“You?” He grins. “Didn’t realize they’d finally replaced Reno.”
“They haven’t,” Fang snaps.
All eyes shift toward him.
“You wanna tell me who the tidy piece of ass in the kitchen is, then?”
If looks could kill, there’d be a bloodbath occurring right now.
“Have some fucking respect, Viper,” Loki scolds. “She’s one of the women we told you about last night.”
I’m regarded with a whole new level of scrutiny. “Where’d they pick you up, darlin’?”
I open my mouth to say when Fang interjects.
“You don’t have to answer him.” He stares into his mug as he swirls the last of his coffee and then promptly downs it. “Not until he earns some respect from you.”
“You fuckin’ finished with that bullshit?” Viper erupts at Fang. “Don’t know what new rules you pussies have put in place since my time, but I ain’t ever had to earn a woman’s respect to treat her how I want.”
“And that’s why Mom left you.” Fang snaps, rising from the table.
Viper’s muscles tense in his shoulders, a fist forming at his side.
“Careful,” Fang continues as he circumvents his father. “You might be a lifer, old man, but I’m an officer. I wouldn’t go laying hands on me if I were you.”
I melt against the kitchen cabinets and nurse my coffee for something to do, something to make it look less like I rubberneck the situation. Leaving the room would draw too much attention. Making myself breakfast would be pointless—I’ve lost my appetite. I don’t know what to do with myself. I don’t know what I’msupposedto do.
Fang deposits his empty cup in the basin, warm scent filling my nostrils as he passes, and then smoothly turns to set a palm against the back of my neck. “Let’s go.”
I allow him to guide me from the room and toward the parlor, relieved, waiting until we’re out of earshot of the still grumbling old man to ask, “That’s your father?”
He jumps his eyebrows as though to say,“Yep. Lucky me, right?”
The stories about toxic masculinity and childhood neglect make absolute sense. I guess you can’t expect them all to be good guys. One percenters are lawbreakers for a reason. Men like Viper choose to join an outlaw gang because it aligns with their beliefs, whereas his son… I don’t know why Fang does what he does.
Lack of experience with anything else? Fear of losing everything he knows if he doesn’t?
Another older guy rouses on the sofa, a threadbare blanket thrown over his still dressed form.
“Mongrel,” Fang explains. “Jinx’s old man.”
“How many more are still here?”
“Just the ones who didn’t want to go home tired.” He rubs a hand over the back of his head. “Bossman and Cruiser have Darko’s room. I think that’s it.”
The uncertain way he answers the question makes him appear bashful. Almost adorable.Quit it.
“About last night…” Fang starts.
“You don’t have to explain.” I take an unconscious half-step back, cradling my coffee. I don’t want to hear it. Iknowwhat he’ll say, and I’d rather live believing he regrets it too without hearing so from his actual lips. Without the voice memo to match the memory.
Fang frowns. “I wanted to say,” he stresses, “that I never meant to hurt you. Then or earlier, in the field with Molly.”
“Bullshit you didn’t.” I snort a laugh. “You knew exactly what you were doing with your words every time you threw them at me like daggers. I wounded you, so you wanted to incapacitate me.”
His jaw tightens, a muscle feathering along the sharp line as he searches for his next words. “I’ve got a lot to figure out, all right? And I dragged you into that.”
“You did. Yeah.” I’m so tired of fighting. “But I’m also in no place to be tossing stones around.” I swallow, shame rising fast as I push through the next words. “I’ve complicated things here by not being honest from the start, and that falls on me and my fears. If I was braver?—”
