"Only because you three, as the leaders here, don't set the precedent of respect."
"She has to earn that," Reign said.
"She just fucking did!" I shouted, waving a hand toward the empty truck. "But instead of praising her and telling her she did the right thing, you had her chastised. She's not looking for an easy ride here. If she wanted that, she wouldn't be here in the first place, putting up with your sexist bullshit. And you guys can roll your eyes and think I'm on the rag all you want, but you know that I'm right. I'm so fucking right. You're deliberately trying to make her quit and she isn't bending, no matter how much you jump on her, no matter how much Repo is all up in her shit." I paused, taking a breath, trying to calm down as I focused my attention on Reign. "How would you feel if someone did to Ferryn what you just did to Maze, Reign? If she did something right, but got scolded for it just because she's a girl? I know how you'd feel and I bet it's one one-millionth of how fucking furious and disappointed I am in all of you right now. Shape the fuck up."
I tore through the back of the compound, looking for Lo and Summer to tell them what their, and my, men were up to.
To say it did not go over well would be an understatement.
To say our, and by extension, Amelia's and Alex's moods, made it a very tense party would also be an understatement.
"Don't," Repo said when I moved to sit down next to him on top of one of the picnic tables. He'd been sitting alone for the better part of an hour, nursing a beer and staring off into nothing. I made sure I had calmed myself down before I approached him.
Repo and I... we'd gotten close over the years. Some nights he would come up to the cabin and hang out with me when Wolf went to sleep, or we would meet up at an all-night diner. While I still didn't know his story, we were as close as I had gotten with the girls club.
"I'm afraid I have to," I said, looking off to see where his focus was. I felt my lips turn up when I saw Maze leaning against the fence, flanked by Lo and Alex and looking down at her feet. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why would you agree to do it?"
"Got an order," he shrugged.
"Right and you're just too damn loyal to question an order."
"Something like that."
"She doesn't deserve it."
"Doesn't matter."
"So you have no moral compass of your own?"
"Brotherhood above all."
"So if Reign told you to put a plug between her eyes right now..."
Repo's face tilted toward me, his eyes empty, haunted. "I'd go get my gun."
"God Repo... that's so fucked," I said, shaking my head.
"How I am, honey, take me or leave me." With that, he hopped off the table and took off toward the back of the yard to his mostly dismantled cars.
"Woman," Wolf's voice said from my side a minute later.
"No."
"No what?"
"No I don't want to talk to you right now."
"Too bad," he said, sliding onto the picnic table, snagging me around the waist and hauling me up and between his spread legs, pulling my back against his chest. "Janie, won't always agree."
I felt myself snort. "Obviously." We agreed on very little a lot of the time.
"You wanna talk?"
"No."
"Wanna fight?"
"No."
"Then get over it," he said, curling around me to rest his chin on my shoulder.
"No. I mean I've disagreed with things The Henchmen have done here and there, but this is just unacceptable."
"Let it play out," he said, turning and kissing the spot right under my ear and making me pretend it didn't send a shiver through my body.
"Why?"
"Look at Repo," he suggested.
I swiveled my head toward where he was down the field, sitting on the roof of one of his cars, his gaze on Maze.
"Okay, so?"
"Janie, look at Maze," he said softly, his fingers moving down my arm until his hand found mine and held it.
She was standing a few feet away from Cash and Shooter who both looked like they were trying their damndest to make her smile, but she was apparently the only woman in the world immune to their charm. She would nod at them or shrug, trying to look like she was paying attention, but every few seconds, her eyes would drift across the field and spot Repo then look away before she could be seen.
I felt my lips curving up and shook my head. "How long have you known?"
"She walked in," Wolf started, "he was interested."
"Does Cash or Reign know?"
"Dunno."
"But you knew," I said, leaning into him. I guess it came along with being so quiet, but Wolf was hyper observant. He noticed everything.
"I knew."
"So you aren't being a Neanderthal," I said, turning my head backward so I could look up at him. "You think that if they keep butting heads that it will eventually make something happen there."
Wolf grunted. "Be good for him."
"Why's that?"
"Good man needs a good woman." His arm went around my belly and tightened. "Like mine."
I pressed my lips together to keep the smile in. Three years and he still said stuff like that, off the cuff, sweet things that made my belly do flip-flops.
"Think I'm a good woman, huh?" I asked, needing to lighten the mood.
"No," he said, making me jump and turn in his arms, sliding my legs up against his sides as his hands went around my back. "The best," he clarified, pulling my body closer. "You gonna marry me already?"
"Do I have to wear a dress?"
"Can wear my tee, you want," he said with a shrug.
I smiled then, big and as happy as I felt inside, long since over the fear that if I got too happy, it might be ripped away. Three years ago, the Earth started revolving around the moon, and for me and Wolf, it never stopped.
"Well, I guess I can marry you then," I said, resting my face against his chest.