Own the Wind (Chaos #1)(81)

“A down payment?”

“Yeah, and enough left over to get some shit, make one bedroom an office, another a guest room for when Lan comes up, deck furniture, a grill. The fridge isn’t all that great, so we’ll get a new one.”

“Shy, I—”

“This place is too small,” he told me.

He wasn’t wrong about that. I liked our togetherness though, in my apartment, it was kind of a forced togetherness. It must be said, it was also time for both of us to move up accommodation-wise. I was a nurse. He was essentially a partner in a highly successful business venture. There was no reason we weren’t looking to be on the property ladder and no excuse for us not to be in something that was nicer. Furthermore, he was never at his apartment and essentially kept it so Lan could sleep there when he came to visit, which was a total waste of money.

“Okay,” I said softly, and he grinned.

“Okay.”

Then he lifted his head and touched his mouth to mine.

When he settled his head back against the toss pillow, I settled my cheek back to his shoulder and aimed my eyes at the TV.

More minutes slid by and he stated offhandedly, “Haven’t had a home in sixteen years.”

I closed my eyes tight.

I saw the boxes in his apartment. The bed in the living room. The old TV at the end of his bed. I heard his voice saying he mostly crashed at the Compound and I knew that to be true.

I opened my eyes and replied, going for offhanded but my voice was husky, “Then let’s get you a home.”

“Sounds good to me, baby,” he muttered back on another arm squeeze.

Yeah, he was right.

A home with Shy.

The opportunity to make it a good one for him.

That sounded good to me.

Chapter Seventeen

Blowback

Two and a half weeks later…

It was after work and I was walking to my car.

I had my mind on a bunch of things. Christmas shopping. Furniture shopping. Dinner. The fact I needed to get to the Laundromat. What Shy and I were going to do with Rider and Cut that weekend, since we were watching them because Tyra and Dad were heading off to someplace in the mountains for a weekend away. The conversation I’d had with my brother three days before, when he told me Dad had called a meeting and Rush was now the newest recruit for Chaos. I was elated about this, but Rush still seemed conflicted, though he didn’t share. What he did do (surprisingly) was go off for a beer with Shy.

When Shy came back, he didn’t share either but he did say, “He’s close. Lives the life, not the edge of it, he’ll get closer.”

I decided to leave it at that, since the way Shy said that meant I needed to leave it at that.

I’d also viewed the bungalow that Shy had scouted for us and, unfortunately, I didn’t like it. Mostly because the bedrooms were too small, it didn’t have a master bath, and I just didn’t like the feel of it because it didn’t have stairs. It didn’t even have a basement.

I shared this with Shy and he didn’t get pissed.

He just pulled me to him and said against the top of my hair, “Needs to be right for the both of us, honey.”

So totally loved my man.

Even though the first place didn’t work out, I was now on a mission to make Shy a home, so I spent every available minute looking at places online.

Shy clearly was on the same mission since he came home last week saying he’d scouted two more places. I looked up their pictures on the Internet. They looked awesome, so we didn’t delay in going to see them.

The bad news was, I loved the first one but Shy hated it, and even at that early juncture, I had begun to despair we wouldn’t find a happy medium.

The fantastic news was, we both totally dug the second one. It was perfect. So we put an offer in. Shy negotiated like he bought houses for a living, we got a good price, and we put the deposit down.

All was a go.

I was totally excited.

Shy was too, I could tell. It was badass-biker excited but it was still excited.

I was also excited about Christmas. I loved Christmas, loved it more when I had two little brothers to buy for, and now I had a feeling I was totally going to love giving Christmas to Shy.

It went without saying that since life wasn’t good at his bitchy aunt’s house, Christmases weren’t much better. So I got to give something for Christmas, not only to Shy but also to Lan, that they hadn’t had in a long time.

Real, honest-to-goodness family.

These were my happy thoughts as I settled in my car, and I was about to start her up when my phone rang. I pulled it out of my purse and took the call.

“Hey, darlin’,” I greeted Shy.

“Where are you?”

My stomach dropped.

He sounded pissed.

No, strike that, he sounded furious.

“In my car, ready to drive home,” I told him cautiously. “Is everything okay?”

“Drive to the Compound, babe,” he ordered, paused a scary pause then finished, “Now,” and hung up.

I looked at my phone wondering what on earth was happening. He didn’t sound furious as in, furious in general or furious at someone else.

He sounded furious at me.

I didn’t get this. Things were good. I hadn’t done anything that I could think of that would make him angry or not that angry. Since the big to-do with Shy and the boys over beating up Dr. Dickhead, all was cool.