Loose Ends

by Kristen Ashley

  “In the flesh, sister,” Rebel replied, sliding out and into Molly’s arms.

  They hugged. They did that swaying side to side thing chicks did. They laughed at nothing.

  “Jesus, Mol, let a man stand a chance,” Maddox growled from behind them.

  And only then did Molly let Rebel step out from the opened door to Diesel’s truck.

  Maddox enveloped D’s sister in his arms, kissing the side of her head, then saying, “Fuck, good to see you, Rebel.”

  Rebel held tight and replied, “You too, Mad. Totally.”

  Molly shut Rebel’s door. Diesel grabbed his sister’s bag. And they all moved into the house, Molly babbling a mile a minute, Rebel attached to Maddox like D held her, his arm around her shoulders, hers around his waist.

  “Not to be rude, but I hope you’re gonna feed me because I’m starved,” Rebel declared.

  “Chile queso coming right up!” Molly announced, hustling to the kitchen.

  “We’ll get some food in you, get you to the Valley Ho to check in, then we’re going to dinner,” Diesel told her.

  “You can have my car while you’re here, if you want,” Molly put in, dumping things from the fridge onto the counter.

  “We can also play chauffer if you’re not down with that,” Maddox put in.

  “I’ll Uber it when we meet up so I won’t put you guys out,” Rebel said, having pulled her purse off her shoulder, her phone out of her purse, her head tipped down, her brows drawn as she stared at the screen.

  “Everything good?” D asked, coming out of the fridge himself with a couple of beers, seeing her expression and thinking that took precedence over telling her she wasn’t gonna Uber shit.

  “Yeah,” Rebel answered distractedly. “Got the text dumps after I turned on my phone when we landed.” She looked up, pinned a smile on her face and went on, “Was too excited to see my bro to pay attention.”

  He wasn’t a fan of the way she’d pinned that smile on her face.

  “And it’s all good?” he pushed.

  She tipped her head to the beer bottles in his hand. “It will be, if one of those is for me.”

  D gave her a look, transferred that look to Maddox who was studying Rebel. He felt Diesel’s gaze and turned his attention to D, dipping his chin meaningfully.

  He didn’t like Rebel’s pinned smile either.

  “Just to confirm, Rebel, you like it hot like we like it hot, right?” Molly said to a bowl she was dumping shit into.

  “Girl, I totally like it hot,” Rebel replied.

  Diesel handed her the beer and let shit go.

  He knew what was happening.

  His family knew Rebel was down for the weekend and she was getting fed all the shit.

  But now it was time for beers, queso dip, family time and winding down, taking her mind off of it.

  Saving his sister from that shit would come later.

  “They’re up in her shit,” Maddox declared.

  “Mm-hmm,” Molly agreed.

  “I know,” Diesel muttered.

  They were all naked. In bed. It was dark. Rebel was at the Valley Ho. They’d just finished fucking, cleaning Molly up. Now Mol was tucked up, back to front, with Maddox, tangled up with D at her front, Mad’s arm draped over both of them, D’s arm draped over Maddox’s, palming his man’s ass.

  “I asked, she wouldn’t give,” Diesel told them.

  “I asked, and she wouldn’t give it to me either,” Molly said quietly.

  “That means not only are they ranting all their bullshit hurt and anger to her, they’re probably trying to push her to talk some sense into me or get me to come home so they can do it,” D surmised. “And she’s trying to shield me from all that.”

  Maddox ran his hand over the side of Diesel’s hip. “Brother, don’t let their bullshit sink under your skin. Rebel’s tough. She’s got your back. She’ll be good and we’ve got her all weekend. We’ll get in there.”

  “We all knew this would happen. Rebel knew it better than any of us, except you, DD,” Molly put in.

  “Yeah,” D mumbled.

  Molly pressed into him. “We’ll all get through this, Rebel too.”

  “They’re gonna push her until they lose her,” D replied.

  “Their choice. Rebel’s too,” Maddox said carefully.

  “I know, still sucks.”

  “Honey, it isn’t you that’s tearing your family apart. It’s them,” Molly pointed out.

  “I know, baby,” Diesel said gently. “It still sucks.”

  “Yeah,” she whispered.

  D took in and then let out a huge breath.

  After that, he shared, “Loved watchin’ her walk off that plane. Loved rappin’ with her in my truck on the way home. Loved watchin’ you two welcome her like she’s your own sister. It’s what I can give to this. What I can give to us.”

  “Part of what you can give, D,” Maddox rumbled.

  “Yeah, but a good part,” D returned. “And their shit is fucking with a good thing.”

  “You need to let it go, honey,” Molly advised.

  “No, darlin’, D needs to let it out,” Maddox revised. “This is big shit. Not good shit. And just gonna say, man,” Maddox slid his hand back and gave D’s ass a squeeze, “I’m glad you’re talkin’ it out.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Molly added. “Forget about me saying you need to let it go. Unless you let it go all over us.”

  Her words made Diesel’s body start shaking with laughter.

  And that made Molly slap at his chest. “And no, you can’t make a comment about letting it go all over me.”

  That was when D felt Maddox’s body add to shaking the bed.

  “You can’t either, Mad,” she snapped, twisting her head to look at her man behind her through the shadows.

  Mad’s voice was also shaking when he reminded her, “Wasn’t me he shot all over fifteen minutes ago.”

  “Does everything have to be about sex with you two?” she asked snippily.

  “Yes,” Diesel answered.

  “Totally,” Maddox said at the same time.

  “Jeez,” Molly muttered.

  Her men kept laughing.

  Maddox used his arm around them to pull them in tighter.

  Diesel did the same with his arm until Molly was practically crunched between them.

  Molly let out a big sigh and whispered, “I love my guys, even when they’re completely annoying.”

  “Back at you,” Diesel replied.

  “Same,” Maddox said.

  “When am I annoying?” Molly asked.

  Neither man was going to field that one.

  Molly snuggled in, murmuring, “Yeah, even when you’re completely annoying.”

  Diesel grinned in the dark.

  Maddox gave his ass another squeeze.

  He returned the gesture.

  Then D closed his eyes, settled into the warm tangle of bodies, and he fell asleep.

  Maddox

  “You find you like it, D, I’ll talk to Branch at the Honey. He’s their operating manager. I think they have their security tight, but I’m sure he always needs good people on his radar. They get an opening, he might want to talk to you,” Sixx said.

  It was Saturday night.

  They were talking about D’s taking extra work at the Bolt as a Dungeon Master while sitting around Sixx and Stellan’s huge-ass, kickass dining room table that spread out along a row of arched French doors with a view to a pool deck. All of this was in a massive great room that was in a gigantic mansion in Paradise Valley.

  The place was fucking amazing.

  It also wasn’t surprising.

  Sixx was a badass but she was a stylish one. She dressed like a model, was graceful, confident, sharp and she made edgy, which was not Maddox’s thing, hot.

  Stellan, her man, on the other hand, was pure class, including classically handsome. His woman dressed like a model, he just looked like one (though he dressed like one as well, his clothes were
just as sophisticated as he was, and he was off-the-charts with the urbane).

  The dude was obviously dripping in money.

  He was also straight-up good people.

  He didn’t act like he’d welcomed them for some amazing dish of salmon covered in some sauce that was like heaven on your tongue and an open, stocked, top-shelf liquor cabinet, his backyard landscaping, to Mad’s professional eye, exceptionally designed and maintained, his big pool lighting the area, including clean-lined deck furniture, like it was a resort.

  When they’d arrived, Stellan and Sixx made it clear they’d entered a home, not a showplace.

  They also made it clear they were not only welcome there, but wanted there.

  Like family.

  Stellan Lange was interested, interesting, and even though he did not hide even a little bit he was a total snob, that shit wasn’t about being elitist. It was just a part of who he was.

  He could afford the good stuff that allowed him to be a snob about having good stuff.

  But he wasn’t a snob about people.

  The entire time—from arriving, getting drinks, chatting over some cheese melted with some jelly in puff pastry spread over crackers that was unbelievably delicious, then sitting down where they were to a dinner Stellan and Sixx let them all help carry to the table—had been great.

  Except, as the night progressed, and Rebel’s purse chimed, then vibrated, it was also coming clear that Stellan was not wealthy as fuck because he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth (though Mad had a feeling he was).

  He was entirely clued in.

  To everything.

  Including Rebel’s increasingly tense manner that got increasingly tense as her phone kept going and she was running out of ways to hide she kept checking it.

  The table could sit twice their party, and then some, but they only occupied one end, with Stellan at the head, Sixx to his left, D next to her. Rebel was to Stellan’s right, and Maddox had made Molly sit next to Rebel and took the odd man out seat at the end of their side.

  He still heard Rebel’s phone buzz in her purse hanging on the back of her seat, something Stellan’s gaze wandering to her chair told Mad he heard too, as Molly answered, “That’d be cool, Diesel. Working security at the Honey. Wow. I’ve always wanted to see what it looked like inside there.”

  “A tour can be arranged, I’m sure,” Sixx replied.

  “Just turn it off,” Diesel bit out.

  On his trek to look that way, Mad caught Stellan’s gaze cutting to Diesel.

  Sixx’s did too.

  But Maddox felt Molly’s eyes on him.

  It didn’t have to be said, throughout the day, they hadn’t gotten Rebel to share how much crap she was taking from D’s family.

  But the texts, calls, and vibrations when she turned the ringer off were not lost on any of them.

  “I actually kinda can’t, D,” Rebel said quietly. “I have this work situation that means I need to keep my mind in that game.”

  This made Maddox wonder.

  Rebel was a filmmaker. She did band videos and corporate videos and wedding videos. As far as he knew, for the most part, she worked on her own.

  What was she working on that she was away for the weekend but had to keep her mind in that game?

  With all that was going on, Maddox didn’t have his shot to ask after that.

  Primarily because, at that exact moment, Diesel indicated he was done.

  “Right,” D spat, scraped his chair back, his hand going to his back pocket, his eyes going to Stellan. “Mind if I use your deck?”

  “By all means,” Stellan murmured.

  Yeah.

  The dude was pure class.

  “Sorry. It’s rude. But excuse me,” Diesel muttered,

  And with that, he prowled to a pair of the French doors behind him, pulling his phone out of his pocket as Maddox called, “D.”

  D ignored him, opened the door and stepped outside.

  “I think maybe I should—” Rebel started, pushing her chair back.

  “No,” Molly interrupted her, putting a hand on her arm to stop her. “He needs to do this for you.”

  “Okay, none of our business, but, uh . . . do you want to make it our business?” Sixx asked.

  “Darling,” Stellan tried to shut her up the classy way.

  “Diesel came out to his family this week,” Molly announced.

  Stellan turned his gaze to Molly like he was aiming a laser beam and stated firmly, “Excellent.”

  “They’re not super thrilled about it,” Molly told him.

  Maddox watched Stellan’s jaw go hard.

  Yep.

  Maddox totally liked this guy.

  “He should just let me deal with their bullshit,” Rebel muttered.

  “That’s not in him, Rebel,” Maddox told her something she knew.

  “It’s not in me to let him go this alone,” Rebel returned heatedly, her attention directed at the door Diesel had used.

  “I’m so sorry this is ruining our dinner,” Molly said to Sixx. She indicated her cleaned plate. “It was delicious. It really was. As you can see since we all practically licked our plates. But D’s D and—”

  Sixx cut her off gently. “I’m not sorry, Molly. Although I hate that D’s going through this right now,” her gaze strayed to Maddox, “I’m very glad he’s gotten to this place.”

  She hadn’t quite finished that when the door swung open and D came in.

  Nope.

  He didn’t come in.

  He stormed in.

  Eyes on Maddox.

  Everyone looked to him, Sixx twisting in her seat to do it.

  “Dad call you?” Diesel asked.

  Fuck.

  “Brother—”

  “Did my father call you?” Diesel roared.

  “Yeah, buddy,” Maddox said quietly.

  “He call you names?” Diesel asked.

  Fuck!

  He felt Molly’s gaze come to him and he also felt the anger that began to beat off her.

  “Diesel—” Maddox tried

  “What did he call you?”

  “D—”

  “What’d he fuckin’ call you?” Diesel barked.

  “I’m not gonna say it, baby,” Maddox answered.

  “Right,” D bit, put the phone in his hand back to his ear and said, “Dad? Yeah. Fuck you. Just . . . fuck . . . you and your lunatic fuckin’ bullshit. I cannot believe you called Maddox and laid that shit on him.”

  There was a pause.

  Then an explosion where Molly and Rebel jumped, Molly letting out a muted mew, Rebel making a sound like a growling purr, but Stellan, Sixx and Maddox all grew tense like they were about to spring into action.

  “No! You don’t get that! For fuck’s sake, what’s the matter with you? That time has passed and it never should have happened in the first place. In these times, you don’t get the excuse of righteousness. That’s bullshit. You don’t get the excuse of ignorance. That’s bullshit too. It’s not my place to explain dick to you. You don’t ask me to explain why I breathe. It’s what I need to do. You don’t get an explanation for this. And you don’t get to be the injured party here, Dad. You made me and there’s not one goddamned thing wrong with me. But there’s something wrong with you. And that’s about riding Rebel’s ass about something that has shit to do with her, and everything to do with you. And it’s about you handing me this shit, when there should be no shit at all, and making it about you. But mostly, it’s about phoning my man and laying your shit on him. I will not tolerate that, Dad. And you know why? Because that’s the man you made. That’s the man you raised. He’s mine and nothing harms him. Not even you. Actually especially not you.”

  The entire room was frozen.

  But for Maddox it was more.

  It felt like his heart had stopped beating.

  D gave that to Molly.

  Nothing hurt Molly.

  Ever.

  But now . . .

  �
�Hear me,” Diesel growled in a rumbling thunder of a tone Maddox had never heard in his life, “there is no coming back from this. Never. We’ll have our commitment ceremony, and you will not be welcome. We’ll have our children, and they will not have their grandfather. You just lost your son because your son has just erased his father from his life in a way you won’t ever be written back in.”

  Another pause and . . .

  “Then that goes for Gunner and Mom too. I’ll let you to share that news. Goodbye, Dad. Have a good life. What’s left of it.”

  And with that, he took the phone from his ear and started moving his thumb over it, staring so hard at it, it was a wonder the thing didn’t combust in his hand.

  Maddox pushed up to his feet. “D.”

  D’s head shot up.

  “I love you,” he said to Maddox.

  Right in front of everyone.

  “And no one fucks with you,” D finished.

  “Okay, buddy,” Maddox whispered.

  “You know, darling,” Stellan drawled, shoving his chair back and getting up. “I was in little question before, but I see how right you are now. Your friends are quite incredible people.”

  Everyone then watched as he sauntered from the dining room table to the kitchen, the women sitting, Diesel and Maddox still standing.

  Stellan then walked down a back hall and disappeared.

  Molly sniffed.

  Maddox looked down to her and it was like she felt his attention because she waved her hand and announced, “I love you. But if you touch me in this moment, I’ll fly apart.”

  “Right, baby,” Maddox muttered.

  “And you,” she snapped toward Diesel then finished fiercely, “are the most beautiful man I’ve ever known.”

  Mad grinned at her then turned his grin to D.

  “Except him,” she went on and in his peripheral vision Mad caught her jerking her thumb his way, “it’s a tie.”

  Maddox started chuckling.

  Diesel asked tightly, “Why didn’t you tell me he called?”

  Maddox stopped chuckling.

  “Because that would have fucked with you,” he explained. “And nobody fucks with you. Especially not through me.”

  D’s eyes flashed and his face warmed.

  But his mouth asked, “You’re an asshole, you know that?”

  “Totally,” Maddox answered.