Cyrus (The Henchmen MC 9)

With that, he turned, and went back in the clubhouse, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

Of course I didn't want to fuck things up.

That being said, I had never really done anything with a woman that required me to apologize, to grovel, to have to accept it if she decided she wanted nothing to do with me. True, most of that was because I never got serious with a woman, but still. It was uncharted territory; I had no compass, and Reese was the only one who knew if it was even possible for me to get where I wanted to.

This not knowing what I was doing with a woman thing was foreign. And if this was how average guys felt around chicks, well, they had my fucking sympathy. It was not a good feeling.

"Dad, it's too much," Summer's voice insisted, going for firm, but not quite making that punch as she, Reign, and her father moved out the front door.

"It isn't," he insisted. "They're my only grandchildren. I will spoil them to my heart's content," Richard insisted, touching his daughter's cheek, and offering her a smile. "I have to get back to the office, but I will be over tomorrow with the presents," he assured her, giving Reign a respectful chin-jerk, then moving down the yard toward his car.

And I swear, it happened the exact second his second heel moved off of Henchmen turf.

His foot pressed down, the car screeched out of nowhere, and the shots rang out across the night.

My heart seized as my stomach lurched, the rapid popping of automatic machine-gun firing making my pulse jump as my body instinctively ducked, as my hand reached for a gun at my waistband that simply wasn't there.

My eyes flew to the street, watching as a hail of bullets pierced through Richard Lyon's body, sending out spurts of red blood through his expensive gray suit, and into the side of his Jag. His body jolted with each hit, and I couldn't help but be morbidly fascinated with how he stayed on his feet when shot a dozen times.

"Daddy!"

Summer's gut-wrenching scream drew my attention to the side where I watched as she tried to lurch forward, tried to run to him without thinking. Reign's arm shot out, grabbing her around the forearm, pulling back so roughly that I was sure her shoulder must have popped.

But there was no time for delicacy as the shots kept ringing out, as the doors to the compound opened, bringing out our men, armed for any possible threat, as Reign pulled Summer to his chest, and dropped them both to the ground, his body shielding hers.

Even as Reeve was shoving a gun into my hand, though, the car was speeding off, and the silence for one solid moment was deafening.

It was broken only as Summer managed to lift her head and see the body of her father, riddled with bullets, red fucking everywhere, lifeless on the ground, and she let out a sound that I'd swear would haunt my dreams for the rest of my life.

It was the sound of someone's heart breaking.

Fucking shattering.

At the sound, Reign's face sank, his forehead landing in her shoulder for a second as he seemed to try to find some strength to help her through it, even as she was clawing at the ground to try to get out from under him, and to her father's prone body.

"Let me go!" she shrieked as he moved to stand, trying to pull her back to him, trying to shield her from an awful reality he didn't want her to face.

"Summer, babe, no," Reign tried, jerking his head to the side to avoid one of her flinging, frantic arms. "You don't want to see..."

"He's my father!" she screamed - screamed - back in his face, tears streaming wildly down her face.

"Okay," Reign agreed, letting her run, but following right behind.

"What the fuck?" Cash hissed at my side as Summer threw herself down on her father's, obviously dead, body, her entire frame shaking uncontrollably with her sobs that we could all hear from all the way across the yard.

Edison, Virgin, and Sugar came running back inside the front gates, making me realize that, in the chaos, that trio had somehow kept their heads, and taken off after the threat without me even realizing.

The door behind me creaked open even as Cash moved to go to his brother and sister-in-law.

"Silver BMW with no plates," Roan supplied, voice matter-of-fact, completely devoid of any emotion, not even the adrenaline surge that we all were feeling. "Nothing to go on," he added, shrugging it off.

"Followed 'em up to Wilson where they cut down, and sped the fuck up," Sugar supplied, shaking his head, his whole body tense, like he was a spring ready to snap.

"Who you calling?" Virgin asked as Edison brought out his phone, scrolled, then brought it up to his ear.