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Silas gave me a Can you believe this guy look.

“Okay, fine, I might not ever be able to reach the same heights of psychopathy as our friend Phoenix here.” That time, Brody only gripped him by the shoulder, giving the beast a squeeze. “But I’d lay down bets if Silas and I were in a bar, I’d be the one the scumbags would be wary of.”

“Only because you’ll steal their women,” Silas mumbled to the side.

Brody gasped and smacked a hand across his chest. “How dare you.”

“Pretty sure that’s exactly what all those poor bastards have said when you steal their women right out from under their noses. How dare you.” Silas had gone easy. The meeting finished. His entire family behind compound walls, allowing him to let his guard down for a few minutes.

Brody chuckled. “Can you blame a man when the second I walk into a room, all eyes slant toward me? Besides, I was never taught the fine skill of self-deprivation. I’m more the, ‘If it’s offered, then you take it’ kind of man.”

Lucky motherfucker.

Only thing I knew was self-deprivation.

And I was pretty sure the restraint and self-control were whittling away at my insides year by year.

“You want to have Meems hear you say that?” Silas arched a brow.

“I don’t think she’d have me any other way.” Arrogance oozed off the guy. The easy kind that made it impossible not to love him.

“Just maybe practice a little moderation, yeah?” Silas suggested what was clearly a hopeless cause.

“Oh dear, big brother of mine. The biker life is not one of moderation.”

Brody was already moving for the massive doors when he said it, and he swung the right side open to the blare of music that was coming from the opposite side of the clubhouse like he was offering proof.

He wasn’t wrong.

You could taste the decadence curling like fog down the long, dark hall that ran between Church and the bar at the front.

We started down the corridor. Our boots thudded with the chaotic beat as we passed by a row of doors that led into the rooms situated on each side.

Rooms that housed the Crows who had nowhere else to live. This was their home. The place where they knew they were supported. Where they knew they wouldn’t be judged for the mistakes of their pasts but rather encouraged to follow a new road.

Protected here just as vehemently as they returned that protection to their brothers in arms.

But it was true that in many ways the Crows still gave themselves over to the typical biker lifestyle.

Our oath given to wiping out the organized stains that tainted our communities, but that didn’t mean we were constrained to the conventional beliefs of society.

The fact that Fuse was fucking some chick against the wall ten feet up ahead was proof of that. His hair darkened in the shadows of the dingy hall, the midnight locks of the woman’s making her almost disappear into the wall.

Moans ripped out of them and twined with the heady thrum that vibrated the floor.

My guts tangled for one hot beat.

Imagining the girl was Elena and Fuse was me.

Then I wanted to rip my own fucking brain out for even allowing myself the thought. The thought of disgracing Elena that way. Corrupting her innocence with the vile need to possess her in front of everyone.

I did my best to fully ignore the pair as we passed, but Fuse was tossing out a salacious grin, grunting, “Want to join?” as I passed.

I realized the chick was a girl named Sadie who’d made it clear a thousand times over that she’d be game when it came to me. She reached out and let her nails scrape over my bicep.

A clear invitation.

Lust twisted through me like a storm.