Cyrus (The Henchmen MC 9)

"Um... hi," I said, feeling oddly intimidated by him for no reason other than there was something in his eyes that just seemed that way to me.

"You're the one who brought that fucking dog to heel," another voice called, making me turn to see a man whose face was in various stages of messed up. Scratch marks here; black eye there.

"Pagan!" a woman yelled from a few feet away, giving me a sympathetic smile and eye roll that seemed to scream men, right?

From there, it was several questions that all seemed to have the same 'really? Cy?' tone to them, for which I was amused, but also offended.

Luckily, Cyrus popped back in just a couple minutes later.

Well, not so luckily.

Because now he knew that I had been keeping secrets from him. True, they weren't earth-shattering secrets, just things I didn't feel the need to bring up when we were just friends, and certainly didn't want to drudge up when we were having such a good time in the city.

I was going to get there eventually, I swear.

But I had, at least, planned a way to sort of ease him into it.

Cash, apparently, did not have such a plan.

I turned my head to where he walked inside, small-eyeing him because I felt comfortable enough with him to do so. He gave me a half-smile and head-shake back that seemed to imply that I should have done the job myself.

He was right too, darn it.

I just... I knew it would have been better coming from me.

Now Cy was looking at me with curiosity, but also a small bit of hurt in his eyes.

"Cy, I..."

"I know that piece of shit outside when I see it," Reign's voice called out of nowhere.

I mean, my car truly was a bit of a, ah, deathtrap. But, jeez, they weren't sparing my feelings at all about it.

"Hey Reign," I said as he came into view, giving me a half-smile and brow raise until he realized that Cy's arm was around me.

Then his face went deathly serious.

"Ree," he said, giving me a chin-jerk, then boring holes into Cyrus.

"I had no idea until Cash told me two minutes ago," Cyrus announced before Reign could even say what we both knew he was going to say.

"No idea about what?" Sugar asked, looking around, obviously not liking being out of the loop.

"Reese here," Reign said, giving me a look that said he didn't know what game I was playing, but that he didn't approve. And that look coming from a man like Reign, let me tell you, it was pee-your-pants scary. "Is the littlest sister to both of the previous two leaders of the Third Street gang. And my money is on them having no fucking idea that she is dating a Henchmen. Don't think they'd approve," he added, looking at me. "Right, babe?"

Honestly, I had no idea.

Maybe that was why I was kind of stalling in telling them about Cyrus. They were protective, sure, maybe even homicidally over-protective, but they also wanted me to be happy. If Cyrus made me happy, wasn't that enough reason for them to accept him? Or was a guy in his profession simply a 'hell no' to them? Hypocritical, sure, but I could maybe see that as well. Also, if they knew who Cyrus was - and they usually kept pretty good tabs on the players in town - then they likely knew his reputation with women. That did not bode well for me either.

I mean, I'm a grown woman. I can date who I want to date. Even if they didn't approve. But that didn't mean that their disapproval wouldn't suck. In all my years, I was pretty sure I had never done anything that they didn't approve of. The weight of that would weigh heavily on me, and I didn't want that to affect my relationship with Cyrus.

Kenzi, when I told her, hadn't done the protective older-sister thing at first, just listened, just said I was desperately in need of a lay, claimed I might need to get down there and clear out the cobwebs first. You know, teasing stuff. But when she had been getting ready to leave, she had stopped, turned, and told me to be careful, not to get in too deep too fast.

When I texted her to tell her about the trip to New York, and asked her to feed Knightley, she had said she would feed the "big-eyed freak" and then added a minute later "#getyourfreakon."

But Kenzi had been in the business of making mistakes with men. She learned what she wanted and needed through trial and error. She understood that I needed that freedom as well.

Brothers, well, they didn't exactly think that way, did they?

"You would have to ask them," I shot back, my discomfort making me sound a bit bolder than I actually felt.