Page 128 of Beware of Dog

“Don’t tell her that,” Emmie said. “Don’t listen to him. Uncle Ten is just kidding.”

Shep leaned in closer to her, and said, in a stage whisper, “You told Tenny to shut his hole. You not gonna tell this one that?”

King’s eyes widened. Only a fraction, but a telling fraction. A muscle flexed in his jaw.

Cass saw the way forward, and leaped at it. “He so rarely opens his hole. I’m afraid if I told him to shut it, he’d never open it again.”

Fox grinned.

Someone, Shane probably, stifled a laugh.

Emmie pressed her fingertips to her mouth, hard, and her big eyes said she was trying not to laugh as well.

Shep nodded, straightened, and told Walsh, “My favorite thing about her is she never stops giving me shit. Just always, non-stop.” He smirked. “Kinda like she’s giving you shit, now. She’s little, but she’s got big balls.”

Raven turned in the kitchen and flashed them a double thumbs-up.

Walsh stared at Shep…and then blinked. At last. He turned his head toward Cass, and his expression was a bored sort of withering. “He’s terrible,” he decreed, deadpan. “I hate him.” Then turned and walked back to the couch, no shots fired.

Thirty-One

The day before Cassandra’s wedding dawned clear, and unseasonably warm, and a caravan of vehicles assembled along the curb in front of her building. Four black Range Rovers to transport all the out-of-town guests, and the bikes of the local boys: Toly, Topino, Pongo, and Shep.

Cass stowed her bag in the back of Raven’s Rover and ducked inside the strap of a lightweight cross-body bag so she could ride with Shep. As she approached the bike, buckling on her helmet, she spotted a familiar head of blonde hair. Instead of a blazer and badge, Melissa wore a leather riding jacket and matching harness boots. Smoked aviator shades.

Cass grinned at her. “You’re coming?”

“It’s a family wedding, so.” She shrugged, and her head tipped in a way Cass knew meant she was rolling her eyes. But then she smiled. “I’m overdue some days off. Rob said he could get one of the junior detectives to cover for me if he needs backup.”

Likewise, the Dogs had asked Prince’s crew to keep an eye on the Simpsons, though, so far, there’d been no further signs of the Tres Diablos skulking around.

Shep cranked his bike with a muted roar, and twisted around to shout, “Baby, let’s go!”

“Coming!”

Melissa climbed on behind Pongo, and Cass took her place on the little bump seat behind Shep, arms tight around his waist. A vibration moved through her that had nothing to do with the idling of the engine. Shep was the officer here, the sergeant-at-arms, and so he was riding point, the other Dogs flanking him, the Rovers lined up behind.

Cass was the baby of her family, always kept back, screened from harm, positioned at the rear. But this morning, she was in the front. She couldn’t say she wanted to be the center of attention, because she didn’t…but there was something heady about taking the lead like this.My man’s important,she thought.He’s in charge of things.

She was grinning like a loon when Shep pulled away from the curb, and they led her family, blood and club, toward their wedding.

~*~

Raven wasn’t sure she’d ever feel quite at home at the Albany clubhouse. The old ladies were hospitable, and the house itself was sprawling and cozy, and she felt safe here, because it was a large piece of property nestled deep in the woods, crawling with Lean Dogs, and what could have been safer? But she always felt a little wrong-footed, a little like she didn’t belong.

Tonight, the point was driven home as she sat around a bonfire with her brothers’ old ladies and watched Cass from a distance. She realized just how much time Cass had spent here, traveling to and from the city on the back of Shep’s bike, hiding out here when things got dicey in Manhattan, when Raven and Toly went out of town for her work, when she wanted to know that Cass was safe and looked after when she couldn’t do it herself.

It shouldn’t have surprised her at all that Cass would end up with Shep.Of courseshe had. He’d become the most constant and dependable figure in her life, the man she could count on when she couldn’t count on anyone else, and he adored her, wholly and fiercely.

Across the grass, beneath strung-up party lights, Shep and Cass were currently playing beer pong against two of the newer members, Crash and Elrod. Cass didn’t like beer, so Shep waschugging the cups she won, and getting louder, and rowdier, and Raven thought she’d have to walk over at some point and prevent him from getting fall-down drunk the night before his wedding, but so far, the two of them seemed to be having fun.

Cass grinned, picked up the ping-pong ball, and Shep shouted, “Crush him, babe! Smoke his ass!”

Raven raised her glass to her lips, and realized she was smiling.

Eden sat in the nearest chair, and she hummed thoughtfully. “When you said he was that much older than her, I wasn’t quite picturing…this.” She gestured with her own glass toward the beer pong crew, where Cass neatly sunk the ball, and Shep whooped and smacked a kiss to the side of her head.

Raven’s smile went wry. “I married someone even more reserved than our brothers. Cass has decided to go the other way.”

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