Cyrus (The Henchmen MC 9)

"Speaking of," I said, looking over at him. "You didn't come out and introduce yourself."

"Figured she had enough on her plate with the rest of them. We'll meet eventually."

The back door opened, bringing in a bunch of the guys with guns in their hands, likely having come back from doing some target practice, something Reign insisted on not only because it meant we could defend ourselves, but because he felt it helped keep any festering tensions low. Fights in an MC were inevitable, but he preferred everyone walk away from them.

"This fuck," Reign said, waving his gun at Virgin, "has been shooting since he was five. Fuckin' five years old."

And it was right about then that I realized how soon 'soon' was.

Because the front door burst open.

And in they walked.

There was a family resemblance between them and Reese, sure, but these men that were only half-brothers looked almost identical to each other.

Which was to say... fucking intimidating.

They were close to six-and-a-half feet, solid, strong, tattoo-covered, and carried themselves with the calm, but determined gait of men used to sticky situations.

Having run a street gang, that wasn't surprising.

The real similarity I saw to Reese was they all had the same light-skin mixed-race complexion and the same unusual light green eyes.

"'Sup Paine, Enzo," Reign said casually, rubbing his brow with his gun, trying - if the lip twitch was anything to go by - not to smile. He knew exactly what was going down, and he was amused by it. "Nice of you to drop in."

"Where the fuck is he?" Paine asked, obviously having no fear of a notoriously violent biker president. Then again, I had no idea what Paine's reputation as a gang leader was. Maybe he put Reign to shame.

"Don't be coming into my club hot, Paine. You got something you need to handle, do it with some fuckin' respect."

"We're not even getting into the fact that you didn't have the respect to tell us that one of your men is fucking around with our sister," Enzo cut in, a dangerous kind of calm. "And don't try to pull that you didn't know who she was thing since we know she was here last night, and we sure as fuck know that you know who she is. And that you also know we've made it clear as fucking glass that your men were to stay away from her."

"Something I might have made clear to him had I fuckin' known about it ahead of time, E. Literally found out last night. Was I supposed to drive my ass all the way out to the city to tell you? We told him about you. We told him to expect an issue. That is all you can expect from me. Now, I'm the fuck out of here if you're done stinking up the joint with that testosterone. This is Cyrus. He's the one fucking your little sister," Reign declared, not sparing me in the least as he whacked me in the shoulder as he passed, then disappeared out the front door.

I didn't stand up, not wanting to cause any kind of confrontation. The fact of the matter was, I had to gain their favor if I wanted to keep seeing Reese. Her family meant the world to her. If I didn't get in good with them - and all of them - there was a good chance things with us wouldn't work out in the long-term.

And, well, I was starting to think in the long-term with regards to her.

I raised my hand at them in a defensive gesture. "I didn't know about you guys. She didn't tell me," I said, shrugging a shoulder.

"We're supposed to believe that because..." Paine invited.

"Look, when I met Ree, I knew she wasn't the kind of girl I should get involved with-"

"And yet your prez just said you're fucking her," Enzo cut me off.

"I offered her friendship," I went on, ignoring that. "And we were friends. For over a month. We went places. We talked. That was it. I had no intentions for it to be anything more."

Maybe hearing the sincerity of my words, and possibly putting two and two together about Reese's sudden exposure to the real world, Paine's head tilted to the side. "And then?"

"And then I almost fucked up and kissed her. So I walked away and cut off contact."

"You want us to think you're just that good of a guy?" Enzo asked, half-smiling, but he wasn't exactly amused. "I've asked around about you this morning," he went on, making me steel myself for the inevitable. "It seems you get more ass than the rest of these probies combined," he declared, waving a hand around.

While I knew at least a few of them took offense to that, they had the good sense to keep their mouths shut right then.