Page 4 of Property of Prowler (Kings of Anarchy MC: Nevada #1)

If Taylor ignored Cass’s concern, she would be no better that her own mom, who looked the other way when her husband had boundary issues with her only daughter or fast fists with his sons. If only someone had taken their off-handed comments seriously and asked the tough questions.

While she didn’t get that vibe from Prowler, she wouldn’t blow off Cass’s concerns.

“Surely you don’t mean …” She didn’t finish her question as Cass met her gaze. Taylor’s heart cracked a little at the look in her blue eyes, identical to her father’s blue eyes, except laced with uncertainty.

Surely, she didn’t … “Your dad would never hurt you , Cass. I may not have had stellar examples of a good parent, but I don’t think—” She caught herself defending him instead of listening to Cass. Again, that was her mother speaking from her mouth.

“Oh, god, no. I didn’t mean that.” Cass interrupted, horrified.

Thank God.

“I’m not saying my dad would hurt someone who cut him off in traffic or forgot the fire sauce with his tacos. I mean, guys like that.” She nodded at the front door, where the pervy pizza man had ogled her. “He wouldn’t hesitate if someone crosses anyone he considers family.”

Taylor released the breath she’d been holding, bracing herself for … she wasn’t sure what.

She had to agree with Cass. Prowler would rip the guy apart if he knew how he’d looked at his daughter with the intentions that were clear in his gaze. Hell, any of his brothers would—it was just the way of life for them.

“It’s one thing if he hurts real bad guys; it’s another if he goes after a pizza guy who is just an idiot and looks barely out of high school. I don’t want him to go to jail like Uncle Hunter and Uncle Sleeper. I may never see them again.”

Cass’s heartbreak was clear in her voice. Taylor knew about her incarcerated uncles. It was when she got to spend the most time with Cass. Prowler would get back late from his visits and sleep in the next day.

That had always made her curious. His prison visits shouldn’t have been the most exhausting day of the man’s week, but they always were.

While Prowler told her he visited them, he was vague about why it took so long. She had a sense that there was a lot more to it than taking too much time. She wasn’t sure what, but the man had his secrets.

He carried a sawed-off wooden bat in his saddlebag, for fuck’s sake.

Plus, there was one just like it beside the front door, and a full-sized one under his bed.

Either he was a closet baseball player for an underground midnight league for people who used short bats, or he was always expecting trouble.

In her experience, men who expected trouble that much usually did something to attract it.

Duh, he’s an MC president.

She shook off those thoughts. This was about Cass, not her own fucked-up past that had her viewing everyone through blood-colored glasses.

“Lay it on me, sister. Tell me all your deepest, darkest secrets and fears, and I’ll just listen. I pinky promise not to try to change the way you see it, laugh at you, or try to fix it if you don’t want me to. What you feel is valid. Period, full stop.”

Isn’t that what every woman, regardless of age, wanted to hear?

With a sigh, Cass set her plate with a half-eaten piece of crust aside.

“You’re so going to break one of those promises.”

“Nope, I won’t. Have I ever done you dirty?”

“No, you haven’t, but it’s so bizarre, even I don’t believe it.

I mean, I do, but I don’t at the same time.

I mean, shit, I probably shouldn’t say anything.

” Cass had stood up and paced back and forth, chewing her lip.

It was an action Taylor recognized. She was seriously questioning herself, and that sucked.

“Sweetie.” Taylor reached up and grabbed her hand, stopping her back and forth, and pulled her back down to the sofa. “Spill. You obviously need to say it because it’s eating away at you.”

“So, first off, I know what being an MC president means. I’m not an idiot. I know Dad and my uncles have done things that are well …” She trailed off. “But this is next level.”

“Okay.” What was bothering her more than what she already apparently knew about?

With a deep breath, Cass just blurts it out. “My dad’s a shifter, a wolf to be exact,” she said in a rush.

They just sat there for God only knew how long. The hamster had fallen off the wheel, and her brain went silent. Finally, the little fucker jumped back on the wheel but was sluggish as hell.

“What now?”

“My dad is a Jacob. At least I think he is. Like ninety-nine-point nine percent sure.”

What could she say to that? Taylor thought she had at least a canned response to damn near anything to buy her time for a more thoughtful one, but this? Nope, she didn’t have fuck all ready to go for my dad sprouts fur .

Surely Cass was using a metaphor or analogy or a simile or whatever the fuck you call it when something is like another thing, so you say it is. Taylor was a blackjack dealer and dancer, not a fucking English major.

“Why do you think he’s like a wolf?”

“Not like a wolf, is a wolf. Alexander told me that shifters really exist, and then things started add?—”

“Who’s Alexander?”

“He’s kinda my friend,” Cass said shyly.

“We have advanced math together. One day he told me that his brother’s a shifter.

He was in a car accident with his friend.

His friend died, and that’s how he became one.

He was telling me things about his brother, like how he acts and stuff.

It got me to thinking, so I started snooping.

I think not only is Dad a wolf, but so is Uncle Hunter, and I think Uncle Monster and Uncle Golden are too.

Maybe all of them. Well, no, not all. Uncle Sleeper isn’t, and Uncle Bulldog is something else, but I don’t know what. ”

Taylor just let her go until she couldn’t take it anymore.

Still chanting in her head, don’t invalidate and don’t fix , but what the fuck was she supposed to do?

Cass must be going through something to be laying all this out there.

She clearly believed it by how freaked out she was, and that is what scared Taylor the most. She may have to break confidence with Cass and tell Prowler for Cass’s sake. It was the last thing she wanted to do.

“You don’t think this Alexander kid is just making shit up because he wants to impress you?”

Cass’s blush told her she was right, at least about Alexander liking her. “He does like me, and I like him, but that’s not it. Alexander isn’t supposed to say anything. He was really upset with himself when he did and begged me not to tell anyone.”

Okay, so she wasn’t going to get anywhere discrediting Alexander.

“Let’s put a pin in the fact you didn’t tell me you had a crush, which, ouch, by the way.” Taylor wanted to focus on Alexander and Cass’s first real crush, but she couldn’t.

“Why do you think your dad is a shifter? Because he shares some traits with Alexander’s brother who is supposedly a shifter?”

Taylor couldn’t believe she was having a conversation about shifters. She considered herself very open-minded. She believed there was life on other planets, so why were shifters her sticking point?

Maybe because it makes a little too much sense.

Cass’s eyes held a little bit of defeat, and Taylor’s heart broke for her.

“I don’t just think that, Tay. I’m telling you, he is . You don’t believe me?” Cass not only sounded hurt, but she also sounded disappointed in Taylor. “I thought you, of all people, would believe me.”

“Sweetheart.” Taylor grabbed both of her hands in her own.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you . But in order to do that, I have to change the way I have always looked at the world on a fundamental level.”

Deep breath in and out.

“So, it’s not you at all. It’s reworking my idea of normal, and that takes time.

Not because I don’t believe you or don’t want to, but shifters are something that only existed in movies and books my whole life, so give me some more information and let’s see where that leads us.

It could be that either one of us is mistaken. ”

There.

Taylor was rather proud of herself for that off-the-cuff, but diplomatic, response. She never wanted to hear that disappointment from Cass ever again.

“Okay, but get ready to have your mind blown.” Cass pulled out a notebook.

Oh shit, little chick brought notes. Taylor was no psychologist, but was she inventing a fantasy world because of a shitty mom? Was it because she needed her dad to be a big bad shifter who would come in and eat the bad guys?

It wasn’t like her dad wouldn’t come in and decimate anyone who hurt his little girl already. Hell, that whole club would scorch the earth for her.

Cass had told her last month that her mom was seeing a new man, and she hated him. Maybe that’s why she dove headfirst into Alexander’s fantasy.

Taylor listened as Cass went through every single point she had.

From why her dad was tired after the prison visits …

because that was when they shifted and ran in the unpopulated area around it…

to eavesdropping on how they used a tattooed rune infused with silver to bind Hunter’s wolf in prison so he wouldn’t accidentally shift behind bars.

Taylor had to admit, if Cass’s presentation was the opening scene of a movie, it was a pretty damn good one. Some of her points, Taylor herself had mused about. Cass’s explanations fit so well, Taylor didn’t have a clue how to explain it away from shifters into something more plausible.

Especially if she had actually overheard some of the things she thought she had. There's not a whole lot of wiggle room in binding a wolf with a tattooed silver rune.

Taylor shook her head. There had to be other explanations, like a weird Harley-worshiping cult or some shit. A secret society that emulated shifters.

Something.

“So, if your dad and some of your uncles are wolves, and Bulldog is a … something else, why would shifters, especially wolves, hang with humans and other animals? I thought wolves were pack animals. Three or four hardly seems like a pack.”

Taylor was drawing on every movie she’d watched and book she’d read as well as her knowledge. She didn’t want to sit in blatant disbelief of Cass, but she didn’t want to exactly feed into her ideas.

“First, there are a lot of misconceptions about wild wolves in mainstream media. We’ve changed their nature to fit our stories.

Just like we do every other animal. Second, what we know about shifters, you said yourself, comes from movies and books.

What if that’s all bullshit? Made up to entertain us, just like every other thing about movies.

I mean, it’s an entertainment-driven industry, but the bottom line is to make money, and to do that, you have to make up the best story. ”

“You have a point there.”

Shit.

“What about your mom? She would’ve shouted it from the rooftops or used it to manipulate your dad. She’s a—and I’m only quoting you, not calling her this myself—ruthless bitch.”

While Taylor agreed with that assessment one hundred and ten percent, she would never, and has never, badmouthed that woman to her daughter’s face. Even though she heard from Cass that Allie didn’t have the same boundary about her or anyone with tits who was even remotely connected to Prowler.

Cass talked enough shit about her mom that she didn’t need, or really want, Taylor’s agreement. She just needed a sounding board who wasn’t her dad.

Cass just rolled her eyes.

“True, that was a sticking point for me too. I have to believe that it came about sometime after they broke up.”

Taylor studied Cass for a moment. She really believed what she was saying. The last thing Taylor wanted do was to discount her right off the bat. But somehow, she needed to give Prowler a heads-up but not totally dime Cass out. That would be a fine line to walk.

“Here.” She handed Taylor the notebook. “Just read it with an open mind. If by our next overnight you don’t have even the smallest suspicion, I’ll drop it. Deal?”

“Only if you promise to keep an open mind to other possible explanations.”

“Deal,” Cass agreed. The relief on her face was clear at Taylor’s acceptance of the possibility. She may or may not have mentally patted herself on the back a little for the way she handled it.

“Now, Tombstone ?”

Rewinding, they watched the Earps arrive in Tombstone. They’d just started really paying attention to the movie when there was a knock at the door.

Taylor looked through the peephole and got the shock of her life. Her brother Travis stood on the other side.

Cautiously, she opened the door. Last time she’d seen him, he and her ex were tearing up the town and spending all her money. How the hell did he even find her? She opened the door just enough to stick her face out.

“I’m guessing I have Terry to thank for this unexpected and unwanted visit?” she grated through her teeth. Yeah, her older brother was the only way Travis could’ve found her. Fuck.

“Awww, is that any way to treat your brother, sis? You not going to invite me in for a cuppa?”

“When hell freezes over. What do you want?”

“Can’t I just want to see my sister?”

“No. How much?” She didn’t want to give him money, but if she didn’t, he wouldn’t leave. Then he’d spot Cass, and well, she’d be damned if that perv would set eyes on her.

“What makes?—”

“How much, Travis? Name a number right fucking now or leave empty-handed, your choice.”

“Whatever you got in cash, plus 5K? Check’s okay.”

Of course, a check was okay, the loser. Taylor closed and locked the door before grabbing her purse and emptying her wallet. Then, she hastily scrawled a check from the stash she kept in the entryway table.

With those in hand, she called back to Cass. “I’ll be right outside. Back in a flash.”

Stepping onto the porch and closing the door behind her, before locking it with the thumb sensor, she thrust the cash and check into his hand.

“That’s it. Don’t come back. Forget my address and the fact that I even exist.”

“Taylor Norton, huh?”

“Forget that name, Travis.”

“Awww, I love you too, sis,” he said sarcastically before throwing his arms around her. He picked her up until her feet were off the ground. Then he kissed her on the lips in an unbrotherly fashion, catching her off guard.

Like father, like son.

He immediately turned and jogged down the steps.

She looked over toward Prowler’s place before stepping back inside. Whoever was watching his place threw up his hand and waved.

Great .