh, no, wait,” she continued, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “I forgot. None of you fuckers even know how to read. Except ZZ.”

“If you think,” he bit out, “that you’re gonna be jumpin’ beds again after this shit with us, you are fuckin’ wrong.”

“Jumping beds?” she shrieked. “Before this weekend, we were together once, Cage! Once, for a whole two minutes after which you basically told me you wanted nothing more to do with me! I did not jump beds! I was kicked out of yours and went happily to someone else’s!”

God, fucking, shit! Why was she so damn crazy all the time? Why couldn’t she manage to scrape together more than five seconds of normalcy for him?

“Are you hell-fuckin’-bent on drivin’ me to blow your fuckin’ skull wide open?” he shouted. “What the fuck do you want from me, bitch? Fuckin’ tell me so I can give it to you and you can SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

He was hardly surprised when, out of clothing to throw, she launched herself at him. He waited a beat before quickly sidestepping her, then hooked an arm around her stomach as she blasted by him. He lifted her right off her feet and heaved her across the ten feet between him and his bed.

“Cage!” she screamed as she jackknifed into a sitting position. “Stop manhandling me!”

Cage suddenly felt drained. She was exhausting. The constant back-and-forth, he hated it. It reminded him of his father, of their fucked-up relationship, and that was the last thing he wanted this shit with Tegen to become.

“Jesus,” he said, running his hands through his hair as he turned away from her. “This is not how I want this shit to be.”

Why the fuck were women so motherfucking fucked-up?

He knew this shit wasn’t just a weekend fuck fest. He could feel that truth, knew it in his gut every time he’d been inside her, working her over, watching, feeling her body tighten and release, feeling his reaction to her, and what a motherfucking awesome reaction it was.