"I love you too," she said.

After one last lingering embrace, Jase finally pulled away from her and headed down the porch steps towards the driveway. Will was already on his bike; he gave a smile and a wave up to Maggie, and she returned it. Jase climbed on his waiting bike, shiny and chrome under the steady glare of the streetlights. She felt her heart race a little at the sound of them revving up, and waved at her biker boyfriend one last time as he backed out of the drive.

As they pulled away, Maggie's face turned to look down the hallway towards her room. Under the bed, she could see the shadow of the suitcase she had already half-packed. She stared at it as she listened to the bikes disappear into the night.

~ One ~

Five Years Later

Just breathe. Deep breath, girl. You're not about to walk into a gunfight.

Her own advice was useless. As soon as her SUV pa.s.sed by the sunny yellow sign welcoming her into the town of LeBeau, Maggie felt her heart begin to pound in her chest like an angry drum line. She gripped the steering wheel tightly and tried to focus on the road. It was a beautiful spring day and despite the town's small population, the streets bustled with activity. She wondered if it had been a particularly terrible winter. The folks seemed eager to be out in the sun and warmth. She didn't feel the same. She wanted nothing more than to find a cold, dark cave to crawl into and never come out.

It had been over five years since she'd been back in her hometown. Five years, and yet hardly anything looked different. Cleaner, maybe; there was a sparkle to the place she didn't remember from before. But maybe that was just nostalgia shining up the ugly parts of her memory... of which there were plenty. She noticed a new-fangled, big box supermarket chain on Vine Street and wondered how hard her father had fought to keep that monstrosity out of town. Wasn't hard enough, apparently. The parking lot was bustling with shoppers who seemed to be enjoying it well enough. She thought she saw an old friend from high school, Misty Walters, loading up groceries into a minivan stuffed with three screaming kids. She couldn't help but snicker at that, and it made her mood just a little bit lighter.

Lighter, that is, until she pulled up to a stoplight right next to four men on motorcycles, wearing the black leather cuts of her father's club, the Black Dogs. She stole what glances she dared from behind her sungla.s.ses, to see if she recognized any of them. Or worse-to see if any of them recognized her. The SUV was new, but Maggie didn't feel like she looked that much different than she had years ago. As the light seemed to linger on into eternity, she finally turned nonchalantly to examine the men. One of them met her gaze. He smiled approvingly and nodded his head, but it wasn't a smile that said he actually recognized her. The other three couldn't have cared less, staring straight ahead as their bikes rumbled like wild dogs beneath them. Maggie didn't recognize them, either, and the tightness in her chest loosened just a little bit. The light changed, and the four roared off down Main Street without a second glance at her.

Maggie followed Main Street until she arrived at her destination. Dot's Diner was one spot in LeBeau that had never, and would never change. She could still hear Dot's strong, smoke-stained voice in her head: I would gladly watch this town burn down around my ears before that! She had been one of the originals to set up shop in LeBeau, just like Maggie's father. The old guard that tried their d.a.m.nedest to keep things the way they had always been. When she was a teenager, Maggie had loved Dot, but had thought her foolish in her steadfast stubbornness. Now, though... now Maggie wondered if the old lady hadn't been on to something all along. Change brought pain and darkness and turmoil. Change was trouble.

The diner was more packed than the supermarket had been, just like Maggie remembered. Even at the latest hours, there never seemed to be a shortage of customers waiting for a warm piece of pie and a cup of coffee. And, just like Maggie remembered, a good chunk of the parking lot gleamed with chrome motorcycles, all lined up in a pretty row like they were contestants in a beauty pageant waiting to be judged. The MC practically lived at Dot's-at least when they weren't at the clubhouse. As she waited to turn in, Maggie noticed the four bikers from the stoplight walking into the diner, clapping each other on the shoulders and laughing at something.

Are you sure you wanna do this? A little scared voice in the back of her mind asked.

What else am I supposed to do? Maggie answered herself. I need them. I have no choice.

She could have gone straight to the clubhouse, she knew. But she was too cowardly for it. After all these years trying to prove to herself that she was half as tough as her father, in the end, she simply wasn't sure that she was. She couldn't even face him, not yet. She wasn't ready. The thought of walking into that clubhouse and seeing the stern grey eyes of Henry Oliver looking down at her from his redwood throne filled her with a dread so strong, it made her want to swerve back for the highway and leave this place forever.

And then there was the thought of facing Jase.

A honking horn behind her broke the hypnotics of her inner dialogue, and Maggie shook her head to clear her thoughts as she took a careful turn into the diner's parking lot. She parked her SUV and killed the engine. It took her a solid two minutes to get the guts to push the door open and step out of the car. When she felt her hands itching for a cigarette, she knew then that her coward's heart was stalling, and would stall forever unless she did something about it.

"C'mon, you b.i.t.c.h," she said to herself in an angry, hissing voice. "Are you an Oliver, or aren't you?" Hearing her family name out loud sent strength through her blood, and she put herself on a forced march to the diner's front door before she lost the momentum of her bravery- such as it was.

She walked into Dot's Diner and was immediately hit with the full weight of homesickness and nostalgia that had been building the whole drive home. She saw the Wilsons in their corner booth, the same d.a.m.n spot they had been sitting in at Dot's for longer than Maggie had been alive. Some of the waitresses were certainly new, yet there was a vague familiarity to some of them, as if she remembered them as schoolchildren. The friendly bellowing laugh of Roy the cook sailed out from the kitchen. The diner was alive with sensory input: the clinking of silverware, the din of conversation and laughter, the sizzle of cooking food, the smell of coffee and bacon and hash. It was busy enough that no one immediately paid her any mind as she stood in the front foyer. Finally one of the waitresses saw her and headed over with a big genuine smile.

"Hi there, hon!" she said. "How many'll it be?"

Maggie was caught a little off guard. She wasn't there for the food. "Oh, I, uh..."

"You can sit at the bar if you like, sugar." The waitress handed her a floppy plastic menu.

"I'm not here to..."

"Lord, is that Maggie Oliver?"

Celeste, one of the diner's oldest and most experience waitresses, peered from behind the giant gla.s.s case that twirled the pies and cakes around like they were showgirls to be ogled at. She came around with her arms opened wide and sunshine in her eyes. So much for doing this my way, thought Maggie to herself.

"Maggie, oh my Lord! I can't believe it's you!" said Celeste as she wrapped Maggie in a strangling but loving hug. Her uniform smelled like cigarette smoke, burnt coffee, and the lingering scent of the same cheap perfume her husband bought for her every year for their anniversary. Celeste always loved it.

Maggie was surprised to feel her tension and worry melt almost completely away for that moment she was wrapped in Celeste's arms. She hugged her back and felt tears pooling up in her eyes. For that brief moment, it was like she had never left LeBeau.

"Honey, you look so beautiful!" said Celeste as she pulled away from Maggie to give her a once-over. "Look at you... you're grown up into a proper lady. I can't believe my eyes."

Maggie smiled, and felt a tiny tear run down her cheek. "Hi Celeste. Boy, I didn't realize how much I missed you."

"I missed you too, sweet girl. We've all missed you. It's been too long. Your pa hasn't come into the diner yet today. Have you already seen him?"

Mention of her father made Maggie's tension resurface in her muscles, and she gave Celeste a tight smile. "No, not yet. Actually, I was stopping by to..." Something in the air made Maggie stop. She turned and looked out into the large dining room to her right. The place was filled with black leather cuts, the gathered members of the Black Dogs from several nearby towns in for a lunchtime break, laughing and drinking coffee. In the midst of them, one had stood up and was staring at her from across the room.

It was Will Bowers. He didn't look a day older than when she had left. Always a handsome man with boyish features, now he had supplemented them with a gruff chin-stubble and mustache the color of rust, same color as his soft curly hair.

Will was never an emotional guy. It was only those who knew him well who knew how to read him, and right now Maggie was reading an entire novel's-worth of emotion on his seemingly expressionless face. It was all in those deep brown eyes which stared at her, unblinking.

Maggie slipped out of Celeste's grasp and maneuvered around the chairs and tables into the dining room. She gave the waitress's shoulder a tender squeeze as she did so, and Celeste didn't interrupt or protest. The old woman was wise enough to know what was happening.

Will moved to meet her halfway. Maggie's nerves began to sing a warning song, unsure how he would react. She did not want to begin this new and terrifying chapter in her life by being publicly humiliated in this place.

But when he finally got in front of her, Will just smiled his gentle, lopsided smile. "Maggie," he said, quiet as always. "I can't believe it's you." His eyes were searching her face, looking her up and down, as if he was trying to dedicate every detail of this moment to memory.

"Hi Will," said Maggie, giving him a small and shaking smile. She licked her lips, ready to launch into the speech she had been planning and rehearsing, over and over, just for the moment she would inevitably run into one of the boys from the MC. But before she could, Will wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug. At first Maggie only tensed up in surprise, but then she melted into it and hugged him back even tighter.

When they pulled away from it, Maggie realized the entire group of Black Dogs had stopped whatever they were doing to watch the reunion. She didn't recognize any of them, and doubted they knew who she was. They were simply shocked by Will's public display of affection. Will didn't seem to notice or care.

"What are you doing here?" Will asked, though it was more gentle than accusatory.

Maggie blinked a few times and tried to gather her thoughts. The entire rehea.r.s.ed speech had flown from her mind. "I, uh... I decided it was time to come home." She finished with another tight smile, "Things didn't work out in Eagleton like I had planned."

"Henry didn't say a word about you coming back," said Will. "I thought you two were still on the outs." The expression on her face must have answered his curiosity, because Will made a little "oh" noise and nodded almost imperceptibly.

Maggie lowered her voice, insecure of being overheard by these MC boys she didn't know. "I haven't talked to Henry yet. He doesn't know I'm back."

Will was thoughtful and quiet for a moment. The Black Dogs began to grow bored watching the conversation and started going back to their own. "You know, there's still an unofficial APB from the club out on you. Dogs aren't supposed to engage with you, just report back to him any word of your location."

Maggie swallowed against a tight throat and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like the old man. Controlling enough to supervise, but too proud to do it himself."

Will's half-smile returned for just a moment. Then he grew serious and locked eyes with her. "I don't want to make anything harder for you, Maggie. But you know I have to report this to him. I don't know what you have planned for this homecoming... I'm going to guess it didn't involve Henry and Beck kicking down your apartment door before you even got settled into town."

"No, no it did not," said Maggie with a sigh.

"You've always been smart. I'm sure you have a plan. If you want to get it going, you need to do it now. Henry should be at the clubhouse. You should go talk to him now, while you still have the element of surprise." Will looked around at the members in the diner. "I outrank all these goons in here, so I can keep them quiet. But I can only give you until sundown to make your move. Then I have to tell Henry myself." He blinked a few times and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"I understand," said Maggie immediately, stiffening her back and taking a deep breath. "I came here half-hoping he was here to get it over with, anyway."

Will smiled again. "Henry would never blow his top in Dot's. Smart girl."

"Not smart enough, apparently," said Maggie more to herself than to Will.

He gave her shoulder a squeeze. "You'll be fine. You're his daughter. No matter what he says to you, he's glad to see you."

Maggie returned the smile. "Thanks Will. I'm glad I found you first."

"I'm glad to have you back," he said.

Maggie gave him one last small hug and turned to head out of the dining room. Before she could, Will grabbed her arm and turned her back.

"One last thing," he said, and now his eyebrow was raised, his brown eyes filled with genuine worry. "Jase will probably be there."

Hearing his name again made a shiver run through Maggie's bones. Her heart skipped. She felt the blood drain from her face. She couldn't find the words to reply to Will, so she simply nodded and squeezed his hand one last time before she walked off to face her fate.

~ Two ~

The clubhouse of the Black Dogs MC relocated twice since Maggie's grandfather began the club after he returned from the European theater of World War 2. The first clubhouse had been nothing more than a dingy shed in a field outside of the community that would eventually grow to become LeBeau. Once more vets started heading home and the town become more settled, the club began to grow in membership. It was the late 60s when they were finally able to purchase an old storefront off Main Street to hold their meetings and drink in peace.

Not long after Maggie was born, her grandfather and a few other members were killed in a shootout with corrupt members of the state police. The shootout went down at the storefront clubhouse. Understandably, the members didn't exactly want to hang around a place with such terrible memories, and the townspeople were threatening to run the MC out of town, blaming them for the violence. Maggie's father, abruptly shoved into the role of MC president, had put his nose to the grindstone, gathered investments and support, and built the place that would become the permanent den of the Black Dogs. It was an una.s.suming, two-story building set back from the road, well away from the high-traffic civilian areas of LeBeau.

Maggie had been born not long after it was built, and it became as much a second home to her as it was to any man who wore the cut.

Despite the place being almost thirty years old, Henry made sure it always got the maintenance and upkeep it needed to look its best. As Maggie pulled through the open chain link gate and into the long parking lot, memories began flooding through her mind, stronger than any dej vu she had ever experienced. On this midday during the week, most of the members were likely out at their day jobs or other such errands. The parking lot was nearly empty, but a handful of bikes cooled in front like a shiny vanguard. She spotted the bikes of her father and his vice president, Beck Dillon, but the rest of the bikes were unfamiliar to her.

After she parked, Maggie sat in the driver's seat and tried to gather herself and her courage. She went to reach for the door and saw her hand shaking, so she killed the engine, cracked a window, and lit up the last of the joints she had brought in her purse. The weed took the edges off her anxiety, but even the highest-grade chronic wasn't going to fix this. She smoked half of it before she stamped it out in the ashtray and immediately pushed out of the SUV, not giving herself a chance to hesitate any longer.

Maggie had learned from years of watching the most alpha of alpha dogs how to hold herself to gain respect. She squared her shoulders and held her head high, eyes straight ahead, as she walked calmly through the parking lot and to the front door of the clubhouse. She didn't let herself get spooked at the door. She didn't knock. She wrapped her hand around the k.n.o.b and pushed her way in as if she had always belonged.

She did her best not to become flooded with nostalgia at the sight of the long wooden hallway, the framed photos on the walls, the smell of cigar smoke and whiskey. She didn't even take off her sungla.s.ses as she marched down the hallway towards the den, from which floated the faint sound of talking and the soft click of billiard b.a.l.l.s. She stood in the wide doorway and surveyed the room for a few moments before anyone noticed her. Someone she didn't recognize was shooting a lazy game of pool with himself. Beck sat at the bar with a beer in his hand, talking with another member. It took her a few moments to recognize him as Tommy Castillo. Tommy had been just a kid barely old enough to drive the last time she saw him. He was still a dark and gawky looking man, but he had grown at least a foot and was not the skinny whelp she remembered. Faint sounds of s.e.x floated from one of the bedrooms down the hallway.

"I'm looking for Henry Oliver," said Maggie. She was endlessly pleased to hear her voice come out strong, not shaking as she had expected.

All the men stopped what they were doing and looked over to the doorway. The one at the pool table frowned as if he smelled something rotten, burning cigarette dangling from his thin lips. Tommy was staring at her, trying to place her face. But Beck's face immediately lit up and he jumped up from the barstool.

"Christ almighty. Maggie? Is that you?" he said, moving across the den with his arms open wide. He looked like a big, gray-haired Santa Claus-or Santa's brother, maybe, who took a darker path than the toymaker. He was always a large man, but post-middle age had made him even bigger. Her father used to joke about how unbelievable it was that the Viet Cong hadn't spotted such a "redwood of a dude" in the midst of their jungles. "I can't believe it!" Beck wrapped her in a rocking hug that would have suffocated anyone smaller. Maggie couldn't help but laugh and accept his affection.

"Hi, Beck," she said, though it came out m.u.f.fled, stuffed as she was against the fabric of his shirt and cut. "It's good to see you."

"Let me get a look at you!" He pulled back from the hug, his face shining and bright, and looked her over. Behind him, the one at the pool table was exchanging not-so-secretive questioning looks with Tommy behind the counter. "What a beautiful woman you've grown up to be. You look just like your ma."

Maggie knew very little about Sara, the woman who had somehow charmed the infamous Henry Oliver and gave birth to her. She died when Maggie was a baby. She had no memory of her. But she knew the MC had loved Sara, and so accepted the compliment with a smile. "Thanks, Beck. Listen, is Henry here?"

"Maggie?"

The sound of Henry Oliver's voice was still enough to conquer a room. Everyone turned to look at him, halfway down the stairs that led to the MC's more private and official meeting rooms. Beck moved away from her slowly as Maggie locked eyes with her father. His hair had begun to gray at the temples, and his belly was a bit bigger than it had been when she left, but aside from those minuscule details, he was still the dark, powerful man she remembered. And unlike Beck or even Will, his face gave no indication that he was happy to see her.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as she and her father stared each other down. She could feel the tension in the room rising. Maggie had the pa.s.sing thought that it was perfectly appropriate to begin this reunion in this position-with her father standing over her, staring down in judgment. It was exactly the way their entire relationship had always been.

"Henry," said Maggie. Her voice cracked, despite her best attempts otherwise. She removed her sungla.s.ses and cleared her throat. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Henry stared down at her a few moments more, expressionless, quiet. Then he seemed to blink out of his own mental trance. "Not at the moment."

Maggie licked her lips. "Can we talk in private?"

Again, Henry hesitated, making her wait and squirm. Then he finally nodded once and headed back up the stairs without another word. Maggie looked over at Beck and saw an expression of sympathy, but he also said nothing to her. She headed towards the stairs.

As she pa.s.sed Tommy at the bar, he couldn't help but let out a whisper to her. "Maggie-hey!" He even waved a little, as if she hadn't noticed him there before. Usually Tommy's obliviousness was a bothersome joke, but at that moment she couldn't help but crack a tiny laugh at him. How a man could be in her father's MC and still be so pleasantly naive was a mystery, but he relieved her tension and she was grateful. She raised a hand at him as she pa.s.sed by, and then headed up the stairs.

Henry waited for her in his seat at the head of the conference room table. It was his throne, his seat of power, from which he made all the pertinent decisions of the MC. This choice of meeting spot was not lost on his daughter. Maggie put her purse in an empty chair and took up the spot usually reserved for Beck, at Henry's right hand.

A few moments of silence pa.s.sed. Maggie waited to see if he wanted to begin. She knew immediately launching into her story would make her look and feel powerless. She realized then how much of their interaction was exactly that-one of them trying to hold power over the other; strategy; tactics in place of connection.

Finally, Henry cleared his throat and leaned back just a bit in his chair. "What brings you here, Maggie?"

She hadn't expected anything less from him than straight to business, but the question stung regardless. Maggie took a breath and said, "I need your help."

Henry let out a little scoff. Her father was a predator and Maggie had learned from him, and from the club, how to read other people. He didn't have to say that he was disappointed. She could see it all over his face, all over every little mannerism in that moment. "Isn't that typical? It's been what-four years? Five?"

"Five and a half." She didn't bother to accuse him of knowing exactly how long it had been since she ran away from LeBeau. "Five and a half years next month."

He scoffed again, leaning forward on the giant conference table. "What kind of help is it you're looking for? Must be a big favor if it got you back to this town."

Maggie nodded. It was too difficult to look at him in that moment, and so she stared at his big hands, at the wedding ring he still wore after all these years. "I'm in danger. I need to get protection from you... from the MC."

She thought she saw his shoulders soften a bit. Henry took a pause and then asked, "From who?" There was an edge to his voice she recognized all too well. She took it as a good sign that he was listening and taking her seriously.

"I..." Maggie had to pause, because she could feel tears welling up in her eyes, and she was not about to cry in front of her father. No, not now. She took a breath before she continued. "I was working at a pharmacy in Eagleton. I got targeted by some low-level thugs looking for a connection to get access to prescription drugs. I didn't want to help them, but there's just .... it wasn't safe. I had to get out or they were going to kill me. And I didn't know where else to go."

She looked up and saw her father's calm face watching her, listening. Some of his anger had melted away, and for that she was grateful. She said nothing else, waiting for him to respond.

When he did, Henry's voice was almost as quiet as Will's. "You did the right thing," he said. "No one is going to bother you here. Do you have a place to stay yet?"

"No. I took the long way down and around from Eagleton. I just got into town this morning," she said.