Page 30 of Biker's Property

His frustrationwith my tight-lipped command to meet me at the Flying J turns into concern. Killing a Shaw out in the desert makes this personal to Wyatt. Neither the Shaws nor the Blackwoods have ever allowed a murder to end without a feud. Half the reason the Shaws spread out from Missouri was due to a family feud allegedly involving a lot of land and some Indians. I have enough problems than to worry about Shaw business…

The Midnight SS are obviously far more than Shaw business… No man from my father’s time would ever allow such an action against the club to pass without starting a war. I doubt any of us are any different.

“Who are the other two?” Hunter asks quietly, his face as serious as mine.

“Gage and Mason Hollingsworth.”

“Was she their prisoner or something?” he asks. Again, he doesn’t have to explain to me that he means the Midnight SS.

“No. She’s a fucked up woman looking for… a fresh start.”

He laughs. “And she ran into your sorry ass.”

“I don’t want you getting anywherenearher.”

“Can you relax, Ryder?”

“No.”

“You never let go of anything.”

“TiffanyandMelissa.”

“They wanted it,” he says. “They said I was the better looking twin.”

“They were lying.”

“Both of them?”

I wantto punch the shit out of Hunter but I learned a while back that he can hand my ass to me when I’m drunk.

“Fuck off. Joslin ismine.”

“I have a wife. She’s pregnant.”

“You’d better hope she stays that way.”

“Huh?”

“Nevermind.”

I’m not thinkingon my feet. My stupid comment fortunately causes my brother to move on instead of provoking my ass into a fight. It’s a sign there’s some real shit going on that we haven’t let this devolve into a fist fight or one of our more violent games of rock-paper-scissors.

“Why do you need me?And why here?”

“She killed her husband.”

Hunter releases a big,deep sigh.

“What the fuckis wrong with black women?”

I glare at him,instinctively defensive of Joslin more than the entire race.

“I’m fucking serious,”Hunter says without a hint of remorse. “This is the second dead body in a month.”

“Right.”

He sighs again.“Why am I always the guy?”

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