Kane Allen, my dad, was sitting on a bar stool.
I was his daughter, but Dad was hot in a way that even I knew he was serious hot. Dark hair salted with a bit of silver. A kick-ass biker goatee that was long at the chin that also had some light in it. He gave me my eyes, sapphire blue, his, I knew, could be warm or piercing. He had a big body that his good genes kept fit, since he sure as heck didn’t work out and drank and ate what he wanted. He also had lines going out from his eyes that I loved because they deepened when he laughed.
He was not laughing now.
He had his heels up to the highest rung on the bar stool, his legs splayed wide, elbows to his thighs, a bottle of beer held loosely in both hands and his eyes to us.
He knew. I knew he knew by the feel of the room and the look on his face.
He knew.
Oh God.
“Dad—” I started, taking two steps toward him.
“Pete told me,” he cut me off, and his tone made me stop dead. “My daughter didn’t tell me. Pete came by here yesterday mornin’ for a visit, saw Shy leave. Saw you two suckin’ face by Shy’s bike. Pete sat on that for a night, wonderin’ if he should tell me. Then he told me.”
I pulled in breath and opened my mouth to say something, but Dad got there before me.
“Lied to me. Lied to Tyra. Your brother. My brothers.” His eyes moved to pierce Shy. “Your brothers.”
My blood ran cold and I began, “We just—”
“Lied,” Dad clipped, putting his beer bottle next to the three that were already on the counter indicating he’d been there for a while and then he straightened from the stool, his eyes going back to Shy.
“She’s my f**kin’ daughter, man.”
“I’m aware of that, brother,” Shy said in a low rumble.
“I get that so what I don’t get is what… the… fuck?” Dad returned, his voice lower and very scary.
This was not good.
“Dad, please, let me explain why—”
His brows shot up and his eyes sliced to me. “You lied. Told you, Tab, long time ago, you did that shit again, you would not like the consequences.” He pointed to the floor. “Now you get the consequences.” He started walking and his gaze moved to Shy. “You do too.”
He stopped close to Shy, nearly nose to nose, and kept talking.
“My daughter, my brother. Not cool. You know it. That’s why you hid it. Do not think for one second this shit washes. Brace, brother. I’m all over your ass. You f**k up, even minor, I’ll jump all over that shit to get… you… out.”
I sucked in a harsh breath that burned, Shy’s body jerked and I watched as Dad stalked by us, straight to the door.
Shy turned to him.
Then he opened his mouth and blew my mind.
“Tack, brother, I’m in love with her.”
Dad already had the door open, most of his body out of it, but he turned and leveled his eyes on Shy.
He didn’t hide his disgust.
“Brother, you do not know what love is.”
And with that, he was gone.
I stared at the door, too much happening to process it all.
Then it all slid into place, the thing that happened that was priority hit me like a bullet, and I turned woodenly to Shy who was also staring at the door, that muscle ticking in his jaw.
“You love me?” I whispered.
He turned slowly to me and the muscle in his jaw kept ticking until his eyes locked on mine.
“You lost that guy, respect, you found the strength to carry on. Know this, Tabby, I lost you, it would be sixty years of goin’ through the motions. I know that in my dick. I know it in my gut. I know it in my heart. I know it deep down in my goddamned soul.”
Oh my God.
Oh my God!
Tears filled my eyes and I stood frozen, staring at his lanky, tall, biker badass gorgeousness.
“Your dad just threw down and I just laid it out,” Shy stated when I didn’t speak. “Now’s the time to share, Tabby.”
“I love you,” I whispered.
“Good, but don’t say that shit to me three feet away. Get the f**k over here.”
I launched off on a foot, took one step and flew through the air.
Shy, as he’d been doing awhile, caught me.
I wrapped my limbs around him and looked down in his beautiful green eyes.
“I love you,” I whispered again.
“Good,” he whispered back, his hand sliding up my neck, into my hair. He pulled my face to his and he kissed me.
And he kept doing it until he laid me in bed.
He only stopped to make love to me.
Chapter Thirteen
Home No Longer
Three days later…
I drove into the forecourt of Ride, scanning the space. I saw Shy’s bike, Dad’s bike, Big Petey’s Trike, and Tyra’s Mustang.
“Excellent,” I muttered under my breath, irately. “The gang’s all here.”
Suffice it to say, I was in a mood.
This mood had part to do with the fact that I just got off work and, in my absence, Dr. Dickhead had not taken time to reflect on the error of his ways (not a surprise). I wasn’t his sole target anymore but he was worse than before, so it still felt the same. The problem was, now that I’d jacked them around, I felt I had to prove that I was stable, they could count on me, and part of doing that wasn’t moaning about a douchebag doctor right after I put them through the hassle and expense of an unnecessary hiring process.
This mood also had to do with the fact that Natalie still hadn’t called, even though I’d phoned her every day since she took off.
And last, this mood had to do with the fact that neither Dad nor Tyra had returned my calls, calls I’d made repeatedly, and that ticked me off.
Although Tyra and Dad were not taking my calls, Rush called me, reamed my ass for ten full minutes without letting me get a word in, saying some crap about Shy I was trying to block out so I would maybe be able to forgive him sometime in the distant future, then he hung up.
Hung up!
On me!
I’d called Big Petey and asked him why in the hell he talked to Dad before he talked to me.
“Honeybunch, this kinda shit, I know your dad, he’d wanna know,” he explained to me.
“Pete, this kinda shit, you think maybe there’s a reason he doesn’t know and the only people who can explain that reason would be Shy or me?”
“I weighed my actions, Tabby, and in the end did the right thing,” Pete replied and I knew he had his back up at my tone because, although he was a great guy, I adored him and he adored me, his ass was stubborn. Not to mention, he was a biker and not a young one. He wasn’t used to women giving him crap, thus the reason he’d been divorced (three times).