I had just locked the doors and turned off the signs when there was a knock on the back door of the bar. I knew it wasn't Happy, he would have gone to the apartment door knowing that I would be up there momentarily. The fact that Ace wasn't barking his head off meant that it was someone that he knew. I flipped the lights off as I made my way to the door. I peeked around the door and smiled when I saw Kozik on the other side.

"Little late to perch at the bar, Koz." I teased but he didn't smile and that worried me.

"If this is about club business, Hap's not here." I said as I held open the door and let him inside with Ace on his heels.

"I know. This is about Hap." Koz said and I froze in my tracks.

"Is he hurt?" I asked and turned to really look at Kozik. He quickly shook his head.

"No, to my knowledge he's perfectly fine. He called me about an hour ago from the police station." Kozik reassured and I felt like I could breathe again.

"If he called you, what are you doing here?" I asked and led him up the stairs to the apartment.

"Usually when Hap gets in trouble it's because of club stuff, but this time he wasn't doing anything for the club. I went to Brick to get the money to bail him out, but because he wasn't on club business when he got hauled in, his bail has to come out of personal funds." I raised a brow at that as I pulled out two beers from the fridge. Kozik sighed and gave me a nod as he took the beer.

"Normally I would just pay it and have Hap pay me back, but I gave a loan to my brother that he hasn't paid back yet. I'm broke for the time being. With you being Hap's girl, I was hoping you could help." There was no doubt in my mind that I would, it was just if I could.

"How much are we talking?" Kozik cringed at the question and scratched at the back of his head.

"Five grand." He said and I almost choked on my beer.

"What the fuck did he do!" I asked. This not being a club related offense I had no problem asking. Kozik cringed again as he fidgeted with the label on the beer bottle.

"He didn't give any details just where he was and how much to bail him out." I groaned as I ran my hand through my hair. I looked down at the bottle in my hand before setting it on the counter and getting into the cabinet above the fridge to get the bottle of Jack Daniels that Hap had stashed there. I poured two shots and threw mine back, letting myself focus on the burn down my throat instead of the anxiety that forking over five thousand dollars was causing me. I did another shot before putting the jack away.

"When can we go get him?" I asked and Kozik looked surprised.

"You've got five grand sitting around?" I glared at him.

"He's going to pay me back every penny." I said and Kozik chuckled, but I could see the relief in his expression.

"He can be bailed out in the morning." I nodded and looked to the clock on the wall. It was only a couple hours till sun up, there wasn't going to be much sleep for me tonight. Though what was that saying? You can sleep when you're dead, right?

"You can crash in the spare room, if you want. I just have to get out some clean sheets." I offered and started to stand but Kozik quickly stopped me.

"Just show me where they are, I'll do it. Thanks, Jade." He said and pulled me into a tight bear hug. I smiled and returned the hug for a moment before pulling away. I pulled the sheets out of the hall closet and handed them to Kozik and pointed to the door down the hall. With one last 'thank you' and a kiss to the cheek, Kozik walked down the hall and left me alone in my living room. Ace whined from the doorway to my bedroom and I had to laugh. Since Hap had started sleeping here most nights, Ace had been kicked out of the bed. As much as he seemed to love Hap, he loved the nights he didn't come home more.

Ace's tail wagged excitedly as I walked toward the bedroom, he walked ahead of me and jumped into the bed, rolling around and snuggling in like he was playing in a mud puddle. I laughed at his antics and got changed before grabbing out a thick blanket from my closet. My bed had been all but stripped since Hap started sleeping here. The man was like a heater and couldn't stand overheating at night so the thick blanket and quilt that had once adorned my bed were now stored in the closet for the nights he was out with the club or on a run.

Settling into bed I let the warmth of the blankets envelope me as Ace moved around to settle his head on my hip. Even with the extra blankets and having Ace next to me, the bed still felt cold and empty. The thought that Hap wasn't on the other side of the bed because he was spending the night in a cell made the loneliness worse. I tossed and turned for over an hour before I reached over and pulled Happy's pillow to my chest. It seemed stupid, it was something that I would expect to read out of some cheesy romance novel, but I hugged the pillow to my chest and inhaled the remaining hint of Happy's scent that lingered on the pillow. I felt stupid doing it and it wasn't a magic cure all like they told in books or showed in movies, but it comforted me enough that I was able to drift off.

The sun through my windows woke me only a few short hours later and I groaned as I pulled myself out of bed. I took a scalding shower to wake myself up and started a pot of coffee before heading downstairs with Ace. I hooked him to his run behind the bar before heading into the office and getting into the safe. I felt almost physically sick as I pulled out the stacks of cash that I had stashed there. I knew why I was doing it and that scared me more than spending a big chunk of my savings. I was willing to spend five thousand dollars on a man, a man that I had no guarantees from, a man that could be gone tomorrow. We had only been 'together' for a couple months and yet I was willingly making an investment in him without much thought or hesitance and what scared me the most was that it wasn't merely because I wanted to, it was because I needed to. I needed to get him out of there, needed for him to come home.

At some point in the almost year that I have known Happy, feelings had come about, more than just attraction, more than just desire. At some point, a point that I couldn't pick out exactly, I had fallen in love with that stoic man and not just fallen in love, but developed a need for the man. Needing him scared me more than loving him. I knew that I could love a man without being dependent on him, I had made sure of that. Uncle Al had helped me become a strong, independent woman. He wanted me to be able to take care of myself without having to depend on anyone because depending on others was when your life fell apart. Uncle Al and my father had been prime examples of that and I never wanted to be in that situation.

Uncle Al had made sure that I would never be dependent on anyone financially. He'd helped pay for my college education and trained me to run the bar. I had been running the bar with his oversight for a year and half before his death. He made sure I would never have to worry about money, his life insurance policy covered all of his funeral and burial expenses and he'd left every penny to his name to me in the form of the bar and had made sure that there was nothing anyone could do to take it from me, short of burning it to the ground.

But the need I had for Happy had nothing to do with money. I knew that realistically I didn't need him for anything and there was truly little he could give me that I couldn't give myself. Physically I could live without him just as easily as I was living with him and without the hassle of including him in my life. But somehow, he had figured out the one thing that I needed that I couldn't give myself. He was someone I could let my guard down with and trust to have my back, someone I knew I could bring into my life and he wasn't going to try to change me to fit his world. Our relationship was a careful balance of give and avoidance.

Happy gave in private, letting his reputation fall away to be a simple man with simple needs and letting me fulfill those needs for him. I gave in public, not fighting for the man I knew in private, supporting him while allowing him to do what he needs to do. Avoidance came in the form of all information in regards to the club. Happy didn't talk about anything that could put me in a compromising position later and I avoided asking questions that would put him in a compromising position and I used what he did tell me to avoid the potholes that most 'old ladies' fell into when it came to the politics between being steady with a member and being a sweet butt. I didn't go to the garage unless I had a good reason to and I didn't bother forming relationships with the old ladies or fighting the sweet butts for his attention, I trusted what Happy had said about his loyalty and I wasn't going to fight for a man that was going to disrespect me like that.

My revelation was earth shattering and yet it changed nothing as I stood there staring at the stacks of cash in my hands. I closed the safe and made my way back upstairs. I stashed the money away in my purse and poured myself a cup of coffee before taking a seat at the table. I managed to sit in relative silence at the table with the exception of Kozik's snoring from down the hall which was beginning to grate on my nerves and I decided to head back down to the bar to get some work done while I waited on the rest of the world to wake. It would still be hours before Kozik and I could go get Happy and there was no way I was going to spend that time sitting idle while listening to Kozik's incessant snoring.

I'd just finished mopping the bar when Kozik bumbled down the stairs, his usually spiky hair was pushed flat on the top of his head and he was still wiping the sleep from his eyes. I chuckled at the sight he made, the big bad biker looked more like a little boy waking up from a nap than a man who would be driving to the jail in a little bit to bail his friend out.

"Fresh pot of coffee behind the bar." I said and Kozik grunted before stumbling toward the bar. I couldn't help the giggle that escaped as I watched him. He was definitely not a graceful morning person.

"How long have you been up?" Kozik asked after he'd had a chance to drink some of his coffee.

"Couple hours. Didn't sleep very well." I said and Kozik nodded as he looked at his watch.

"Well, we can head down to the jail in about an hour." Kozik said and I nodded as I kicked open the back door to throw out the dirty water from the mop bucket.

"Did you tell him that you were coming to me for the money?" I asked.

"No. I told him I was going to a friend to ask for a loan." I quirked a brow at Kozik.

"Yeah, I know he's not going to be happy about it." Kozik sighed.

"I've never had to bail anyone out before." I said and Kozik looked surprised.

"Never?" He asked and I shook my head.

"Have you been bailed out?" Kozik asked and I laughed.

"Nope."

"You've never done anything that landed you in trouble?" Kozik asked in disbelief.

"Now I wouldn't say that. I did plenty, I just never got caught by the cops." I said smugly.

"What'd you do?" He asked, now seeming intrigued.

"The typical teenage stuff." I said with a shrug as I took a seat on one of the bar stools.

"We'd go out and drink in the woods, drive home drunk. Smoked a couple joints under the bleachers. Even took a car for a joy ride from the teacher's parking lot with my boyfriend at the time." Kozik looked at me amazed.

"And you never got caught? I went drinking with a group from school once, we'd only been there an hour before the cops rolled up and busted us. Ended up spending the night in the drunk tank because my parents thought it would straighten me out." Kozik confided and I laughed.

"Well getting away with it was pretty easy. My mom got sick when I was 15, cancer. Dad was always busy, whether it was work or taking mom to the doctor or helping take care of her. Iris was busy with her own family since Ben was a toddler then. Sneaking in and out without anyone noticing was a piece of cake." I explained and Kozik frowned as he listened.

"Sounds rough." Kozik said and I shrugged again.

"We're all dealt a hand, I think I've played mine pretty well." I said and looked around the bar.

"Yeah, I'd say so." Kozik agreed and took another long drink of his coffee.

"So how'd you end up living with Al?"

"After the cancer took mom, my dad fell apart. He ended up asking Uncle Al to take me in for a couple weeks so he could straighten himself out. He never really managed to though, ended up overdosing on his anti-depressants."

"Damn." Kozik said and I nodded.

"My parents had been married 35 years when she died. They had been high school sweethearts, had gotten married while they were in college. Mom was the love of dad's life and he just couldn't cope without her." I explained simply, the bitter sweetness of it still left a pang of sadness in my heart when I thought about it.

"Well we should probably go get our guy." Kozik said as he glanced at his watch.