“What’s going on?” Teller asks somewhere behind us.

“Get Z. Now,” Murphy says in a loud, even voice.

Keeping an arm around my shoulders, Murphy shifts me to his left. Freeing up his right hand, in case Shadow comes at us, I guess. I hang onto him like he’s the best damn life raft in an ocean full of deadly jellyfish.

More voices reach me. Whoever shouted at the end of the hall joins us. “I saw part of it,” someone says.

“What’s going on?” Z asks.

I wriggle out of Murphy’s grip and fly at Z, almost knocking him over.

He wraps his arms around me and frowns. “What happened?” His gaze darts from my face to Murphy and then past Murphy. I bury my face against his chest. “Someone want to explain?”

“Hold him,” Murphy orders.

“Get the fuck off me!” Shadow yells.

Z’s body vibrates and his hold on me tightens. “What. The. Fuck. Happened?”

I can’t form any words and risk glancing up at Z. He’s focused on something behind me. His entire body pulsing with barely-controlled rage. “Start talking,” he says through clenched teeth. “Now.”

Shadow lets out a high, strained laugh. “Your girl was all hot for my dick until Stitch walked up on us.”

Stitch? Which one is he? The prospect? Great. I bet there’s some rule about his word not being as good as a full-patched brother or some shit.

“That’s not what it looked like to me, Prez.”

“Rooster?” Z lifts his chin.

Oh, thank God.

He’ll believe me, right?

Chapter Thirty

Z

The guys who don’t know me might think I haven’t asked Lilly directly what happened because her story doesn’t count as much as a brother’s.

They’re wrong.

Something bad happened to her.

Something that should never happen in my clubhouse.

The only question burning in my mind is how many people do I need to kill?

The scene I walked up on made it clear.

Murphy with his arms protectively around my woman, looking like he was about to murder anyone who came near her. Lilly, barefoot and clinging to him like he just saved her damn life. The way she’s trembling all over.

Those few observations told me all I need to know about what I walked up on.

Shadow’s in for a vicious beating, one way or another. Simple as that. Hitting on a member’s old lady is grounds for a beat down in our world. Hurting one? I’m within my rights to gut the motherfucker.

Do I want the backing of the brothers’ in the downstate charter before it goes down? Yeah, it’d be nice. It’s not necessary as far as I’m concerned. Let ‘em try to strip my patch.

Rooster crosses his arms over his chest and widens his stance, blocking Shadow’s only option for escape.