“Nico, do you want your hug or not?” I asked.
He flipped a switch, his threatening expression turning to a self-satisfied grin. “I definitely need a hug for the road. Come here.”
His hug only lasted a second, but the familiarity of it brought me the same amount of comfort. When we parted, he gave West one last hard glare.
“Take care of her while she’s here,” he said.
“Will do, Sir.”
Nico was unimpressed, but with a final goodbye, he let Hart lead him out of the rooftop garden. The door slammed shut behind them.
“He won’t do whatever he threatened you with,” I promised West.
West cocked an eyebrow. “He seemed pretty confident in his ability to flay me alive if I ever made you cry.”
I cringed. That had been a knife he’d flashed to my alpha after all.
“Uh, sorry about that. You’ll just have to make sure you don’t make me cry.”
“And if I understood what you said earlier correctly, that means I have to stay with you when you want me?” He took a step closer, placing a hand on my hip.
I blushed. “It’s that simple.”
“I’ll make sure to follow that rule from now on, then. Not just because your father might subject me to a fate worse than death if I don’t.”
“Because you want to?” I confirmed.
West leaned down, his nose brushing mine. Our lips were a hair’s breadth apart, but I was frozen, unable to be the one to start the kiss. I wanted him to do it.
“Yes. Because I want you,” he said huskily, and then his lips were on mine.
And my world was complete.
Chapter
Seventeen
GEARS
The club warehouse was a ghost town.
My guys in the garage had abandoned their jobs to hunt Mercy and his pack down, leaving a bunch of half fixed jacked-up cars behind. The garage doors were all shut, an odd sight when it was light out. They usually only closed at night.
The typical bustle of the main room was completely absent. Not even the club drunks would dare lie around while Grave was on the warpath. Everyone was out looking for the so-called traitors, no exceptions.
I wasn’t an exception, but Iwasa rebel.
All the old guard of the Alpha Chariots were idiots if they thought Mercy would do something like this.
I bet some of them didn’t believe it for a second. Yet, they were still too cowardly to go against Grave. Could I blame them?
Eh, maybe. Self-preservation instincts were important in this life, but so was cunning. If not Mercy and his pack, who? The only other logical option was Grave himself, and I didn’t wantto be in a club led by someone who was shaping up to get us all killed.
The rest of them were stupid for staying.
And I might be an idiot for leaving, considering I had nowhere to go. My only option was to head to one of the other parts of town and lay low, hoping no one noticed I was there.
Hawk and I had decided Seamouth was the best option. He was leaving too. We’d gathered as much information as we could for Mercy, but the search for him was turning into a witch hunt. Everyone knew we were close to their pack—so we needed to get the fuck out.
