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“But you might fall.” She rolls her eyes at me and tries to shake my hand off again. I grow serious for half a second. “It’s this or I carry you. Pick one, princess.”

She stops moving and looks at me. “Princess?”

The aghast look on her face has me nodding. Then she bursts out laughing and would have tumbled to the ground for sure if I wasn’t holding her up.

“You’re in a fluffy pink dress. What do you expect to be called?” I don’t get the joke. And I’m the one who usually laughs at most things.

She rights herself and simmers down enough to walk across the street.

You know it’s the middle of the night when you can just stand in the street and not see a single car drive by.

That or you’re in a neighborhood people don’t drive through at night.

Kind of proud of my club for having that type of reputation, even if it’s complete shit.

We won’t bust someone up for driving down the road.

Might do it if they make too much noise or some shit, but Hounds aren’t the type of club built on fear.

We thrive in several areas that mean we’re successful among the community, and we hold our integrity higher than most. And that’s what this sister chapter forgot about.

It’s something I need to get everyone back on board with before I head back to Kansas and let the new president take over.

We catch up with the others as we walk up the back stairs and Summer punches in the door code. Bane lets her enter and then makes a beeline down the hall. He might be pissed, but the guy is silent as he walks. Summer’s quick on his heels, hissing at him to stop.

“Don’t you dare wake them, you ogre. They were pissed at being woken up to get here, and I’m not about to deal with another meltdown tonight. Yours is enough to push me to my limit.”

Her words have Bane stopping and spinning so fast, she runs into him.

He’s a solid brick wall, and she bounces off him, causing some air to escape her mouth.

The look on his face could almost be comical.

He looks… I guess outraged is the only word that comes close, with his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide and blazing.

“My meltdown? You came stomping over to us, lady. You poked your nose in shit that doesn’t concern you.

And you did all of that while leaving kids to fend for themselves.

I oughta bend you over my knee and spank some sense into you right now.

Meltdown, my ass.” He turns just as quickly and continues down the hall and out of sight.

Summer takes a beat, then looks back at me. “That a threat from him?”

I shrug. “More like a promise. Bane doesn’t take too well to knowing someone could be in harm’s way. You might not like it, but he’s one of the good guys.”

She purses her lips. “Says the guy who tried to kidnap my friend.” And with a pointed glare, she follows Bane.

I roll my head to Viv, who’s found her way into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. “Let me guess. Best friend? ”

“You got it.”

I notice she doesn’t offer me one, and I can accept that I came in uninvited.

Despite that, I’m thirsty, so I head to her fridge and grab a cold beer over the water at the last minute.

It is New Year’s Eve after all. I promised myself a shit ton of these while I was tatting up Lucky, and this might be the only one I get if things keep going sideways.

I lean against her fridge after closing it and sip on my beer. Thankfully, it’s a national brand and not some local mom-and-pop wannabe shit. My boy Bulldog is the only guy I trust to brew something worthy of being called homemade. Everyone else’s just sucks. Personal opinion and all that.

It doesn’t take long, but eventually Bane and Summer come back.

Summer looks pissed, huffing and puffing as she sits at the kitchen table chair next to Viv.

But at least she’s sitting, so Bane mustn’t have gotten his hands on her.

Yet. No doubt his palm is itching. Casper told me he has a big Dom side, and that was half the reason he let the club get so far off track.

He was busy pursuing that side of himself and neglecting club duties.

His need to correct a submissive or whatnot was a bigger thrill for him then.

He says it’s not now. Not sure if that’s the truth, but I can tell he’s pouring his energy into the club now.

Not sure if he’s redirecting the Dom parts of himself or just letting them go dormant.

Casper mentioned he did that himself for a while before he found his old lady and discovered a way to have both the club side and the Dom side.

I guess some can be both fairly easily; others have to work at it. Like the former president here .

Bane comes to stand by me, giving me a nod, letting me know he’s both satisfied the kids are safe and that the place is clear of anyone.

“You look like shit.” Summer brings my attention back to Viv, who just smirks.

“You always say the sweetest things.”

Summer reaches out and, with gentle fingers, moves Viv’s head left and right to see the full damage on her face, the lamp off to their left and tucked in the corner by the hall entrance providing just enough light. “Anywhere else?”

Viv shrugs, pulling away to sip at her water. She throws her eyes my way for a beat but then back to the water bottle as she sets it on the table.

“A few bruises. Maybe a cracked rib. Nothing keeping me out of anything long term. Same as usual.”

“Except the whole being drugged part,” I growl, harsher than I mean to. And if it was anyone else but Bane, they would have called me out on it. But he just side-eyes me before going back to watching the women in front of us.

Bane still needs me to give him the green light and not the thumbs-down that’ll end his life.

I have that power. He knows it, I know it.

The whole damn club knows it. It’s one of the reasons he was on outside patrol tonight and not one of the brothers inside testing out new vamps and welcoming in the new year.

Guy gets it, even volunteered for it. And he’s not doing shit to be a pushover.

Says he’ll only do something he expects his men to do for him if he gave the same order. I can respect that in a man.

“You were what? She was what?” Summer might get whiplash with the way she keeps looking at her friend, then us, then back for answers.

“It’s fine.” Viv glares at me a second before smoothing out her face and looking at her friend, even going as far as putting her hand out to squeeze Summer’s. “I’m fine. Guy must have slipped something in my drink. I noticed, I reacted, I got out. No harm, no foul.”

“Yeah, till the next John tries to pull that same thing again and has more than an idiot driver to help.” I don’t know why this is pissing me off, but it is. Her lack of care about the matter, and her safety, is setting me off.

“Relax.” She gives me a hard look, one I ignore. “It’s not going to happen again.”

“You said it happened before. Who’s to say it won’t?” I can’t seem to let this go.

“I do. And before wasn’t the same.” She waves her hand at me as if I know nothing. But while I might not know all the details, I know enough.

“How so? Did the guy drug you at the hotel instead of the limo?” I give her a look that just has her looking confused.

“Hotel? What hotel?” Summer asks as her head volleys back and forth.

“What are you talking about?” Viv leans back in her chair and crosses her arms, waiting for me to explain.

I run my hand through my hair as I set my beer on the table. “Look, I’m just saying that you should be more careful about who you choose to do a job with. Like your friend said before, girls are getting snatched left and right. Someone in your profession needs to be careful. ”

“My profession,” Viv drawls.

“Yeah. Your profession.” I nod once.

“Wait.” She looks at Summer, then back at me with her face pinched. “Do you think I’m a hooker?”

I look at Bane, feeling as if I’m falling into a trap I don’t know how to get out of. “Yes?”

She and Summer share a look before they both burst out laughing. So much so that I see tears coming out of their eyes.

“She’s not a prostitute. She’s MMA,” Summer cackles.

Bane and I continue to stare, not getting it.

Viv swipes the tears out of her eyes as she continues to chuckle. “I’m an underground fighter.”