He was right. The only person he really needed to explain it to was his sister. Sig didn’t owe anyone else an explanation. “I said I tried to get her number.”
“You shouldn’t have let her fuckin’ leave!” Sig screamed, his face now blood red.
The door burst open and Autumn rushed in, her face pale as a ghost. Her wide hazel eyes landed on Sig. She rushed over to him and cupped his face in her hands, pulling his head down so their eyes met. “What’s going on?” When Sig said nothing, Red insisted, “Sig, tell me what’s going on. I heard you downstairs over all the other noise.”
The blood and heat drained from Sig’s face enough so it went back to its normal color as he stared at his ol’ lady. But his chest still heaved and a muscle in his cheek was popping from clenching his teeth so hard.
Without releasing his face, she glanced over at Trip. “What’s going on? Someone tell me!”
Her panic was rising. Like Sig, she dealt with bad PTSD from the shit she went through. If she went into some sort of panic attack or shut down completely like she sometimes did, it would only spin Sig out of control even more.
Thank fuck through his haze of fury, Sig noticed it, too. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. When he opened them, he hauled Red against him, encircling her tightly within his arms. His cheek pressed against her fiery red hair and he simply breathed for another moment.
Second by second, he visibly relaxed. But it was Trip who spoke.
“Syn was in town. Dodge didn’t know who she was to him, so he let her leave. We don’t have any way to get in touch with her right now to tell her Sig is here.”
Red nodded a silent thanks to Trip but remained clinging to her ol’ man.
Dodge watched in amazement as their breathing synchronized. He had no doubt so did their heartbeats. It was wild and he wouldn’t believe it unless he saw it himself.
Red turned her head towards Dodge. “You didn’t know?”
“I wasn’t sure… ’Til now. My fuckin’ mistake.”
“No, he fucked her and didn’t want me to know.”
“That’s not why, Sig. If I knew she was your sister and was worried about that, why the fuck would I ask you if she was your sister? I would’ve just let her leave and not said a fuckin’ word. Christ. I’m so done with this shit. You want me to say I fucked up?” Dodge jerked his shoulders up. “Then fine, I fucked up. My fault. I’ll take all the fuckin’ blame. But what I won’t do is apologize for fuckin’ your sister ‘cause I didn’t know she was your sister at the time. And if you don’t believe that, then… fuck you.”
Trip closed his eyes and released a loud sigh.
“She’s a fuckin’ kid.”
“She’s far from a fuckin’ kid, Sig. That’s how you see her ‘cause you lost track of her when she was little. But she’s twenty-fuckin’-three years old and only two years younger than Red when you met her. Last time I checked, she’s legally an adult and old enough to decide whose bed she lands in.”
“Okay,” Trip cut-in quickly. “Can we avoid the talk of beds and… and what happens in beds right now?”
“What if it was Tessa?” Sig asked him.
“Do you think Tessa’s a virgin and ain’t fuckin’?” Trip shot back. “I’m not a damn fool and neither are you.”
“So, you’d have no problem with Dodge fuckin’ Tessa?”
Dodge watched the struggle cross Trip’s face, but somehow the man managed to get out, “He would have to approach me first and get my approval, but… This ain’t the same thing.”
“Close enough,” Sig grumbled.
“Honey, you can’t fault the man when he didn’t know.”
Finally a voice of fucking reason. Dodge was right. Red should’ve been involved in this conversation from the start. It might have kept the explosions to a minimum.
Sig’s nostrils flared as he stared down at Red. After what looked like unspoken words were exchanged between them, the VP finally nodded.
However, when he said, “But now he does,” Dodge knew exactly what that meant.
And that wasn’t going to fly with Dodge.
If anything happened between him and Syn in the future, it would be up to Syn. Not Sig.
If Sig had a problem with it, then he could take it up with Syn. But for a brother who hadn’t been in his sister’s life for over a decade, he had no right to try to control her.
Dodge doubted Syn would allow that, anyway. He smothered his grin at the thought of Sig trying.
Thank fuck Sig and Trip inherited their temper from their father and Syn did not come from Buck’s loins.
“Asked her to come back and I’d put her band on regular rotation at Pete’s. Let’s hope she jumps on that. Know they’re headed south for milder weather since that piece of shit on wheels is exactly that, a piece of shit. It’s one thing to use it to haul a band from one place to another. It’s another for all of them to be livin’ in it.”