out?
I would have made the trip back to the mother chapter to see him.
I mean, we weren't the closest of siblings. He was a few years older, and had been somewhat disinterested in me most of my life. But he was one of the few people who hadn't given me shit based solely on my gender.
When he was hard on me, it was always based on what he thought I was capable of.
Come on, Danny, I know you can do better than that.
Shoot better than that.
Fight better than that.
Whatever it was, when he wanted me to do better, he told me he knew I could do it, not that I couldn't because I was a girl.
Unlike me, his mom had stuck around. Not at a full-time capacity, but enough that he'd been given a bit more well-rounded family life. Which might have been what made him better with me than our own father had ever been.
"Why didn't you tell me you were getting out?" I asked, too stunned to move.
He looked good. Pretty much the same as he had when he'd gone in. Maybe he put on a few pounds of muscle. But when you were inside, what else was there to do to pass the time but workout? Well, in Rider's case, to workout and to read.
Even standing there in my bar in jeans and a black tee, he had a book tucked under his arm.
"Seemed my release coincided with a lot of shit going down," Rider said, shrugging. "Figured I would wait for the dust to settle."
"That's why you're here?" I asked, something inside of me tensing, sensing something strange about him. There was a standoffishness I wouldn't have said was natural for him. At least with regard to me. Under normal circumstances, I would have brushed it off as the distance and awkwardness that came from a five-year separation. But nothing had been normal lately.
"Well..." Rider said, sighing out his held breath. "Not exactly."
"No," I agreed, shaking my head. "Of course not."
"Danny..." he started, eyes sad. Eyes so much like my own.
"Spit it out. You know I hate waiting," I said, wincing at my sharp tone.
My gaze looked for my men, wondering if they sensed coming what I did.
How their lives were about to change once again.
"Yeah, I do," Rider agreed, reaching up with his free hand to rub the back of his neck. "Pops is taking the chapter from you."
There it was.
I'd seen it coming.
But it still felt like yet another knife to the gut.
"You can't be serious," Dutch snapped, standing up for me, and I could have kissed him for his outrage. "After all she's done to get a fucking traitor out of this club, you're going to stand here, look her in the face, and say she doesn't have what it takes?"
"I've never felt that way," Rider said, shaking his head. "You know I've never felt that way," he added, looking at me, pleading with me to believe him. "You've always worked ten times harder than anyone else."
"And look where that got me," I said, feeling my shoulders slump.
Fallon moved in closer, pressing a hand to my lower back, knowing I needed comfort, but also that I'd never accept a hug from him in a situation like this.
"I'm sorry, Danny. It wasn't my idea."
"Don't shoot the messenger, and all that," I repeated, but stiffened again. "Wait. No. You're not just the messenger, though, are you?" I asked. "If Pops was closing the chapter, he just would have sent the word out. But he doesn't want to do that. The drop Chewy just brought to him was nice. And he knows business has only been growing. He isn't closing the chapter. He's putting you in charge."
A son.
Like he'd always wanted.
Before the law threw a wrench into his plans.
"That is what he said, yes," Rider said, nodding.
"And you're just going along with it?" Dutch snapped.
"Not sure there is much of a choice when it comes to their old man," Grandpa piped in, trying to keep things from escalating. There had been enough bloodshed for one night.
"If it wasn't me, it would be someone else," Rider agreed. "You know that."
I did.
And if I had to pick someone to hand the reins over to, my own brother was the least objectionable option. At least I knew Rider wouldn't be a dick to my men, the small handful that had been loyal to me even when there didn't seem to be a reason to be, even when it put