Page 40 of Down & Dirty: Rage

“All of the goddamn women, Dad!”

“What about ‘em? Use your fuckin’ words, boy.”

At thirty-one, he was far from a fucking boy.

He was about to remind his father of that when a beam of afternoon sun swept across the room as the back door opened again.

His brothers, the prospects, and the sweet butts had been going in and out all fucking day, but these newest arrivals were none of those.

All of the “missing” women walked in.

With huge fucking smiles on their faces.

And wouldn’t you fucking know, Lyric was in front, leading the way with her partner in crime, Avery.

She looked perfectly fine. No crying, no injuries, no panic.

She immediately took in the packed common room. “Wow! I didn’t know the party was going to continue here.” She elbowed Avery. “Was this supposed to be a surprise?”

“Jesus fuckin’ Christ. Gotta go,” he growled, hanging up on his father before he got a response.

“No music? No food? Nothing? You guys don’t know how to throw a birthday party. At. All.” Lyric shook her head likeshewas disappointed inthem.

Rage forced himself to keep his boots in place, not rush up to her and squeeze the shit out of her in relief.

The women fanned out, but Lyric kept coming.

“This some kinda sick joke, ain’t it?” he managed to ask as calmly as fucking possible.

Confusion wrinkled her brow. “What do you mean?”

What did he mean?

Something inside him snapped. While he was relieved she was okay, he just spent the last few hours pissed off and worried.

And feeling powerless, which was fucking worse.

“We thought you were all fuckin’ kidnapped!” Rage roared so loudly the top of his head might have blown off.

Avery grimaced. “Oops.”

“You thought we were kidnapped?” Vi asked, pushing her way to the front. Her confused eyes landed on Reaper.

“This was planned?” Reaper kept his cool a hell of a lot better than Rage.

She scratched her ear. “Sort of. It was a last minute thing.”

Rage noticed the moment she realized they might have fucked up.

Lexi elbowed her way to the bar and snapped her fingers at Chaos, who currently stood behind the private bar but normally bartended at The Iron Horse. “Get us a round. Something extra special for the birthday girl.”

Birthday girl?

Oh fuck.

He forgot about that. It was hard to keep track of everyone’s birthdays. She was now…twenty-four. A year closer to him, if only for the next few months.

“Who you snappin’ your goddamn fingers at, woman?” Chaos growled.