Free Throttle MC: A Stepbrother Romance by Daphne Loveling Page A

I replied.  “That chemical shit is unstable as hell. Last thing we need is to blow ourselves sky high.”
    Jimmy looked sideways at me and snorted derisively.  “Fuckin’ dangerous?” he repeated. “Don’t be a goddamn pussy.”
    There was sudden quiet around the table.  That kind of taunting talk among the brothers was one thing. Normal, even.  But disrespect of an officer -- during chapel, no less?  That was another. That was a challenge.
    A couple of the men looked at me with raised brows, waiting for a reaction.  There were two ways this could go now, and both of them hinged on me. 
    One was fists.  That one wasn’t risky in terms of immediate outcome. I knew I could take Jimmy down.  Shit, the fuckin’ prospect might have been able to take Jimmy.  But giving him a beat down was potentially risky in the medium term, unless I really fucked him up good, so he and everyone else knew that he wouldn’t dare challenge me again.  Part of me wanted to go that route.  Hell, truth be told, I was itching for the chance to pound that little prick into the goddamn ground.  But I wasn’t willing to do it, not yet.  As I weighed my options, the image of Hadley flashed unbidden through my mind. What would she think of me breaking her childhood friend’s face? 
    Christ.  Maybe I am a fuckin’ pussy . 
    So I chose the other way.
    “Fuck you, asshole,” I said easily, with a tone that said he wasn’t worth taking seriously.  The tension around the table eased instantly.  I would deal with Jimmy later if I had to. For now, the best thing to do was show the table he wasn’t important enough to take seriously. “We let you within a hundred feet of a meth lab, your ignorant ass would blow every last one of us to kingdom come.  You think I’m gonna let a dumb shit like you be in charge of dangerous chemicals?”
    Raucous laughter met my response.  “He’s fuckin’ right, Jimmy,” Gonzo laughed, and others yelled their agreement.  I gave an inward sigh of relief.  Thankfully, our exchange seemed to have derailed the meth production discussion, at least for now. 
    But I knew better to think that it was over between me and Jimmy.
     
    After chapel, Lon motioned for me to stay back for a moment. “Hey, brother, I wanted to talk to you about something,” he said to me, closing the door behind the last of them.
    “What’s up?” I asked. I leaned back against the table and crossed my arms, waiting.
    “It’s Hadley,” he muttered, his face stony. 
    I tensed up instantly. Could he possibly know what had happened between us? No.  That couldn’t be it.  If Lon knew what had gone down this morning, we wouldn’t be having a conversation about it.  He’d be doing his best to kill me.  And I’d deserve it.
    “What about her?” I asked, trying to keep my tone as detached as possible.       
    “She said anything to you about how long she’s planning on sticking around?”
    I relaxed a little.  He didn’t know, of course. I shrugged my shoulders casually. “Nah.  She hasn’t really talked to me much about anything.” We ain’t been spending a lot of time talking.  Goddamn it. Talking to Lon about Hadley like nothing had happened was fucking nerve racking. “Why don’t you ask her yourself?”
    Lon took a deep breath and let it out.  “See, Hadley and me, we ain’t always had the best relationship.  Her ma died when she was a baby, and I had to raise her alone.  I didn’t know shit about being a father back then.” He chuckled softly.  “Hell, I still don’t know shit about bein’ a father. But when she was little, it was all I could do to make sure she had three meals a day and clothes on her back.
    “When she got older, I could tell she was gonna be a real knockout.  I started gettin’ worried about her future, you know? I didn’t want her to end up like her mother.  Married to a biker, dead at twenty-four from a fuckin’ overdose.”
    My eyes widened in