I opened my mouth to protest, but one look at Vera made me close it again. I didn’t know how she perfected the Mom look, but she’d been using it on me for as long as I could remember.

“Okay, here are the rules.” I stopped Trix as she headed out the door. “Stay away from Auntie Vera’s car. No climbing on anything. You can play in the grass, but stay off the driveway. And if a car comes, you get back inside right that minute. Do you understand?” I waited until she nodded and then let go of her arm. She ran outside, and I turned back to Vera. “Can you help me get these boxes unpacked?”

“Sure, you better grab a laundry basket.” She started rifling through the first box as I headed toward the hallway. “These clothes are gonna need to be washed. I made Slider store them in the compound, so who knows what they’ve come into contact with through the cardboard.”

I grabbed a basket out of Trix’s room and got down to work with Vera.

Vera was a lot like a mother to me, but she was also my best friend. While we sat there on the floor, it felt like I had never left. We laughed over gaudy rhinestone tops and talked about what had happened in the club since I’d left, and I told her about life with Tony. She was pissed for me, and halfway through my story, she got up and grabbed us a couple of beers out of the fridge.

“We’re gonna need fortification.”

We got through the boxes quickly, putting my astronomy books on top of the TV as we found them and sorting the clothes into keep and charity piles. A lot of the clothes were far too small, but by the end of the second box, I had a load of laundry washing in the machine. It was weird going through my old clothes. I had dressed like the perfect wife for so long, and I was nervous to get back into my old gypsy skirts and sundresses. I was listening to Trix talk to herself on the front porch and rubbing an old Drop Kick Murphy’s shirt between my fingers when Vera spoke.

“I’ve heard what you told Slider, but now, I wanna hear it from you. What the hell is going on with you and Dragon?”

I left the house this morning, knowing my day was going to be shit. I didn’t want Brenna to worry. I didn’t know where she got her tender heart from, but I knew she’d freak if she found out what today was. The nonsense from five years ago was finally catching up to me, and I was going to be in a world of hurt tonight.

When I got to the clubhouse, everything was quiet. A few of the boys were sitting around, drinking coffee, but boss man hadn’t come in yet. I walked up to grab a cup just as Poet came in from the back hallway. I wasn’t sure where we stood because most of my time since Brenna got here had been taken up with my trip to Boise or dealing with my girls. I was hoping we could wait to talk after my deal this afternoon, but he headed straight for me.

“Dragon. Got a minute?”

It was a question, but there was only one answer.

“Yeah.”

I walked to the corner of the room to give us a little privacy, but I knew our conversation would be all over the club in a matter of hours. I sat down on one of the couches and rested my elbows on my knees. I wasn’t sure what I was most embarrassed about—the fact that I had no idea who Brenna was the night we’d met or that I’d been pretty much hiding all the shit that went down for over five years.

“Shit is not going to go well for you today.” Poet coughed and then took a sip of his coffee. “I can’t say that I’m glad you were with Brenna. I’m also pretty goddamn angry that you and Grease kept that shit from me. Ya kept my baby from me for five years. That was Brenna’s choice, but a choice she made, so she didn’t see you.”

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t argue the point because everything he was saying was true. If I woulda manned up, Poet would have dragged Brenna’s ass back here, especially if she was pregnant.

“I had no idea what was in that girl’s head when she ran outta here. Figured she stayed away because she was embarrassed—maybe she didn’t want that husband of hers to know where she came from. Maybe that was part of the reason but not all of it. Once she was gone, I’m thinking he wasn’t gonna let her come back here anyway.”

I stopped him, asking a question I’d been wondering for weeks. “Why didn’t you keep an eye on her? Fuck, Poet!”

“Son, I don’t think you wanna be steppin’ on my toes right now,” he answered calmly, but I knew by the way his accent deepened that I’d pissed him off.

I didn’t care. The thought of Brenna and Trix in the world with no protection made me want to puke. “I got nothing to lose now. Today’s judgment day, right? Might as well ask what the fuck you were thinkin’.” I didn’t care if this got me more of what I had to look forward to later. I wanted to know what the fuck he’d been thinking.

“Son, I’m gonna explain this once, and then you better never question me about it again.” His face looked normal, but his eyes had gone the coldest I’d ever seen them. “I had eyes on Brenna. Always. Boys from a chapter up north kept her on their radar at all times. Eyes only. They saw her only when she left the house. None of them saw nothin’ to make them think that she was in trouble. They were watching for outside problems. Didn’t think to watch the husband.” He shook his head. “She chose him. Figured she would come home if she wasn’t happy. Took her a while, but that’s what she did. Now, I’m done with fucking story hour. You want to get back on my good side, you’ll get the fuck out of this clubhouse and let me forget that you just questioned me about something you got no business in.”