“You mean she’s not a manipulative trainwreck like you assumed?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “But she’s not completely broken either, despite everything.”
T-Bone was quiet for a long minute before he agreed. “She’s not. Diesel said she came to your aid with the Ghost Riders.”
“Stubborn fucking woman.” I was still equal parts grateful and pissed off she’d done that.
“It worked out fine,” he replied, his tone holding a hint of amusement. “You want the update or we gonna keep gossipin’ like girls?”
“Whenever you’re done painting your nails,” I teased.
“Those motherfuckers tried to jump Falcon yesterday.”
“Fuck, is he okay?”
“Yeah, he’s fine. Dumbasses didn’t know he’d just finished working on Frenchy from the Black Brotherhood. Theyrolled up on him thinking he was alone when he wasn’t.” T-Bone laughed. “Got their asses handed to ‘em.”
“Good.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “But shit’s heating up. They’re poking around again, following Faith, and trying to intimidate the girls. I don’t think they know Chloe’s at the clubhouse though. That’s the one thing we’ve got going for us.”
“Once they find that out, it’ll be a nonstop fucking onslaught until they get her. Maybe we should come back, in the dark of night?”
“Not yet,” he shot back too quickly. “If we move, they’ll notice. Right now they’re spread thin and chasing ghosts. Stay put and we’ll reach out again in a day or two.”
“Yeah,” I sighed, annoyed, pissed off, and feeling fucking useless.
“And Pike?”
“Yeah,” I answered.
T-Bone paused for a few seconds too long as if he was weighing his words. “Ashley would’ve wanted you to live. Hell she’d probably demand you live enough for both of you.” He chuckled to himself and ended the call before I could say a word.
I stayed right where I was, rooted to the spot for a long time after the call ended. Just… staring into the void. The lake was still and silvery blue in the morning light when the sky was light but not quite sun-drenched. Trees rose around the lake, standing sentry as if the water needed to be protected from the world.
Ashley’s laugh drifted to mind, completely uninvited. The way she used to tug her hair over her shoulders when she was annoyed, always trying to look older than she was and more intimidating. She never could because she was small and slim and just fuckinglight. It radiated off her like pixie dust, which made it hard for her to be taken seriously, even when she pushed back. But she’d found a way, which made me admire my little sister even more.
And she loved Chloe.
Apparently.
And yeah, okay, now I understood where she was coming from with that relentless affection and desire to help that cost her life. Chloe wasn’t what I thought she was. I could admit now that all I saw was the wreckage she’d left in her wake. Ashley was dead and my MC was being plunged into an unnecessary war just to protect her and her kid.
“Yeah, I get it,” I said out loud in an effort to drown out the sound of my sister’s laughter playing on a loop in my head. I did get it. Chloe wasn’t a manipulator. She wasn’t playing games or playing the victim. She wasn’tjustasking for help, she was trying hard as fuck to hold herself together for Gemma, trying not to break down and create some normalcy for a little girl who’d never known any.
She was scared of her own fucking shadow, but she hadn’t run. She stayed up all night, determined to fight the monsters determined to come in through the front door. She stayed and she fought despite the fear, and that was hot as hell. The way she’d come to defend me, the man who’d treated her like shit in the wake of her own grief, because she refused to let anyone fight alone the way she had to for years.
In secret.
In silence.
She wasn’t at all what I thought, she was so much fucking better, which was the only explanation for why I’d kissed her like she was mine. Why Ihadher like I had the right.
Maybe part of me wanted her to be mine, wanted to have the right to claim her, to possess her. To protect her.
To lov—
Yeah, no. I’m not going there. Not now. Not fucking ever.
