Cyrus (The Henchmen MC 9)

"How'd it go?" Renny asked, calm, reasonable, head cocked to the side as he leaned back in his chair.

"He just wants the cocaine trade. For now," Reign added, giving us a look. We all knew how power went. You got some, you wanted more. That was how it almost always goes.

"Then why the drive-bys?" Laz asked.

"First, to take out Lyon, obviously. Second, to flex. He wanted everyone to know there was a new game in town, and to fuck off and let him do his thing."

"Which is what you are going to do," Duke concluded, tense.

"Listen, if I had more men, I'd put a show of power right back on, but I don't have that fucking luxury. Like it or not - and I don't fucking like it - we can't be the power we once were in this town until our ranks are rebuilt."

"Been in a few MCs in my day," Sugar commented. "Never seen a prez as picky as you are with your men."

"When I was eight years old," Reign started, surprising me enough to sit up straight to listen. We didn't often hear about shit that involved his fucking childhood. "I watched a man beat one of the clubwhores nearly to death when my pops was out of town. That being said, were he there, I don't figure he'd have stepped in to stop it either. I won't be having that kind of shit in my club. So if that makes me fucking 'picky,' so be it."

Given that we all had respect for women, that story made more than a few of us shift uncomfortably in our seats. To be fair, most MCs were like that - violent toward the women. But I had always been thankful that Reign's club wasn't that way.

"And what about V?" Repo asked into the silence following Reign's words.

"Didn't want to bring attention to the fact that that is an issue for us," Reign said carefully. "That being said, it's a major fucking issue for us. So until we know she's dead, Roan and whomever else he can train to be able to do the job, will be keeping tabs on that situation."

"So that's it?" Duke asked, obviously feeling the issue was far from over.

Reign waved his hands out, obviously feeling useless on the matter as well. "That's all we can do right now. You fuckheads want to go out and start finding me some new goddamn probies, feel fucking free. Until then, this is how it has to be."

And so it was.Reese - 2.5 weeksIt was only the second time I had been to the compound. And, well, my face was actually heating as I climbed out of my car and made my way up the path. Would they all still remember how I had, ah, been less than discreet with Cyrus the last time I had been there? The morning after, I had dealt with the girls club, then been in a rush on my way to work, so I hadn't needed to face any of them. We hadn't been back since, choosing to spend nights at my place.

But Cy and I were going out to dinner with Cash and Lo, and we were all meeting at the compound.

So I just had to take deep breaths, and hope they all had a little bit of tact about the whole situation.

I mean, they were bikers, so those chances were rather low.

But one could hope, right?

All the worry, though, disappeared the moment I walked through the doors, and found not bikers - aside from Cy and Cash - but a bunch of the girls club, and about half a dozen of the kids.

Most of the kids were still foreign to me, though I knew names and reputations - especially in Ferryn's case. But there were two little girls that I was very familiar with.

And those two little girls didn't belong to Henchmen.

They belonged to Shooter and Amelia.

Bri and Alexis were standing in front of Cy who was kneeling on the floor, a crown of pink, purple, and yellow flowers on his head, and various other ones just shoved into his beard, pressing fairy wands onto his shoulders to, it seemed, knight him.

Hearing the door slam, the girls looked up, seeing me, and breaking out into almost identical grins. "Aunt Ree!" Bree greeted me with a wave that made her whole body sway.

"Hey guys. What are you doing here?"

"Shoot is out of town. Amelia had a group," Maze supplied. "They are the closest to Seth's age," she said, gesturing toward her son. "Even if he always has to play princess games."

He sure did, too.

He had a flower crown on his head, and was apparently in charge of watching the royal babies.

I looked back to find Cy watching me with dancing eyes. "Don't be jealous that I'm so beautiful," he said, shrugging. "I'm Sir Cyrus of Henchmenland, lowly maidservant to Queen Bri and Queen Alexis."