Fuck. She trusted him.
Fuck. She was good with letting him go out in the middle of the night on unknown business for Chaos.
Hop gave it a beat to let that settle then bent and kissed her neck again, smoothing a hand over her hip then in, up her nightie and to her stomach. “Take care of Ellie while I’m gone.”
“Happy to take care of Butch while you’re gone,” she mumbled dozily, and he felt his lips tip up.
He wanted a daughter who looked like his wife. His wife had informed him she wanted a son who looked like her husband.
God would decide but it was fun arguing about something that meant everything knowing neither of them really cared which way it went.
But “Butch” was new.
“Butch?” he asked.
“Ty-Ty took all the cute baby boy biker names. I’m calling him Butch until I can come up with something else.”
Fuck yeah, she was sleepy and joking.
She trusted him.
Hop stifled laughter and told her, “Ellie’s a girl, Lanie.”
“Butch is a boy, Hopper.”
“We’ll see,” he muttered, leaning in to give his wife another light kiss.
“Yeah. We will,” she replied, cuddled deeper into the bed and he rolled out.
Hop got dressed and went back to find his woman sleeping. He reached out, pulled the covers high and tucked her in.
Then he grabbed his phone, went downstairs to the locked cabinet, got his knife, moved to his safe and tagged his gun.
Then he walked out to his garage and hopped on his bike.
* * *
“Do not fire! Chaos, do not fire!” Tack roared and Hop, crouched behind a hospital bed on a goddamned f**king p**n o set of all f**king places, with his arms up and resting on the bed, gun pointed at one of Benito’s men, stayed still but kept his finger on the trigger.
He took his eyes off his mark to look at Tack who had his mouth tight. His gaze was on Shy, who had blood oozing down his neck because he just got winged by a ricochet bullet from one of Benito’s men’s guns.
Tack looked back at Benito and Hop looked back at his mark as he heard Tack growl, “Jesus Christ, are you shittin’ me?”
They were there to rescue Tabby’s best friend Natalie. Tabby had been tight with Natalie for years. Hop knew her. The girl had been on Chaos and he’d seen her around. She was bad news in that sad way you knew, just looking into her eyes, that she’d chosen her path in life to numb some pain she didn’t have the courage to face.
They’d been briefed, before they went to extract her from her film debut, that she got herself a habit to numb that pain. Then she got in deep with Benito and he was taking it out in trade. In other words, she had a bit part that was very active in his latest p**n o flick.
She wasn’t big on doing this, so she called Tabby for a Chaos rescue. Shy stepped up for his woman and the boys rolled out.
Strategically, this was not good. Benito kept pushing, Chaos kept pushing back. So far, they had been able to keep Benito and his pushers and whores out of Chaos territory, but it was an ongoing battle. Regardless, hostilities had not escalated.
But for Tab, for Shy, for family, every man was there.
Tack and the Club hitting a p**n o set in the dead of night, demanding the actress who was meant to make her debut, and outing f**king Elvira—who had absolutely no f**king business being there undercover for some shit Hawk Delgado was working—did not go over big with Benito. Things got heated. Tack sent Elvira out for her own protection and he also sent away the Chaos recruits because they didn’t need this experience. Not yet.
Things got more heated after that, and one of Benito’s men jumped the gun.
Literally.
“Tack—” Benito started.
“Your man f**kin’ fired,” Hop clipped.
“Warning shot, he was closing in,” Benito returned, jerking his head Shy’s way. “It was a ricochet. He meant no harm.”
“I don’t give a f**k. My brother is bleeding and your man fired,” Tack snarled. “And for once in your life, seein’ as we got this many armed men in a faceoff, pay attention. He was approaching me.”
“I will remind you, you were not invited to this party,” Benito bit back.
“And I’ll repeat what I’ve said five f**kin’ times. Chaos will cover her debt. She’s family. We agreed a long f**kin’ time ago, man, family is off-limits,” Tack returned.
“Not when they owe me a great deal of money,” Benito shot back.
“Jesus, are you listening? Chaos is covering her debt,” Tack replied.
“I prefer my method of payment,” Benito retorted.
“That is not gonna happen. Con one of your other junkies into eatin’ pussy for payback. This girl belongs to Chaos,” Tack bit out.
Benito leaned toward Tack, his face twisting in anger. “She is not family. She is not blood or old lady. You lay claim to pu**y on a whim, you can claim any-fuckin’-body. You do that, no rules and anything goes.”
The entire room, already tense, went electric. They all knew what that meant.
If it came to war, Benito would play dirty, and it would not just be the brothers in the trenches.
Hop came out of his crouch, strode directly to Benito. He was concentrating on Tack so he reacted to the advancing threat too late.
Hop had disarmed him and had his hand curled around Benito’s throat, shoving him back with speed and force so when he hit the hospital bed, he went down on it on his back. Hop kept squeezing as he put his gun to Benito’s temple and listened vaguely to the scuffling maneuvers of the men around him who became antsy after a direct attack on Benito.
“Those rules never change,” Hop declared. “Your beef is with Chaos, motherfucker. Any member of our family even f**kin’ shivers ’cause they feel you close, you’re eating my bullet.”
Benito held his eyes but called out, “Tack, call off your dog.”
“Say you get me,” Hop growled.
“You’re making a mistake,” Benito hissed.
“Say. You. Get. Me,” Hop ground out.
He felt a presence and knew it was Tack before Tack spoke.
“I suggest you say you get him, man, ’cause you pull family into this shit you’re stirrin’, swear to f**kin’ God, you won’t eat Hop’s bullet ’cause that would be too quick. I’ll skin you alive, Benito. Do not mistake me. You harm any member of my family, and by that I mean all of Chaos, inch by inch you’ll bleed and scream.”