“It’s your story to tell, honey,” Dani said.
“He’s not worth it.”
“Shall I?” Dani offered.
“Knock yourself out.”
“Back when Maverick was first patched-in, Rooster—”
“As in cock!” Katie snarled.
“Anyway, Rooster—”
“As in cock face!”
“Um, so, the artistformallyknown as the barnyard fowl was on Tillie watch. Remember when Lily was pregnant with Charley? I think Tillie was in elementary school at the time and she gave him the slip.”
I gasped. “That was Rooster?”
“Yep, but it got Tillie grabbed by Brick, Reese’s lovely old man. He set a trap for Lily, which Maverick followed in order to protect Lily, of course, so both Mav and Tillie were kidnapped, and Maverick was beaten quite badly.”
“I remember,” I breathed out.
“Rooster ran away like the little chicken shit he is,” Katie snapped.
“It wasn’t quite that cut and dried,” Dani countered.
“Bullshit,” Katie hissed.
“Honey, it wasn’t. Ace was out for blood, andRooster was melting down because he’d let Tillie get the better of him, you know how Tillie can be. Crow figured a change of scenery would be good, so he suggested Colorado. Sundance offered to take him on.”
Katie crossed her arms. “Ace said all was good.”
“All was good-ish,” Dani admitted.
Tears streamed down Katie’s face. “It was supposed to be temporary.”
Well, this explained why Katie had never settled down. Good lord, this complicated things.
“How did I miss all of this?” I breathed out.
“There was a lot going on and I wasn’t really in the mood to share,” Katie admitted.
“Still, though, I should have noticed, love. I’m so sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry. I should have told you,” Katie said. “I relied so heavily on Cricket to shoulder my grief, and she had her own stuff happening, you know? We just kind of fell into each other. I should have said something. Maybe if I’d said something, things might have been different.”
A knock at the door brought Razor, and Katie completely melted down as he wrapped his arms around her. “What the fuck happened, buddy?”
That’s when all hell broke loose.
“You need to get your hands off her, Razor,” Rooster growled.
Razor glanced his way and rolled his eyes asKatie gripped him harder. “Fuck off.”
“I swear to Christ, man, you don’t release her, we’re gonna have a problem.”
“Don’t you have a road to cross somewhere?” Katie snapped.
