Renny (The Henchmen MC 6)

He was shaping up to be a good brother, all said and done.

"Up," a curt voice demanded a while later, kicking my boot hard enough to make my body jolt.

"Fuck off," I growled, my head slamming, every bit of me feeling dried out.

"Sorry to break it to you, but you're a goddamn grown man with responsibilities," Laz's voice said, sounding as casual as ever and when I craned my head to look over at him, he was relaxed, hands down at his sides, face almost expressionless. "You want to get shitfaced, that's your business. Lord knows I can't judge you for it, but you need to get your ass up and function."

"Thanks for the lecture, probie," I growled. "You can kindly fuck off now."

"See now," he said, clicking his tongue. "I would. Except Reign and the guys are half an hour out and I believe your ass was supposed to be in charge. Get up. Get some ibuprofen. Drink some water. And at least pretend you were keeping an eye on things all day like you were supposed to."

"Shit," I hissed, pushing up to a seated position and cradling my head in my hands for a long minute, still mostly-drunk.

"Half a bottle of Jack," Laz observed, kicking it with his boot. "You're going to be suffering for a while."

With that, he grabbed the bottle and headed out and I dragged myself into the bathroom, drinking handfuls of water and splashing it on my face. I reached into the cabinet and took four ibuprofen then went back into the other room to change, fairly sure I reeked of booze.

When I walked into the common room ten minutes later, feeling not quite so dead, but not anywhere near sober, I found Cyrus still holding his bottle of vodka and Reeve with four beers in front of them.

"You stopped drinking before I did," I said to Cyrus, brows drawn together.

"Figured it'd look a lot better if we were all trashed when they got back. Like we did some brotherly bonding or some shit," Cyrus said, saluting me with the bottle and taking a swig that he clearly didn't want.

"Renny, you look like shit," Maze said as she walked up, shaking her head at me.

"Thanks, Violet. Always the charmer."

Penny walked out after her, excitement like a live wire inside her, her body too small to be able to contain it all. She was practically bouncing.

"Who got the call?" I asked, not seeing Lo anywhere and my phone wasn't in my pocket.

"Well after your cell wouldn't stop ringing for ten minutes straight," Summer said, walking over to where it was sitting on the bar, "I answered it."

I didn't try to defend my actions and I knew I was bound to be dealing with some coldness among the women when they figured out what happened so I might as well get used to it.

"Everyone alright?"

"Yeah," she said, nodding, reaching up to put her long red hair into a ponytail. "Reign said it was bumps and bruises."

I didn't want to tell her that Reign's version of bumps and bruises likely meant Superglue stitches and broken ribs. She would see soon enough anyway.

"That'd be them," Cyrus observed as the sound of car doors met us.

It was all of two minutes before the front door burst open and brought our brothers back in.

"You said bumps and bruises!" Summer snapped as soon as Reign crossed the threshold, the entire front of his white tee dripped with dried blood, most of which was likely his if his black eye that hinted at a busted nose and the huge gash down his cheek was anything to go by.

"Babe," he said, giving her a very tired smile and holding his arms out.

And she fucking flew at him, big belly and all.

"That's sweet and all, but where the fuck is my woman?" Cash asked, walking in next, looking less blood-stained than his brother but walking slow and favoring his right side like he had bruised or busted some ribs.

I had no fucking idea where Lo was.

"She's on her way back," Maze supplied, giving me a knowing look. "She had to deal with something. Where is, oh," she breathed out when Repo walked in- all kinds of fucked up.

See, in the crazy anger department, Wolf took home first place. But Repo was a very close second when he was pissed. And if his bruised and bloodied face was anything to go by, he had gone in whatever he had gone into way too hot and bloodthirsty.

"You can shoot the top off a bottle of beer at like a thousand yards and you go in using your fists," Maze said, rolling her eyes at him for a second before smiling and stepping into his arms.

Penny moved in beside me, genuinely seeming like she might jump out of her skin with anticipation as we waited for the final member to walk back in.