Sugar (The Henchmen MC 12)

Maybe I should ask Peyton to make me the real shit.

That was what went through my mind.

And that was how I knew how fucked I was.

"Is Reign here tomorrow?" I asked, watching as Adler shook his head at me, but his eyes were looking for answers.

"Nah. Cash. Why?"

Cash was better. Reign might not let me get away with taking Peyton into the safe. "She wants to learn to shoot a gun," I supplied.

"Hold up," he said, closing his eyes. "Just let me picture that for a minute."

"Knock that shit off," I demanded, feeling something uncurl in my gut that I had never felt before, that I didn't even recognize at first. Possessiveness.

"Why?" he asked, smirk sly. "'Cause she's yours? If she's yours, ya gotta claim that shit."

Adler was a shit-stirrer.

I'm not sure anyone figured that out right at first, but he liked pushing buttons when he found them. Or maybe it wasn't that he liked it per se, but that he couldn't help himself. Like the urge to pick at a scab or run your tongue over a broken tooth, even though you knew you shouldn't, you couldn't resist the urge.

"She's..." I started, fumbling, not quite ready to claim her. At least not to my brothers. Not yet. That was serious shit. You didn't do it lightly. Just to get the image of the woman you were fucking out of some other man's head. "She's more mine than yours. So keep her out of your head."

He nodded a bit at that, letting it go.

"I got the night shift tonight," he explained since I had missed Reign earlier. "You got it tomorrow."

So no Peyton.

Considering I had spent every night with her for the past four days, I shouldn't have been unhappy with missing one of them. Especially since I planned to spend the day with her.

But I was.

Unhappy about it, that is.

"Got it," I agreed, saluting him with my beer as he moved off. "What are you doing out here?" I asked when a giant white bird came flying onto the bar, walking on clomping feet over to the stack of napkins and attacking them with relish.

Charlie was Rey's bird.

One of a few.

She had all her beasts holed up in the old prospect room since she wasn't allowed to go home to her place much anymore. Where she kept a goddamn small zoo normally.

"Where the heck did you go?" Rey's soft, sing-song voice called, doing it in that way all chicks did when they were talking to animals, baby-talking it. "You better not be eating the windowsill again. Reign is going to kill me. Oh," she said, coming to a stop in the main room. "Sorry," she said, shaking her head as she went over to him, tidying the mess with one hand and holding onto the bird's feet with the other. "He saw an opportunity and took it," she explained. "I haven't seen you much lately."

She would know.

Since she didn't work outside the house, she was pretty much at the compound non-stop. Either with her animals, or in Reeve's room. But she was ever-present, cooking her meals that were full of vegetables even though she claimed she only put a little in.

"I've been... out," I hedged.

"With the girl who was here the other night. Lenny told me," she explained. "They bonded."

There was a certain sadness in her tone at that. It was no secret that she had been a bit slower to make friends in the girls club. The older members were solid, bound by years of bonding, of having kids that played together. And of the newer women - Bethany, Kennedy, Reese, and Lenny - she hadn't really found much common ground with any of them.

"Don't worry, babe," I said, chucking her on the cheek as I moved past. "The way these men are dropping, you'll have a new friend around here in no time."

She made a sound at that, not quite agreement, but not disagreement either, as she took Charlie back to the animal room.

As for me, I made my way to my bedroom, knowing it was going to be a long ass day tomorrow, and deciding to get some sleep ahead of it.

"Yo," Virgin said, coming down the hall as I opened my door. We both moved inside, knowing this was not a conversation to have in the common areas.

"Did he find anything?" I asked, kicking out of my boots.

We'd finally decided to outsource, knowing we were too isolated to be able to do much from where we were. And while, normally, Jstorm or Alex would have been our go-to when it came to tracking down someone, we didn't want to put them in the position of keeping shit from their men.

So, we went to Barrett.

Who, for all intents and purposes, could be considered just as good. Even if he was more of a pain in the ass to work with.