Blood & Bones: Ozzy by Jeanne St. James

Chapter Thirteen

Shay followedOzzy down the stairs, eager to start working on the proposal. The work Trip discussed would take her weeks to finish if he approved. It would not only keep her busy but put a nice fat deposit into her bank account.

“Want a drink?”

“To celebrate?” Shay asked as they reached the first floor.

“Yeah. To celebrate. That’s a good excuse to drink.”

She glanced around the lower level of the building. “Do you mind if I set up my laptop and start working on—”

“Ain’t workin’ tonight. Worked all day. Tonight you relax.”

Well, then. “I have rent to pay in an overpriced apartment.”

“Give it up.”

Give it up?Give what up? Her apartment? “Oh sure. It’s that easy. There’s something called a lease. But I plan on moving as soon as it’s up since there’s no reason for me to stay in Boston any longer. I can move somewhere more reasonably priced.”

“Like Manning Grove,” he stated and moved behind the bar.

Manning Grove hadn’t been on her short list of places to move. It was fine to visit but she wasn’t sure she’d ever want to move back.

“What d’you wanna drink?”

She climbed onto the stool across the bar from him. “Whatever you’re having is fine.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You sure ‘bout that?”

“Are you going to try to get me drunk and take advantage of me?” she teased.

“Gonna do the second, but not the first. Want you to remember everythin’ I do to you tonight.”

A shiver of anticipation shot through her. She also wanted to remember it all. So far, this trip has been one she’d never forget, thanks to the man currently pouring two shots and two beers.

She glanced once more around what Ozzy had called The Barn. He said it was the MC’s clubhouse and that some of his brothers lived in the rear. The bunkhouse Trip had mentioned.

The Barn was currently empty and quiet. She wondered how many members the MC had and how many lived onsite.

The club president had said he didn’t want to sell any merchandise because the club was family and he didn’t want anyone else wearing their colors. Shay had found that interesting. The way Ozzy, Trip and Deacon had interacted with one another did remind her of siblings busting on each other and getting into scraps. Just like brothers would.

“Where did Trip and Deacon go? They seemed to have disappeared.”

Ozzy shrugged and placed a pint of draft beer in front of her and set a shot glass full of what looked like whiskey next to it. “Dependin’ on where Stella’s at, Trip either went to Crazy Pete’s or up to the house.”

“The house?”

He placed another beer and shot glass in front of the stool next to her and came around the bar. “They live up the lane in the farmhouse we passed.”

“Oh, it’s really cute.”

“And Dickon probably headed home to Mansfield.”

“Deacon lives in Mansfield?” That college town was only about twenty minutes away.

“He lives upstairs in one of the apartments. His ol’ lady’s got a mountain house he can’t get her to let go of, so he spends weeknights there with her. They spend weekends here on the farm. A compromise between them and also with Trip since he prefers everyone live on the property or close.”

“Oh, interesting. I considered going to Mansfield U., but decided it was best to get away from this area. What does she do?”

He settled on the stool next to her. “Some kinda attorney.”

“You don’t know what kind?”

“The kind that argues.”

She laughed and made sure she didn’t hide it from him. “I think they all do that.”

“She’s a fuckin’ expert at it.”

The way he said that made her ask, “You don’t like her?”

“Love her ‘cause she’s got Dick’s balls in a vise.”

“She’s a ball-buster?”

“She’s somethin’.”

“Maybe she needs a website, too.”

Ozzy lifted his shot glass and held it in the air. “I’ll ask her. But knowin’ her, she’s already got one and it’s fuckin’ on point.” He jerked his chin at her whiskey.

She picked it up but wrinkled her nose. “I’ve never had both a shot and a beer at the same time.”

“Stella said it’s called a boilermaker. I call it a good way to get drunk.”

“But you have to drive us back to the motel,” she reminded him.

“Yeah, we’re just havin’ one.” He tapped his shot glass against hers and downed the whiskey in one swallow. He followed it with a long draw on his beer.

“I shouldn’t sip it?”

Ozzy grinned. “Sweetheart, just shoot it, then chase it with the beer.”

She focused on the shot in her fingers. This trip was about pushing herself out of her self-made bubble. To conquer the past but also try new things.

Without another thought, she sucked in a breath, blew it back out and then swallowed the whole shot. She gasped as the fumes from the alcohol made her want to cough. She quickly grabbed the beer and took a long sip, dousing the fire in her belly. Somewhat.

“Holy smokes,” she breathed carefully, blinking quickly since her eyes began to water.

“Good, yeah?”

“Um… I’m glad we’re only having one.”

He barked out a laugh and took another sip of his beer.

Drinking like that would knock her on her ass way too quickly. She really didn’t want to be too tipsy to continue the night with Ozzy.

He twisted on his stool, his denim-clad knee pressing into her bare outer thigh. He drew his fingertips from the hem of her shorts to her knee and back, causing goosebumps to break out over her skin.

His touch was addicting.

His skills in bed were impressive.

Even with all the rest of her hang-ups, sex had never been one. But then, she’d never had sex with a stranger before. Ozzy hadn’t been quite a stranger, but close enough. Usually, she dated a man for a month, or even two, before getting intimate with him. Once she felt comfortable and more trusting.

He cupped her knee in his warm hand and gave it a squeeze. “Never said your reason for movin’ to Boston in the first place.”

“My marriage.”

A pause stretched between them as his hand slipped off her knee and he turned on the stool until he was fully facing her. “You’re married?”

“I was.”

“Divorced?”

“Unfortunately, that was the only legal way to get rid of him without ending up in jail.”

He snorted.

She sighed, running a finger down the now sweating pint glass. “To be honest, he divorced me.”

“Why the fuck would he do that? ‘Cause he got fuckin’ brain damage? That’s gotta be the only acceptable reason.”

She shook her head. “No. He got bored with me and moved on.”

“What… the… actual… fuck,” he ground out. “You bored him in bed?”

Wait… She didn’t bore Ozzy in bed, did she? So far, she’d been open to anything he suggested, had pushed her boundaries and enjoyed everything they’d done together. Even when he sucked her toes and licked her in a place she’d never been licked before.

It had taken her a few moments to get comfortable with both of those things, but he made it seem normal and natural, and not so… Forbidden? Maybe that wasn’t the right choice of word. Those sex acts weren’t really forbidden, they only felt that way. It kind of made what he was doing more exciting.

But he also made her feel comfortable while doing them and that was what helped her relax and enjoy it so much more quickly.

“No, not in bed. In general. I found out too late he has the attention span of a gnat. It doesn’t matter what it is, he eventually gets tired of it and wants something new to tickle his fancy. Like wives.”

“Wives,” Ozzy repeated with a frown.

“I was his second. He’s on his third already.”

“Damn. I’m guessin’ the latest won’t be the last, then?”

She shook her head. “Probably not. I tried to warn her but she only thought I was jealous, so…” Shay shrugged. “Good luck to her. If his first wife would’ve warned me, I might have listened.”

“Ain’t the sayin’ ‘love is blind?’”

“Yes, you’re right. Sometimes love is blind. Maybe that’s it. We can get so blinded by love, or what we think is love, that we can’t see the obvious.”

Even if it slapped a person right in the face.

“Moved to Boston to be with him.”

He was already halfway done with his beer and she had hardly touched hers. She took another long sip to wash down the bitter taste talking about her failed marriage caused. “We moved to Boston together when his organization transferred him there. Living there wasn’t so bad until suddenly I found myself alone and the only one paying the bills. I love the area but not the cost of it.”

“Yeah, same for me when I rolled into San Diego. Loved the area, but too fuckin’ rich for my blood.”

“You lived on the west coast?”

“Mostly kept on the move. Only stayed a handful of places for more than a coupla months.”

“Manning Grove is one of them.” When he didn’t say anything, she turned toward him. “Is it because you get bored easily, too?” Hopefully she wouldn’t be in Manning Grove long enough for him to get bored with her. She knew she wasn’t the most exciting person and she didn’t live the most exciting life.

She never tried to draw attention to herself and for her whole life she’d been fine standing in the background and observing. But these past couple of days with Ozzy had shown her what she’d been missing.

“Got a hard time sittin’ in one place too long.”

“But you’ve been here since you were an Original, right? That’s a long time from what I’m gathering.”

He shook his head. “Left the Grove after the Fury imploded over twenty-two years ago. Only came back once Trip resurrected the club.”

“Do you consider Manning Grove home now?”

“Home is the back of my sled. Wherever that’s parked, I call home.”

Interesting.“A real rolling stone.”

“Bein’ a nomad’s in my blood.”

Then it was best that the time they spent together wouldn’t lead to anything more. She’d already dealt with one man in her life who couldn’t stick with anything, she certainly didn’t need to deal with that again.

At least he was upfront about it. Unlike Darren.

“So, I’m dying to know… What’s a sweet butt?” She didn’t like the term and had a feeling she wouldn’t like the definition, either. But instead of assuming, she’d let him explain…

Ozzy groaned under his breath.He was hoping she forgot about that, but of fucking course, she didn’t.

And, of course, just his fucking luck, that was exactly when the front door to The Barn opened and one of them walked through it.

Brandy immediately spotted them, a huge smile crossed her face and she headed in their direction.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

“What’s wrong?” Shay asked, her brow furrowed as her gaze bounced from Brandy to him.

“She’s a sweet butt.”

“I don’t understand. What makes her a sweet butt?”

Before he could answer, Brandy reached them, immediately leaning into him like she always did. The sweet butts tended to be handsy, except with the brothers who had an ol’ lady. They knew better than to touch one of them without permission, not if they wanted to remain a part of the club. “Hey, Oz.”

He peeled her hand off his chest. “Brandy, go find someone else tonight.”

“What?” Her eyebrows pinched together. “Why? Are you mad at me for something?”

“Ain’t mad at you. Just busy.”

Brandy’s eyes flicked quickly to Shay and back. “I’m willing—”

He quickly cut her off. “Know you are. Appreciate that. Now’s not the time.” He arched an eyebrow at her, hoping she picked up what he was putting down.

Of course, she fucking didn’t.

Brandy’s light brown eyes landed on the woman sitting next to him and stuck. “You’re not into it?”

“Into what?” Shay asked her.

For fuck’s sake. “Brandy.”

“Threesomes.”

Fuck.

“Brandy,” he growled in warning.

Shay’s eyes sliced back and forth between Brandy and him.

Fuck.

“You’re not even going to introduce us?”

He considered Shay’s question. If she was going to be hanging around the club, gathering info for the websites, she needed to know what and who the sweet butts were. He just didn’t want to explain it to her in front of one.

Unfortunately, he might not have a fucking choice.

He didn’t blame Brandy for not reading the room before bringing up a threesome because normally he’d jump on that offer.

Just because Shay got comfortable with him sucking her toes and rimming her ass last night, didn’t mean she’d be okay with munching down on another woman’s pussy. Or having another woman eat out hers.

But, for fuck’s sake, so far, she’d been pretty open-minded. If she was into trying it…

He shook himself mentally. Don’t overwhelm her, asshole.

“Shay, this is Brandy.”

Shay jutted out a hand. “Hi, Brandy, nice to meet you.”

Brandy smiled down at Shay’s extended hand, took it, then shook it briefly. “Hi, Shay. You’re new around here.”

Pointing out the obvious seemed to be a requirement for being a sweet butt.

“I’m only in town for a short time,” Shay said.

“Oh, but that doesn’t mean we can’t—”

Ozzy cut her off. “Brandy, what are you?”

The sweet butt’s head spun toward him. “What do you mean?”

“Who d’you belong to?” he asked her.

Confusion filled her face. “The club.”

“What are you to the club?”

“A sweet butt,” she answered automatically.

He continued. “What d’you do for the club?”

“Whatever you guys want me to do.”

He’d avoided looking at Shay while he asked those questions.

“Why are you asking me those questions?”

Ozzy tipped his head toward Shay. “She wanted to know what a sweet butt was.”

Brandy’s confusion quickly fled and her face lit up. She moved until she was wedged between Ozzy’s knees and leaned her shoulder into his chest so she could face Shay. “Oh! Sure. Let me explain.”

“Don’t gotta explain,” Ozzy said quickly, daring a glance at Shay.

Her face was expressionless. She stared at Brandy, who was now physically wrapping one of Ozzy’s arms around her waist. Normally when Brandy did that, he’d snake his hand up her top and grab one of her tits, even tweak her nipples, but he figured now was not the best time to do that.

Instead, he did his damnedest to keep his muscles and fingers relaxed.

“We’re here for them,” Brandy continued. “We do whatever they want.”

“Whatever they want,” Shay repeated, flicking a glance at his arm loosely wrapped around Brandy.

The sweet butt nodded. “Whatever they want. Whenever they want it. Wherever they want it. Like here on the bar—”

“That’s all she needs to hear.” Ozzy grabbed Brandy’s waist and unwedged her from his thighs, giving them space.

“No, I want to hear the rest,” Shay insisted with raised eyebrows. “Go on, Brandy, you can explain. Are you the only sweet butt?”

“No, there are a few of us. Because we’re club property, we’re under the club’s protection, we get to party with them, and—”

“Club property?” Shay frowned.

“Well, we belong to the Fury.”

“Wait. You’re considered property?” Shay’s brown eyes hit Ozzy’s. “Is that normal?”

Ah fuck. “Yeah. Women. Children. Most MCs consider them property and under the club’s protection. We take care of them.”

“You take care of them,” Shay repeated flatly.

“They take care of us and we take care of them.” Brandy winked, then made a blowjob motion with her fist by her mouth.

Ozzy closed his eyes and shook his head. “All right. Go find someone else tonight. Yeah?” Brandy might end up cock-blocking him if he wasn’t careful.

“If he hasn’t told you yet, Oz loves threesomes, even foursomes. So, if you two want someone to join you tonight, I’m available.” She wiggled her over-plucked eyebrows.

“Thanks for your help, Brandy. Go the fuck away now.”

Brandy shrugged and wandered toward the bunkhouse. The sweet butt was wearing Daisy Dukes cut so high that both ass cheeks were hanging out as she moved toward the door that separated the two parts of the building. The crotch of those shorts had to be wedged up into her snatch.

“She has to be half your age. Is she even old enough to drink?”

Shay’s comment had his attention sliding back to her. “Yeah.”

Shay didn’t take a sip of beer, she took a big chug this time, then carefully placed her pint glass back on the bar. “Just so I don’t misunderstand what a sweet butt is…”

Ozzy braced.

“They’re girls—”

“Women.”

“Girls,” she said louder, “who service you guys.”

“They wanna be here.”

“You have sex with them whenever you want.”

“Basically.”

“Basically,” she repeated in a murmur. “You guys share them.”

“That, too.”

“You don’t pay them, right?”

“No. They get other benefits. Food, booze, plenty of dick.”

“Plenty of dick? So, they’re loyal to the club? To you guys only?”

“Don’t know what or who they do when they ain’t here.” The only one he ever kept tabs on was Liz. “Also don’t give a fuck what they do when they ain’t here. But when they are here, they get no judgment.”

He said the last part for a reason. He hoped to fuck Shay didn’t judge them. If she did, he’d be pissed. Yeah, the sweet butts could sometimes be a pain in the ass, but being Fury property, all the guys protected them. They didn’t abuse the club girls or treat them like shit and because of that, they stuck around.

And Brandy was right. The benefits were mutual.

Shay raised both hands with her palms out. “No judgment here. I know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of that and as long as they’re adults, it’s their choice what they do with their lives and their bodies. But…”

Ozzy cocked one eyebrow. “But?”

“But she would’ve had sex with you right here on the bar, like she said, if you’d asked her.”

“Yeah.”

“She would also join us if I was into that.”

“Are you?”

She blinked.

He waited.

She blinked again.

Her mouth opened, a little hiss escaped her and she snapped it shut again.

“Are you?” he asked again. His voice might have gone up one octave.

“I’ve never…” The air hissed softly out of her again.

“It somethin’ you’d wanna try?”

Shay glanced back toward the door where Brandy disappeared. When she turned back to Ozzy, her eyebrows pinned together. “If I said yes, you’d make it happen?”

Damn.“You sayin’ yes?”

“No.”

He tipped his head to the side. “Why you teasin’ me like that? You just gave me a fuckin’ boner.”

Her brown eyes dropped to his lap. “You’re really into that.” Not a question, but an amused statement.

At least she wasn’t horrified. Or demanding he take her back to the motel so she could run home to Boston and never look back.

It gave him a little hope. “What guy with a functionin’ dick ain’t?”

“A gay guy?”

Ozzy snorted. “Gay guys are into threesomes, too. Just not with women.”

“You only do threesomes with two women?”

He reminded himself he should try not to overwhelm her. “Truth?”

“Of course. I only want the truth.”

“No.”

She rolled her lips under as she stared at him. “Do you… With…” Her cheeks flushed pink.

He knew exactly what she wanted to know. Not if he’d shared a woman with other men, but if he’d done other men.

“Do I? No. Have I?” He watched her face carefully as he said, “Done a lot of shit in my life. Some I regret. Most I don’t. Can’t figure out what you like or don’t like, if you don’t try it first.”

“Oh.”

Fuck. Did he just blow it with her?“That turn you off?”

She shook her head. “Not at all.”

“That turn you on?” he asked in surprise.

She tilted her head to the side as she considered him. A few seconds later, she said, “Kind of. Yes. You know, most men might not admit that. And the biggest turn-on is that you aren’t afraid to admit it.”

“Said you only want the truth. And like I said, some shit I regret. That ain’t one of them.”

He’d always been of the mindset that he’d try anything once. Normally, he didn’t give a fuck what anyone else thought.

Right now, he was only concerned with what Shay did. Last night was a great fucking night and he wanted a repeat of that.

She brushed her fingers down his beard, then settled her palm solidly on his chest. Her touch was a million times better than Brandy’s. “I like that you live your life the way you want to live it. You aren’t ashamed of how you’ve lived it or what you’ve done, either. I wish I had that same fortitude.”

He’d never be ashamed of shit he’d done. He owned everything and all of it. If he did something, he had a reason to do it.

Regret? Maybe. Ashamed? Never.

“You got the same strength.” He pressed his hand over her heart. It thumped strongly under his palm. “It’s in there. I’ve seen it.”

“We haven’t spent enough time together for you to have seen it.”

“Bullshit. When someone’s genuine, it’s hard to hide who they are.”

“Maybe,” she murmured. “Hiding things tends to hurt the person they’re hiding it from.”

“Or it could protect a person they care about from gettin’ hurt.”

He was beginning to wonder if the woman was a damn magician. She mentioned the word sweet butt and one walked in. They talk about people hiding shit, then the door opened and Jet walked in.

If anyone knew about hiding shit, it was her and Rook. They had done a good job of hiding their relationship for weeks.

Her ol’ man wasn’t with her but Cujo was. The Chihuahua came sprinting through the door on her heels, letting everyone know he’d arrived by his goddamn annoying yapping.

“Aww,” came from Shay.

“Nope. Not aww. If you value your fingers, don’t even try to pet King Crapper. That little rat bastard will maim you.”

“His name is King Crapper?”

“Cujo ‘cause he’s psycho, but he also shits wherever the fuck he wants.”

Jet came over to where they were sitting. “Oz.”

“Jet,” he returned the greeting. “This is Shay. She’s gonna be hangin’ around and workin’ on some of the websites for the club’s businesses.”

“Hi, Jet,” Shay said with a little wave.

Rook’s ol’ lady wasn’t wearing her bounty hunter shit tonight. She looked much hotter in that shit than when she used to wear a pig skin and matching badge.

Tonight, her almost black hair was in some weird sloppy loop on top of her head and she wore a pair of cotton shorts that stuck like glue to her fit thighs and a snug T-shirt along with some sneakers.

She was a runner. Maybe she’d gone for a run.

The only time Ozzy had ever run was when trying to escape the pigs. He’d never do it for fun. He could think of at least a dozen better ways to fucking sweat and get his heart pumping.

“Hi, Shay, nice to meet you. So, you’re working for the club?”

“Temporarily. We just finished up a meeting with Trip and Deacon.”

Jet’s dark eyebrows shot up and she set her light blue eyes on Ozzy. “We?”

“She’s stayin’ at the motel.” Ozzy shot her a look.

Jet smiled, pressed her lips together and nodded. “Well, don’t mind me, I’m just here to raid the kitchen. It’s my turn to cook tonight.”

“Rook takes a turn cookin’?” Ozzy asked in surprise. “Get the fuck outta here.”

Jet shrugged and laughed. “If you consider frozen pizza, boxed mac and cheese or hot dogs on the grill cooking. All healthy, gourmet meals. When it’s my turn, I try to make us stuff that won’t put us in an early grave.”

Ozzy snorted.

“Hopefully the Amish have restocked the kitchen with veggies and fruit. That’s probably a foreign language to you, too.” Jet lifted a hand, “Nice to meet you, Shay,” and headed back toward the bunkhouse where the commercial kitchen was.

Ozzy watched Jet for a second, then said to Shay, “Stay here. Need to talk to Jet for a minute.”

He didn’t wait for a response but went after the former cop as she disappeared through the door to the bunkhouse with the three-pound, four-legged beast circling her feet like a shark.

Only two people could touch that dog. Her and Rook. That was it.

With a last glance over his shoulder at Shay sitting at the bar, he went into the back, securing the door separating church from the bunkhouse behind him.

He shoved the kitchen’s swinging door open to find Jet’s head already buried inside the commercial cooler.

No surprise, Cujo ran up to him growling as if he could protect his mistress. A quick boot to the head would prove otherwise. “Shut the fuck up, asshole.”

“You should know that doesn’t work,” came from inside the huge refrigerator.

“Got a method that would work, but you might not like it.”

Jet pulled her head out of the fridge, her arms full of the shit hardly any of his brothers touched. Or at least his single brothers who lived in the bunkhouse.

Usually the ol’ ladies came over and did their “shopping,” taking all the healthier foods. The Amish dropped off a lot of fresh shit that would rot if the sisterhood didn’t come scarf it up.

He never once saw Easy or Whip wandering around gnawing on a stick of celery. If they did, it would be loaded down with a half jar of peanut butter.

“Jet…”

“What?”

“Need a favor.”

She put the produce in her arms into a box on the counter behind her. When she turned back to him, her hands were on her hips and her ice-blue eyes were narrowed. “You need a favor.”

“You’re family now, figured you’d be willin’ to do a favor for family.”

“Uh huh.” She raised a hand and did a “give it to me” motion with her fingers. “Let’s hear it. This should be good.”

“It’s more of a favor for Shay.”

Her eyebrows shot up her head. “For Shay, then. Not you.”

“Well, me, too.”

“So, this woman who’s here to create a website for…”

“For all of the club’s businesses.”

“Damn, that’ll keep her busy,” Jet whispered. “Okay, so… this woman who’s only here to create websites needs a favor? Why?”

“She used to live in Manning Grove when she was a kid.”

“Okay?”

“Her father disappeared around the same time as the club imploded.”

“And?”

“I’m tryin’ to figure out if he was an Original.”

“You were one, wouldn’t you know?” Her brow dropped low. “Wouldn’t she know? It’s not like you guys don’t advertise who you are and what you belong to right on your damn backs. With both your cuts and your tattoos.”

“True, but if he was one, he hid it from her.”

“So?”

“So… He disappeared.”

“You said that already.”

“Wife filed a missin’ person’s report with the PD.”

“And nothing ever came from it?” she asked with a frown and rubbing a thumbnail across her forehead.

“No. Shay don’t know what happened to her pop. Just seems weird he would disappear around the same time everyone else did.”

“From what I understand, Fury members didn’t simply disappear.”

“Yeah,” was all he said.

Jet was smart enough to put the pieces together of what happened back then. Her uncle had also been a cop with the local five-o during that time. He probably had plenty of stories from back then about the Fury.

And knowing Jet was now involved with the Fury because of Rook, Ozzy was damn sure Ron Bryson shared some of those stories as a warning to her.

Jet’s crystal blue eyes turned toward the kitchen door before landing on him again. “What’s she to you?”

“Nothin’.”

“Let me get this straight… You want a favor, but you’re going to lie to me? That’s not a good way to convince me to help you.”

“Her.”

“You,” she corrected him.

Jesus fuck. “Okay, me.” He drew a hand down his beard. “She’s…”

Jet smiled.

“Christ,” he muttered.

“You got a thing for her,” Jet concluded.

Fuck it.“Yeah, got a thing for her.”

“Are you going to fuck it up like you did with Liz?”

“Jet…”

Jet lifted a hand. “Sorry, that isn’t my business. But maybe what happened to Shay’s father isn’t any of yours.”

Bullshit.“What if he was an Original?”

“What if he was? What if he was caught up in the mess and was killed by someone he thought was one of his brothers? Then what? What’s she going to do with that information? What are you? All it’ll do is label her as the daughter of an Original and get Trip involved. And you know how he gets when someone has Fury blood running through their veins. He’ll start pressuring her to stay and also play by his rules. Do you want that for her?”

Yeah, he did. He wanted Shay to stay. He was being selfish and he didn’t give a fuck. “Trip don’t gotta know, but she would like closure on what happened to her pop.”

Jet blew a long breath out of her nose and stared at him. She shook her head and asked, “What’s the favor?”

“Like I said, her mother filed a missin’ person’s report. Would like to see that report.”

“Shit, Oz. I don’t have access to that info anymore. I gave that up when I gave up my shield and can’t just walk into the station and start digging through files or log on to one of their computers. Max would have a damn fit.”

“Just ask him. And if you don’t think he’ll help, you got lots of other options. Half the fuckin’ roster’s got the last name of Bryson.”

“Not half.”

“Close enough.”

“Let me get this straight… you’re asking me to go to my ‘pig’ family and ask for help?”

“Yeah. Maybe they’ll be nice and let you look at the file.”

Jet laughed. “Oh, I’m sure Max will just be like, ‘Yeah, Jet, help yourself to our case files. No biggie.’”

“They got a problem with you now you ain’t a pig? They don’t trust you?”

“Yes, they trust me, Ozzy. I’m still family, whether I wear the same type of badge they do or the one I wear now, but they don’t simply let anyone walk in and dig through case files.”

“Then ask your brother to pull it and see what it says.”

Jet narrowed her eyes on him. “Funny that. You want a favor from someone you don’t respect.”

“I respect you. Though, maybe not your choices since you ended up with Rook.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I was talking about Adam.”

While her older brother had never done anyone in the Fury wrong, he was still a pig. And none of them trusted pigs since almost all of them had a reason not to. Most of his brothers had had run-ins with the law in some form or another.

Almost all of his brothers had also done time.

“How about you don’t do it for me, but do it for Shay. She might be Fury family.” He hoped to fuck she wasn’t because that meant her father had been killed during all of that mess.

“I’ll see what I can do. No promises, though.”

He nodded and mumbled a, “Thanks.”

“Do you want me to bring that info straight to you or to her?” When he didn’t answer right away, she said, “That’s what I thought.”

“You know where to find me,” he said as he turned and headed out of the kitchen.

Her shout of “Oz!” had him pause with his hand planted on the swinging door.

“Tell me one thing… It wasn’t because she was a sweet butt, right?”

He stared at the door for a few seconds, then shoved it open and stepped through it. He heard the whoosh of the door as it violently swung back and forth from the power of his push.

Why he couldn’t commit to Liz had nothing to do with her being a sweet butt. But it was also none of anyone’s fucking business.

He set his jaw and went to collect Shay.

It was time for them to get the fuck out of there.