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If you had asked me where I saw myself after graduating high school, I’d never had said being a member of an MC. I was destined for a nine-to-five life. But, when a friend hooked me up with Judge for a job, it all just kind of happened. One little hacking job turned into two, then to prospecting. Now, two years later, I’m a full member.

Fuck, it feels good to finally have my member patch stitched to my cut.

A culmination of two years—two hard fucking years—of grunt work for the members had paid off. If I never see another dirty bike with a bucket and a toothbrush again, I’ll die a happy damn man.

The last few years haven’t been without personal sacrifices. Shelby, my girlfriend, had been along for the ride. All throughout high school, she was right by my side. When I missed classes to do shit for the club, she helped me catch up on any work I’d missed. When I had to cancel a date at the last minute, she never got upset with me. This woman gave her all to help me succeed. Had it not been for a shared detention period, the two of us may have never met in the first place.

I was the bad boy she couldn’t resist, and she was the good girl I corrupted. She grew up surrounded by a big family and old money, whereas I bounced around from foster home to foster home until I turned eighteen. No longer the state’s problem, I was out on my ass without a second thought. We’re as opposite as you can get, but we work.

When the MC came into my life, I would never have imagined how much it would appeal to me. I wish I could say the same about Shelby, though, as it’s always been a struggle for her. How she ended up with a guy like me, I’ll never know. But that woman is my fucking everything.

Her sacrifices for me end tonight.

This party isn’t just about me—it’s about us. I may be a full member, but I plan to make her my old lady in front of the club tonight. More than that, really, but the second half of our night would be away from the eyes of the club. The ring has been burning a hole in my pocket since I picked it up this morning from the pawnshop. The owner, Bobby, offered to let me do a little side work to pay for it.

“Looks like you’ve already been celebrating, enjoying your party and what club life has to offer already. I like the enthusiasm.” Judge’s voice echoes from the doorway of my new room at the clubhouse, his massive arms crossed in front of his equally massive chest. Stepping into the room, he spies the large set of boxes near the desk I’d moved in earlier today. “The fuck is all this?”

“My computer.”

His brow arches at my response. “You need all those boxes to do that web shit you do?”

“Can’t work my magic on an ancient phone like yours, Judge. How long have you had that thing, anyway? It belongs in a museum.”

He pulls out his first-generation iPhone from his back pocket and holds it up to me. “A phone is for calling people. I don’t need all those bells and whistles you have on yours. I type in a number, it calls. All a phone should do.” If he thinks my secondhand iPhone is high tech, I can’t imagine what he’d think of the new top-of-the-line phones on the market now.

“That thing should be a damn doorstop,” I tease him.

“Still works, doesn’t it?”

“For now. It’s one iOS update from crashing.”

“I’m going to pretend I understood whatever shit you just said to me.” Pocketing his phone, he retrieves something else from his pocket and tosses it to me. They jingle as I catch them in my hand.

I examine the key on the keychain. “What’s this?”

“No patch of mine rides a hand-me-down. It’s time you have a ride that matches your rank.” He smiles at me like a father would smile to his son, pride clear as day on his gray bearded face. “Paying for your tuition this fall is a small drop in the bucket of what this club can give you. This is just a taste, son. You keep it up, there’ll be more for you and your girl.”

Judge saw my potential after I completed my first job for him a couple years back. I’d always been good with computers, and I’m only going to get better once I start college in the fall: a gift from the club to expand their capabilities. After all the years of my foster parents telling me I was going to end up a drug addict like my mom, the club is giving me an opportunity I could never have afforded on my own, giving Shelby and I a shot at a good start in our lives.

“She’s outside if you want to take a look.”

He leaves the room, and I follow behind him through the main room of the clubhouse and out the rear entrance. Under the floodlights of the building sits a cherry red 2016 VRSCDX Night Rod Special. It’s the exact bike I’ve been eyeballing for the better part of the last six months, every time one of the members sends me to the local Harley dealership for parts. How in the hell did they know I’d been looking at her?

“You’ve got to be shitting me, Judge. No fucking way.”

“You just gonna stand there, or you gonna check out your new ride?” Twat Knot yells out from one of the patio chairs around the fire pit that just yesterday, I power washed for my own damn party. His parting gift as my mentor. Asshat. A few of the other club guys sit around him with some of the club girls in their laps. “If you don’t want it, I’ll take it off your hands.”

“The fuck you will,” Judge growls, clapping his large hand over my shoulder. “Go check her out, son.”

I stalk over to the beautiful piece of machinery and run my hands over her smooth exterior.

“You’re rubbing that bike like you’re touching a woman, dude. Get a room,” Karma ribs from the peanut gallery. “Your girl’s not going to like another woman being in your life.”

“Fuck you.”

“No thanks, sugar tits. My dance card’s full tonight.” He gives the perky little blonde sitting on his lap a squeeze, making her squeal. “Where’s your lady at, anyway? Figured she’d be riding your cock with all these girls around, staking her claim.”

“She’ll be here any minute.” Shelby had called earlier to say she was going to be a little late, and that she’d meet me here at the party. She usually rides my ass about arriving early to shit like this, but maybe her dad’s giving her shit over coming out to the clubhouse again. I’ve been telling her to just let me talk to him, but she won’t allow it. I know the son of a bitch hates me, but if she says yes tonight, he’s going to have to get used to seeing me around. Normally, I’d be annoyed, but it gave me more time to get shit done in my new room.

“She bringing that hot friend of hers? The one with the small rack and great personality?” The bastard winks at me and starts laughing. Twat Knot has an eye for the ladies, and he’s been chasing after Kasey since the first time she came to one of our parties. The one voted most likely to be Texas’s Biggest Queen Bitch. Shelby’s best friend. My adversary. Any time Shelby gets into trouble, Kasey is always by her side. She’s a bad influence on her, and that’s saying something coming from her outlaw biker boyfriend. Kasey is the last person I want around my girl, and has been the reason for several of our most recent fights.

I shoot him the middle finger. “Fuck you, dickhead.”

If I didn’t have to take Kasey as a package deal, I’d have put a stop to her attending the club’s parties long ago. We don’t need that kind of evil polluting the air. How Shelby can stand to be around her is lost on me, because two seconds into being in her presence, I want to gouge out my eyes.

“I thought she’d be the first person you’d want at your party.”

“Let me repeat myself: Fuck you, dickhead.”

“It’s cute when you get your feathers all ruffled up like that.”

“Have you seen my girl or not?”

“Maybe you missed her, being holed up in your room all night. You’re missing out on all the fun, kid, seeing as your patch party only happens once. You should be out sampling the buffet.” He runs his finger down the cleavage of one of the hang-arounds.

“Looks like that one’s been sampled enough by the looks of it.” The girl on his lap sneers at me.

Sneering back, I peer down at my phone. She’s more than twenty minutes later than when she told me she’d be here. Definitely not like my girl. I pocket the keys to my new ride and head back inside, thinking maybe I’d passed her when Judge and I had walked out. The party has been raging for hours. She might have snuck in and not made it back to meet me in my room like we’d talked about earlier.

I scan the clubhouse, but see no sign of her.

Swiping my finger across the screen, I pull up my contacts and call her number. It rings twice and goes to her voicemail.

“The fuck?” I mumble, trying again. This time, it goes straight to voicemail. I try a third time and get the same thing. Without a second thought, I bolt from the clubhouse and straight to my bike.

“Where’s the fire, Hash?” GP yells out as I pass by, but I don’t acknowledge him, my focus solely on Shelby. She never ignores my calls, not even when she’s pissed at me. I need to find her and figure out why she’s ducking me. With a flick of the ignition, my bike roars to life between my legs.

I check my phone one more time before taking off. Nothing. No return calls. No texts. No alerts. The cameras I have set up around the apartment the club had been letting me use hadn’t sent any notifications to my phone all afternoon. If she’s there, the chance of her not tripping the cameras is slim. The club life’s dangerous, and having eyes on her and our soon-to-be temporary home are priority to me when we’re out handling club business. Where the fuck could she be? I audibly growl when her name pops into my head.

Fucking Kasey. Pounding in her number, she picks up on the second ring, the road noise filling the receiver.

“Where’s Shelby?” I demand harshly. “I know she’s with you.”

“She’s not your problem anymore, asshole.”

“The hell she isn’t.”

“Why would she want to be with someone like you? Lose our numbers, prick.” The line goes dead.

Fucking bitch. She’s done something. Shelby wouldn’t run out on me like this. I have to find her.

Popping the kickstand, I peel out of the parking lot, swerving in and out of traffic until her apartment building comes into view. I don’t even bother trying to find a parking spot, pulling straight up into a loading area near the front entrance of the building. I look around the lot and see Kasey’s piece of shit Taurus isn’t in her usual spot. Not a good sign. Taking the steps to her place two at a time, I reach the door and pound the fuck out of it.

“Shelby?” I yell. “Darlin’, you in there?” Silence. I lean my forehead against the door as I continue to pound on it. “Come on, baby, answer the door.”

Think. Where else could she be? Outside of Kasey and I, she doesn’t really roll in any other social circles, which is partly my fault. Her dad and stepmom hate my association with the club, and as her dad has put it more times than I can count: I’m putting his little girl in danger. Let’s just say that anytime she wants to spend time with me, she has to come up with an excuse to leave the house. It hasn’t been easy.

“Fuck!” I scream, punching my fist against the door, leaving a dent in the gray metal. Heading back down to my bike, I fire her up and head to the one place I never wanted to cross the threshold of again—her dad’s.

After about a fifteen-minute drive, I arrive at one of the largest homes on the block, nestled into an old money neighborhood on the city’s northeast side. Driving right through the open metal gate, I ride straight for the front entrance where her father stands staunchly on the large front porch, his arms folded across his chest. The security system I helped to install for him is doing its job a little too well for my liking.

“Get off my property, boy! You’re trespassing!” he shouts, his thick Southern accent biting out every word.

Dismounting my bike, I stalk toward him, every muscle in my body coiled with tension. “Where is she?”

“She’s gone.”

His words hit me like a freight train. “What do you mean she’s gone?”

Charging down the steps, he stops a few feet away from me in the driveway. “My daughter is no longer your concern.”

I snap. Lunging, I grab him by the lapels and draw him closer to me. “You’d like it that way, wouldn’t you, asshole? But she loves me. She wouldn’t just fucking leave like that. What have you done to her?” I growl. “Tell me where she went.”

Shelby’s dad shoves me back, hard, and with one swing of his arm, he slams his fist into my jaw. Shocked, I fall back, landing on my ass in the gravel driveway.

“My daughter wants nothing more to do with you. She’s finally going to live her life without you.” His eyes are wide and his chest heaves as he stares me down. “You stay the hell away from her.”

“Honey, is everything okay?” Shelby’s stepmother, Lorna, calls out to us. Looking up, I see her standing at the edge of the porch, shaking. “Do I need to call the police?”

“Everything’s fine, sweetheart. Go on inside. He was just leaving.” He smiles back at her with a wave, but she doesn’t move. Turning his attention back to me, he kneels down, close to my ear, and whispers, “You step foot on my property again, not even your club will be able to protect you from me.”

Without another word, he rights himself, turning his back to me. He trudges back up the steps to his wife and they disappear into their house, dismissing me one final time. Dismissing the life I’d had planned for his daughter, just like she had.

With a hole in my chest where my heart should be, I pick myself up off the ground and walk to my bike, but not without taking one last look at the house of the girl I love before riding away from the property.

On my trip back to the clubhouse, I think about Shelby and what I could have done wrong. She’s been my everything. Even as I was getting my patch this morning, my mind was on her and the commitment I had hoped to make to her tonight. The commitment that’s burning a hole in my pocket, nestled inside its velvet box.