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Her lips part just enough, and the sadness on her face morphs into an angry toddler about to throw a tantrum as red splotches take over her cheeks.

“You don’t know what you’re saying. You’re jealous. Just like before, just like always. You have always envied me. Never could be happy with what I had. Always had to make me the villain. As for Benji and me, we’re in the middle of a separation, not that I need to explain anything to you. How can you put this on me?” She throws her hands up and gestures to the entire group. “I did nothing to you or to this group. If you want to put a wall between them, just like you did with me and the family, that’s on you.”

“Fine. You can have them—have all of them. I moved once before; I can restart again. But remember, when I left the family, I made it clear I wasn’t coming back. Everyone was fine with it. Everyone. But you couldn’t just let it go. Couldn’t let me go. You’d better hope this is the last time you see me, because the next time you do, I’m going to put a bullet between your eyes, just like I should have the day you and your mother went behind my back and changed my name to Barbra. I’m Natalie. Get it fucking right. Fuck you, sis. Fuck your mom, fuck my dad. Fuck the whole family. I was out. I got out, and you dragged me back for nothing.”

I turn, not caring anymore if the club is going to do anything about the account number. Or if they even remember with all that bullshit Reina just said, probably just to get them thinking about something else.

The girl isn’t half as stupid as she looks.

“Nat,” Ruby calls after me. But I’m done with her too.

“Fuck you too, Ruby.” Fuck you all.

I walk around the side of the building, not wanting to go inside to get to the front. I pull out my phone and open the Uber app. I’ll walk to town if I have to and wait for a ride if nothing is close right now. And why would it be? With my luck, the Ubers will all be booked for the rest of the day. I don’t care. I’m not staying here a second longer.

I can’t believe I thought I would find something here. A place to call my own. People I could claim as mine and be claimed in return. But it was all a joke. A stupid laugh in my face. I won’t make that mistake again. The only person who cares for me is me. I doubt even a pet would love me like I want. Better to just get a van and pour my devotion into it. It’ll get me farther than any other relationship ever has.

The second my feet touch the road after I cross through the open, unmanned gate, a van comes up. My thoughts move to the possibilities of van life a second before the door opens and hands grab me, pulling me in and covering my mouth before I can even take a breath.

Chapter 2 - Atom

The moment Natalie walked in, I noticed her. Always do when she’s around.

She speaks, I listen.

She lives in silence more than most people. Every word she says, I hear.

And when she rattled off an account number, I memorized it. Just like half the damn brothers around me probably did. Real or fake, we’re going to check her story. We’ve been burned before by overlooking shit, thinking we’re untouchable. We don’t make that mistake anymore.

If this turns into something, we’ll deal with it. We always do. We might be smart, but so are the people trying to hurt us. Which is most people. We can prep all we want, and sometimes it feels like that’s all we do, but we still miss shit.

I look at King and see he’s already on his phone. He took over the treasurer role a few weeks back when the club voted for him to take over Domino’s position, and I got the enforcer’s gig. Never saw myself as an officer, but I ain’t hating it.

From the look on King’s face, though, he’s about to question what the fuck he’s gotten into. He’s still looking into everything. Been a while since we had a full-time treasurer on the books for the mother chapter. The entire club’s been holding things together for about a year now, and shit’s piled up. Something Reina used for whatever she did to us.

“Casper.” It’s all King has to say, and I wrap my hand around Reina’s arm. She never even noticed when I walked up, right before Natalie turned and walked away. I’d rather go after Natalie, but the club comes first.

Reina winces, not that I care. “Ow, you’re hurting me,” she whines and tries to pull away. When that doesn’t work, she looks to the idiot she was making out with, seeing he’s gone like a ghost. In fact, anyone who was once close to her proximity has all but vacated the area.

“We haven’t even started hurting you,” I mutter, leaving out that it’s going to happen. A lot. No one steals from a Hound. Man, woman, or child.

If someone has the balls to take from us, then they have the balls to deal with the pain they’ll get in return.

“Atom.” Casper cracks his neck to the side as his jaw clenches. “Take her inside.”

I almost feel bad for the guy. Since he took over as president, the hits haven’t stopped coming.

I start to move her when the alarms go off around the compound.

I toss Reina to the closest brother, knowing full well he’ll keep her contained as I run with half the brothers to the front gate. Each of us has a gun ready. Last time, we were caught empty-handed when someone tried to pull up on us and start a war. We aren’t making the same mistake twice.

But as we round the corner, no van or SUV comes into the lot. No one jumps over the fence or starts shooting. All we see are the taillights of a van down the road.

I move to the gate, and despite that it’s dusk, we’ve got the perimeter lights on. I glance down both sides of the street and see nothing. I turn to the booth next to the gate and see the same thing. Which is a problem.

“Where the hell is the man on the gate?” Bulldog roars. “And who the fuck rang the damn alarm over nothing?”

The second he’s done, the front door bursts open as Flint runs out.