Shady: MC Romance by Harley McRide Page A

for patience.
    *****
    Slider opened the door to the club's offices. He knew Creed and Fork would be there waiting for him. And he was right, but it wasn’t just Creed and Fork, it was Easy, Poke, Shark, and Raven as well. When he entered they were all leaning back in chairs not speaking, just waiting. Fuck, this was gonna be one of those meetings.
    “Come on in and sit down, man,” Fork said gruffly and he nodded. Slowly he made his way over to the group, hell, he wouldn’t have been surprised to see a chair in the middle of the group at this point. Kinda like an interrogation scene from the movies , Slider thought and then wanted to chuckle to himself, but contained it. He didn't think his brothers would appreciate it.
    “What’s up?” Slider said and sat down.
    “You tell us, we called you in as our cleaner and then you announce you are staying. Tell us what is going on?” Creed said smoothly.
    Slider nodded and then looked at his leader, “Tired of riding around, decided I wanted to settle. You know I told you when the time came for that I was coming here. The Cali crew knew it as well, called them, explained my reasons, and they agreed you could use the help.” Slider shrugged.
    Creed stared at him intently, as if he was trying to tell if he was lying or not, he wasn’t, but he also didn’t share with him his intentions about Shady yet. “Not sure that is the only reason.”
    Slider sighed, yep, he was going to have to come out with it, “Cajun hooked up with me a year ago, he had already been in the club in Cali, which you know and he did time. Then decided to ride with me off and on.”
    “And you decided to keep this a secret, why?” Fork asked calmly.
    “Not my story to tell, let’s just say he needed time to figure some stuff out. If you want to know more, you need to ask him,” Slider said and then leaned back and crossed his arms letting them know that he wouldn’t say anything else about his friend. There was some stuff Cajun needed to tell them, it would upset the guys knowing what their military teammate went through while in captivity, and he wasn’t going to betray the confidence.
    Creed stared for a minute and then nodded, “Cool, we will wait. Now we want to know where your head is about Shay. 'Cause, brother, I gotta tell you, when you left the last time, it messed her up.”
    Slider frowned and leaned forward, “She ended it with me, not the other way around.”
    Shark laughed loudly, “Brother, do you know her at all?”
    “Yeah,” Slider ground out. He knew when he saw her this morning things weren’t as he always thought with Shady. She wasn’t the tough-as-nails bitch she claimed to be and he was an asshole for not digging deeper. He had no excuse other than the fact he was actually surprised she hadn’t been as demanding as the other women he’d been involved with. He was a selfish bastard who was just too lazy to dig deeper. For that, he would always feel like shit. Faced with the facts though about the situation, he knew he was going to have to work to gain her trust. She didn’t let shit go easy.
    Shark shook his head and then leaned back, “No, you only knew the Shady she wanted you to see. When you left she was devastated, she locked herself off from everyone for months. Then when she came out of it, she refused to talk about it, only to say that she sucked at relationships.”
    Slider took this in and then Raven started talking and he felt the rage beginning to build at his first words. “Shay and I have been off and on together for the last year. If you are not going to claim her, I am asking you to stand back because Kink and I are planning on talking to her about it.”
    His chair flew back as he stood ready to go after his brother for even fucking thinking about claiming her. Fuck, hearing she had been with him and Kink made him see red. In his head he knew she was a free agent, he left and she was free to do what she wanted, but it still stung. Her moans and