Reeve (The Henchmen MC 11)

There was an overall feeling that, eventually, he was going to stir up some shit. With what went down with the Grassis and Janie and Eli when he had gotten Wolf locked up years back, yeah, no one thought he was going to let that slide permanently. He would get bigger and amass a larger army, and then he was going to try to strike back.

Though, if he thought he would ever be able to strike back at Janie, he was sadly mistaken. Not only did she have Henchmen behind her, she had the whole of fucking Hailstorm. She was their favorite child. They would wage full-on war for her. And because Janie felt responsible for enlisting Eli as well, she would insist The Henchmen and Hailstorm fight on his behalf too.

As for the Grassis, well, they were the mob. Sure, they were only a local chapter, not nearly as powerful as the ones in the big cities, but they had connections too. They could more than take care of themselves.

Hopefully, he would wise up before he did something stupid.

Until then, we watched.

Mostly Roan and me.

We were the ones who enjoyed the solitude, were happy to give up nights on the town or at the compound.

We didn't have to pretend to be people we weren't on our own, watching down on the Abruzzo compound.

"Keep an open mind, bro," Cyrus offered as parting advice as I moved to stand again, happy for a distraction to get me through the day.

That was what it was too, hours of trying to figure out what the fuck was up with the lights. Then a quick dinner. Then back to the compound to change for the night out on the roof in the cold, needing warm layers, so parts of me didn't freeze off.

It was sometime around four a.m. when I decided to call it a night. Everyone down in the compound had been passed out for hours, at least from what I could tell.

I had just rounded the corner of the building near where I parked my truck when something caught my eye over by an abandoned dumpster between two empty buildings. Not sure if the shadows were playing tricks on me or what, I grabbed my cell to turn on the flashlight.

And, sure enough, there it was.

A small puff of brown fur.

Now, I was never the kind of person who would walk past an animal in need even before meeting Rey. But I swear to fuck it was like I was seeing them now because of her. I couldn't remember the last time I saw any animal in need of assistance. Here I was, just half a day away from seeing the damn woman, and I was walking up on what ended up being a baby raccoon.

A baby because mama was a few feet away, seemingly prey to some other animal. At this time of year, likely the goddamn hawks always on the prowl above.

"Shit," I hissed, leaning down by the thing that squealed and snarled at me as I reached down toward it. But as soon as I reached behind him for his scruff, I shit you not, the thing brought its hands up by its eyes like a little baby - thinking if it covered its eyes, you couldn't see it.

Never thought I'd ever think a fucking raccoon was cute, but this thing was fucking cute. Walking back to my truck, I grabbed a milk crate out of the back that I used to stand on if I needed it on a job, and stashed him inside with my coat over the top, going back toward the dumpster to see if there were any other siblings hiding out.

Finding nothing, I went back to my truck, hopping in, and taking a look at the ball of fur.

See, I knew a few things about animals. One, a baby anything would starve without its mother. And two, there was nowhere to bring an animal at four o'clock in the morning.

Except...

"Shit," I sighed, leaning my head back against the rest, staring up at the sky through the sunroof, the stars bright.

I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about God or an order to the universe after some of the shit I had been through, but even skeptical me had to admit that this shit felt a lot like fate.

And as I drove back down the road toward her house, I wondered if there would be any fighting it, or if this was going to happen whether I wanted it or not.FOURMARCOThis woman.

This motherfucking woman.

I had been prepared for a lot of shit when I set my sights on Navesink Bank. I understood that taking out Richard Lyon could come with complications of the leather biker sort since their president's old lady was his only child. I knew Third Street would be foaming at the mouth over the idea of getting the lucrative cocaine trade since they were having issues getting enough heroin to feed the growing need for it.