“Oh, shit. You’re right,” Teller mutters.

Yeah, Murphy has a point, all right.

Shadow has one slab-sized hand wrapped around Serena’s forearm as he yanks her into the hallway. She digs her heels into the carpet and shakes her head. It only forces him to tug on her harder.

When she curls her fingers around the corner of the wall, hanging on, I set down my beer.

“Ow.” Her high whine rides over the noise in the clubhouse. People stare, but no one seems to want to do anything.

In another MC, no one would think twice. An unpatched woman steps inside a clubhouse, she’s fair game. Serena’s been around here long enough that some of the guys feel entitled to use her as they see fit.

That ends now.

We don’t tolerate that bullshit in our clubhouse upstate. We don’t look the other way. No matter how precarious my situation is with downstate right now, I’m sure as fuck not standing by and watching any woman get hurt.

“Z, what are you—”

Lilly doesn’t even get her whole question out before I’m stalking across the room. It’s dark and the music’s loud enough that the only people who notice me are the ones I shove out of my way.

“Shadow, stop. Please, no.” The distress in Serena’s voice propels me into action.

“Let her go. Now.” My warning’s low, but I know he hears me by the way his body tenses.

He doesn’t release her.

I knew this wouldn’t go down easily. And that’s fine. I wrap my arm around Shadow’s throat and jerk him backwards into a choke hold until Serena’s able to free herself and stagger backwards.

Turning, I lift my chin at Lilly and she reaches for Serena, pulling her away from us.

Things are about to get ugly.

“What the fuck you doing?” he mumbles with the last bit of air in his lungs.

“She said no.”

“So what?”

Wrong answer.

I spin him and slam his back against the wall. “Did she look eager to you?”

“She always says no.” He snorts. “She likes it. Eventually.”

I’m not stupid. I’m aware some couples enjoy playing that game with each other, but it’s pretty obvious that’s not the case in this situation.

“Why isn’t she standing here defending you then?”

“Huh? Who fucking cares?”

“I care.”

He twists and tries to free himself, but my hold on him can’t be broken.

“That’s what she’s here for,” he whines like the weak little bitch he is. “Why are you making a big deal about a whore?”

Christ, this motherfucker’s worse than I thought. I’ve run into plenty of guys over the years who think hurting a woman makes him a real man. Thinks it shows the world he’s in charge.