“Ace, get him off me!”

The one who yelled got his fist, and Shade felt the skin on his knuckles split.

“Stop, Shade.”

He ignored the hands trying to tear him away. It took two sets for him to realize one was his father.

“Arrest them all.” The sheriff glared at Shade as he yelled his command to his deputies.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Shade yelled. “They fucking started it!”

“I Do. Not. Care!” The sheriff turned to grab Ace by the collar who was trying to resist arrest by his deputy.

“Every last one of you are spending the night in jail!” While he handcuffed Ace then threw him through the doorway to his deputies, Shade saw Viper being handcuffed by another officer.

“You’re not putting cuffs on me,” Shade said between gritted teeth.

The sheriff wasn’t in the least fazed by Shade’s anger. “Then you better get your ass in the backseat of my squad car.”

Shade knew when he was beaten. He couldn’t argue with his father in front of the others.

“I’m going.”

Razer is going to owe me big-time for this, Shade thought as he strode angrily out of the bar, going to the sheriff’s car.

“Slide the fuck over,” Shade told Viper who scooted over to let him in. “This was a fucking mistake,” he told his president. “We should have waited until they came out and took care of them in the parking lot.”

Viper looked as bad as he did. His lip was split, and blood was oozing out of his nose.

“Your nose is broken,” Shade said, leaning back carefully against the seat.

“No shit, Sherlock.”

* * *

Shade limped through the club room, following the rest of The Last Riders to the kitchen where the women were already pulling out the contents of the freezer and handing them out for everyone to use.

“Give me the ice,” Evie snarled at Natasha, who hastily handed it to her. “Were those bitches even fucking women?” she asked Shade.

“Don’t know. Don’t want to know.”

Evie dumped the ice tray into a bowl, wincing as she climbed onto a stool. Gingerly, she lowered her swollen hands into the ice. Jewell took the remaining ice, Shade didn’t object. The women had faced the deadlier adversaries.

Dawn and Ember began trying to clean everyone up, and Viper’s harsh obscenities had Shade’s brow going up.

“It hurts like a mother fucker. If the sheriff had let me go to the hospital, it would have already been set,” Viper excused himself.

“He might have let you go if you hadn’t thrown his deputy on the floor when he took off the handcuffs,” Shade reminded him, handing him one of the raw steaks he found in the freezer, keeping the other for himself and leaving the frozen vegetables for the rest of the brothers to use as ice packs.

Bliss came into the room with ibuprofen, passing the useless painkillers around. The beer she was handing out with it would do more good.

Beth and Razer opened the kitchen door, coming inside to survey the damage that had been left in their wake. Shade saw the content look on the brother’s face and knew they had made up. He grunted at that. At least one of the brothers will be getting some; the rest of us will be too sore to fuck for a month…make that a week, Shade thought resentfully.

“I think we better order some pizza,” Beth told Razer.

“Did the Destructors look as bad?” Razer asked.

“The men did,” Viper said, taking a beer from Bliss.

“The women?” Beth asked hesitantly, twisting her hands together.

“We don’t know. They were sitting at the bar drinking when the sheriff and his men arrested us,” Shade said, glaring at Beth.

“You were taken to jail?” Razer asked in surprise, staring at Viper.

“We all were. Held us until bond was posted an hour ago. Tried to call you, but you weren’t answering,” Shade stated through gritted teeth.

“Figured you were kind of busy,” Evie said with a hesitant smile.

“Where was Bliss?”

“We didn’t call her. Beth’s new BFFs were waiting outside the sheriff’s office to jump her,” Shade said in a voice promising retribution.

“Sheriff thought it would be better for everyone’s safety if she stayed here,” Viper cut in.

“She could have relayed the message to me.”

“They wanted you, too. Those bitches weren’t very happy with the way you packed Beth out of The Pink Slipper.”

“Why didn’t the sheriff just arrest them?”

“He did. He put us in one and the Destructors in the other.”

“So who posted bail?”

“An impartial party.”

“An impartial party? Who?”

“Pastor Dean. The sheriff figured they wouldn’t attack a man of the cloth.” Shade took another beer from Bliss with a shaking hand. “The crazy one asked for his number.”

“Crazy Bitch?” Beth asked, pleased.

The bottle Shade was lifting to his busted mouth froze. “That her name?”

“Yes.” Beth nodded.

“And you made frien—”

Razer cut him off. “Don’t go there; you won’t like the answer.”

Shade took a long drink of his beer before putting the bottle down carefully on the counter with a still shaking hand. All eyes were on him, tensely waiting, except Beth who was handing Train a paper towel to wipe the blood away from his dripping nose.

“I am going to bed.”

Beth nodded. “I’m sure you’ll feel much better after getting some sleep.”

Shade’s lips tightened into a thin line. Limping slowly to the doorway, he stopped by Beth, who looked up from holding pressure to Train’s nose. Razer, Cash, and Knox shifted unobtrusively closer to Beth.

“Is your sister like you?” Shade asked.

“No, we’re the complete opposite of each other.”

Thank God! Beth had managed to ignite a free-for-all between biker clubs, and those bitches weren’t done with them yet. They had threatened them all the way to their motorcycles.

“Good.” He continued to the doorway. He needed a shower.

“Everyone always assumed I was the troublemaker, but I was the one always having to get Lily out of some trouble she managed to get herself involved in before she went to college. Actually, her being away is giving me a break. Of course, I would never admit that to her.”

Shade’s shoulders slumped. Stopping by the counter full of liquor bottles that were used to restock the bar, he grabbed a bottle of whiskey before leaving, his mind on car accidents, red panties, and long, black hair.

Chapter 13

Four Months Later…

Shade held his phone to his ear, listening to the ringing on the other end.

“Hey, bro, what’s up?”

“Why does anything have to be up for me to call? Can’t I call and check on my little sister?” Shade tried to insert warmth into his voice. His relationship with his younger half-sister was as close to normal as he was going to get.

A snort sounded through the line. Clearly, he hadn’t fooled her.

“How is school?”