Cyrus (The Henchmen MC 9)

"Ree was in a funk for over a month," Paine cut in, voice reasonable. "Ma even called me about it. She was worried about her being depressed. Not saying he's not a dog, E, but I'm saying maybe stop interrupting him so we can get the whole of his story."

At that, their eyes went back to me, and I figured it was my place to go on.

"Look, I'm not going to try to sugarcoat it. I used to get around a lot. I'm not ashamed of that. But I wasn't in any relationships; no one could fault me for it. And Reese wasn't the only one who had a hard five weeks when we cut off contact. I don't think I need to tell you this since you know her better than I do - and I know her really fucking well - but your sister is a game-changer. And I figured that if you found someone who made your life miserable when they weren't around, then maybe that was a sign that you needed to trade in your manwhore card, and give the relationship thing a shot."

There was a long pause at that, the brothers exchanging a look. It was Enzo who spoke next. "You're in a relationship with Ree?"

"Dude, he gave her fucking eighty-grand to build her teen center thing," Pagan declared out of nowhere. "Think he wants to do more than just fuck her, don't you?" Pagan wasn't exactly one for saying things in the most tactful way, but he could always be counted on for dropping some truth.

"You paid for that?" Paine asked, brows low. "That was a big part of conversation at Sunday dinner, all her plans for that thing. She's wanted that for years."

"It was an apology for dropping off the face of the earth," I explained. "Reese isn't the kind of girl who trusts easily, and she trusted me, and I dicked around with that trust. Figured I owed her big to make up for that."

"Did she talk about that book place too?" Maze asked, coming out from the kitchen, mixing a bowl of something. She didn't often cook, claiming she was given the lion's share of that task when she was prospecting, and she had enough of that sexist bullshit, but once in a while, the mood struck, and she cooked us up something amazing.

"Bookjam?" Enzo clarified, looking over at her.

"Yeah," Maze said, jerking her chin over at me.

"You took her to Bookjam?" Enzo asked, his whole body seeming to relax suddenly.

"Yeah."

"You let her browse around for seven fucking hours, dragging around all her smutty romance books with naked men on the cover?" Paine asked, lips quirking up, clearly amused by the image.

"She was fucking cute as hell about it. Like a kid on Christmas," I agreed. "Apologized a thousand times just for enjoying herself."

"Yeah, that's Ree for you," Paine agreed. "Took her for ice cream once, and she said she just wanted to dip into the book store for five minutes. I was there two and a half fucking hours. There are only so many car magazines you can read, y'know?"

"Look," Enzo said, releasing a breath he had been holding onto. "I can't say you are who I wanted dating Reese. And it's not just because you were a slut. You were single; you're entitled to that. But this gun-running biker shit..."

"I would never..."

"So far, the club shit hasn't ever touched the women," Paine cut me off. "Don't think that because I'm out, I don't keep an ear on the underground. I know the shit you've all been dealing with the past couple of years. And I know you shuffle the women off up to Hailstorm at a drop of a dime. But the thing is, I never wanted that life for Ree. She's soft. And she doesn't need this shit in her life."

I figured this wasn't the best time to mention the fake-out, but very real drive-by. You know, not if I wanted to keep my balls, that is.

"We get that she's a grown woman, and she is going to make her own decisions, no matter what we say," Enzo conceded, it obviously not something he wanted to do. "I got a world of shit from Kenz when I questioned her settling down with Tig. And his line of work isn't nearly as dangerous as yours. I don't know what a world of shit would look like coming from Reese since she's never been pissed at me before, but I can't imagine it is a wrath I want to be faced with. So I'm just going to leave it alone. But understand this, if anything ever fucking happens to her because of your profession, you are going to become intimately acquainted with why Third Street never lands murder raps, even though plenty of enemies have gone, ah, missing."