Page 143 of Outlaws of Tulsa

I flip the phone to speakerphone. “Stormy has something to say.”

“The fuck?” Koyn hisses at the same time Stormy gapes at me.

“Say it, Stormy.” I smack her ass to get her attention. “Now.”

“Asshole,” she grumbles at me before speaking to Koyn. “Where did he say he came from? If you don’t know his real name, whatdoyou know about him? We’re trying to figure this out, but you’re not giving us much to go on.”

Another beat of silence.

“Unbelievable,” he mutters but continues to answer her. “I found both him and Katana at a bar in Little Rock about nine years ago while visiting Animal’s old man, Viking. He was a ball of rage. The only thing keeping him back was Katana. I recognized that rage and wanted to funnel it toward my own quest for vengeance. Asked him what his name was and hesnarled at me.” His office chair creaks as he pauses. “I asked what I could call him. Spouted out some crazy-ass shit like Batman or something stupid. When I realized I wasn’t going to get a real answer, I left him to take my seat back at the bar. When a fight broke out between the two of them and a bunch of drunk cowboys who thought they were tough shit, I lent a hand.”

Stormy lifts a brow, silently asking me if I’d heard this story before. I give her a slight shake of my head as Koyn continues.

“And by lend a hand, I mean, I took a chair to the biggest asshole’s head. Katana was whipping ass with a pool stick, but it was Dragon who managed to set one of the guys on fire. I think he must have doused him with his liquor first. I don’t know really, but the guy’s shirt lit up like a fucking bonfire.” He chuckles because Koyn’s sadistic like that. “We managed to get the fuck out of there before the cops showed up. Those two took off running down a dark road, so I followed them on my bike.”

I skim my palm up Stormy’s thigh, enjoying the way she shivers at my touch. Lazily, I run my knuckle along the seam of her thong that meets the edge of her thigh.

“Those two were living in a shitty, abandoned trailer. No food to speak of. I don’t know what was going on, but they needed me.” Koyn pauses and my chest tightens. My brother, despite being a crazy sonofabitch, still has the main thread of humanity deep inside him—the desire to take care of others in need. “Since the bastard wouldn’t tell me his name, I started calling him Dragon. He torched that guy like it was a natural thing to do. I told them I’d started a MC chapter in Tulsa and asked if they were interested in patching in.”

“Dragon isn’t one to follow orders easily, especially when he doesn’t know you,” I interject. “I’m curious how you handled that one.”

“I treated him like an injured stray. Told him where I lived. Offered him food and protection. And then walked away.”

“Dragon just doesn’t seem like he needs protection,” Stormy says. “Especially from Vidal and Collins. They’re creepy, sure, but Dragon could gut them both before they even opened their mouths to utter a word.”

“True,” Koyn agrees. “There’s no doubt in my mind he’d kill anyone who looked at him wrong. But, when I’d seen the wariness in both their eyes, I felt the urge to protect them. It’s just a fatherly intuition.”

Stormy’s brow hikes up, clearly surprised at hearing this. Koyn is a badass motherfucker, but no one knows him like I do. I’ve known him since I first met him in the hospital over four decades ago. When he was little Jared, he was a gentle, caring soul. His wife and daughter adored him. It’s clear Hadley does too.

“So they hopped on your bike with you and the three of you all rode off into the sunset?” I tease, letting my thumb slide just below the edge of Stormy’s panties.

“Hardly,” Koyn grunts. “Dragon tried to stab me and Katana took a swing at me with a bat. I told their crazy asses I was their only shot at life where they could be on top. Also told them if they wanted to be homeless bottom feeders living in a dilapidated trailer, that was up to them.”

“And then you walked away?” Stormy offers.

“No.” He chuckles. “I ran my old ass back to my bike and got the fuck out of there before they murdered me.”

I roll my eyes at Stormy. There’s no way in hell Koyn would have run off like a pussy. He probably tossed out some threats that kept them at bay and then walked away, with his back turned to those nutcases, and then left.

“Two months later, Filter tells me some dude named Dragon was there to see me,” Koyn says, letting out a breath of air. “He was different. Cleaned up. Less unhinged. Ran his fucking mouth like a chatty teenager with one helluva attitude problem.Had a new tattoo, too. Big ass Dragon piece on his neck. I told them it was about damn time and showed them their rooms.”

“So he never told you his name and you never looked,” I utter after he finishes.

“He’s been loyal to me since he walked into my home, Copper. I was so focused on my vengeance, all I cared about was growing my army to find the people who hurt my girls. He and Katana were right there with me from the start. As soon as they heard the story, they were foaming at the mouth to help me get my revenge. It was never an issue until now.” He sighs heavily. “If he’s hiding with us, it’s because he has to. Whatever those fuckers did to him had to have been bad, otherwise he wouldn’t be with me, silently taking me up on my offer for protection. I’ll be damned if I start digging into his past and demanding answers from him.”

Koyn may not feel right about asking Dragon, but we still need answers.

“You knew,” I say with a shake of my head. “That whole time we were making a damn list, your ass knew it was probably Dragon, didn’t you?”

“He was the only one I knew for sure was hiding something,” Koyn admits. “Katana has always been his shadow, but it’s always been Dragon who’s haunted by something.”

Unbelievable.

“That was a lot of time wasted looking into the others,” I grumble, though I’m not mad. I understand the way my brother’s mind works.

“Justyourtime,” he taunts, a grin in his voice. “I never looked into the other guys. Just Dragon.”

“Fucker,” I say with a laugh.

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