Prologue #2
“Kya.” His voice is softer now, almost gentle. “You’re safe here. Okay?”
I nod again, not trusting my voice.
The door clicks shut behind him, and I’m alone with the sound of my own chattering teeth and the hum of the lights. I catch sight of myself in the mirror above the sink and wince. I look exactly as bad as I thought—pale and pinched, my lips nearly blue, with dark circles under my eyes.
The shower is a godsend. I step under the spray fully clothed, letting the hot water pound against my skin until feeling starts to return to my extremities.
It hurts at first, pins and needles shooting through my hands and feet, but gradually the warmth seeps deeper, loosening the knots in my muscles.
I peel off the sodden clothes and let them fall to the shower floor with a wet slap. The water runs pink for a moment where my feet were bleeding. I must have cut them on the rough pavement.
Damn. That’s gonna hurt tomorrow.
I let myself sink down onto the shower floor, arms wrapped around my knees. The hot water streams over my head, washing away the last of the panic and leaving behind something else, a hollow ache in my chest that I’m afraid to examine too closely.
I can’t go home. I don’t have money. I don’t have a plan. I don’t even have shoes. God. What am I doing?
I’m seventeen, half naked in my former best friend’s brother’s bathroom.
This is insane.
And yet… I don’t regret coming here. Not for a second, because for the first time all night, I feel safe.
I step out of the shower as there’s a soft knock on the door.
“I’m leaving some stuff by the door,” Lee calls through the wood. “Hoodie, sweats. They’ll drown you, but they’re dry.”
“Thank you,” I manage to croak out.
“Take your time.”
I wrap myself in a towel as I hear his footsteps retreat down the hall.
When I open the door, I find the promised clothes folded neatly outside the door.
The hoodie is massive, navy blue with Stoneheart MC embroidered on the front in silver thread.
It hangs to mid-thigh, the sleeves covering my hands completely.
The sweatpants are equally oversized, soft gray cotton that I have to roll up three times at the ankles.
They smell like him—soap and smoke and something indefinably masculine. I bury my face in the fabric and breathe deeply.
You’re pathetic. You know that, right?
Shaking off my momentary insanity, I pad down the hallway, wincing as my feet protest.
The party has clearly wound down. The music is off, and most of the people I saw earlier are gone. Only a few remain, clustered around the kitchen island with bottles of beer and serious expressions. They look up when I appear in the doorway, and I freeze under their collective gaze.
Heat floods my cheeks at how I must look drowning in Lee’s oversized clothes. It’s embarrassing that they see me for who I am, a desperate girl with nowhere else to go.
I force myself to lift my chin, meeting each stare head-on. Whatever judgment they’re passing, whatever assumptions they’re making—I won’t give them the satisfaction of seeing me cower. This shame isn’t mine to carry.
Or so I tell myself.
Lee sits on the edge of the couch, elbows on his knees, hands clasped in front of him. When he sees me, he straightens, and something in his expression shifts.
“Come here,” he says, his voice low and steady.
I do, my bare feet silent on the hardwood floor. The other men watch but don’t speak, and I can feel them cataloging every detail. And I know exactly what they see.
They see my mother.
Everyone in this town does. She’s loud when she drinks, and she always drinks. She falls in and out of bars and men’s beds with the same careless grace she once used on stage in the high school musicals she never quite recovered from.
She used to be beautiful. Now she’s just a warning. A whispered “poor thing” at the grocery store. A snicker behind a hand. The kind of woman who forgets to show up to parent-teacher conferences but always remembers karaoke night at the bar.
And me?
I’m the one left picking up the bottles and cooking the eggs and dodging the guys who hang around too long in the kitchen.
People look at me and see what they expect to see. A girl with too much curve and not enough shame. The kind who’ll follow in her mother’s footsteps because how could I not?
They don’t see the straight A’s. Or how hard I work to disappear. Or how I never let a boy kiss me—not once—because I don’t want to give them one more thing to talk about.
They don’t see me. Just her.
Lee gestures to the chair across from him, and I sink into it gratefully. My legs feel like jelly, and I’m not sure how much longer they would have held me up.
“Let me see your feet,” he says, slapping a hand on his thigh.
“My feet are fine—”
“Kya.” The way he says my name brooks no argument. “Let me see.”
Before I can protest further, he sighs, sliding off the couch to sit in front of me.
I open my mouth to argue but stop when his warm hands wrap around my ankles to place them carefully onto his lap.
I wince as he examines the cuts and scrapes, his callused fingers surprisingly tender as they probe the worst of the damage.
“Jesus,” he mutters, looking up at one of the other men. “Duck, can you get the first-aid kit?”
“Sure, where is it?” Duck replies, already moving.
“Kitchen. Top cabinet above the fridge.”
Lee’s touch is impossibly gentle as he examines my torn feet.
Duck hands him the kit and a bowl of warm water.
Lee gently cleans the cuts, his thumb stroking soothingly along the arch of my foot when I flinch.
The antiseptic stings, but his murmured reassurances and the careful way he dabs at each wound make the pain bearable.
“Nearly done,” he murmurs before applying the ointment.
When he wraps the bandages around my feet, his movements are precise and sure, as if he’s done this more than a few times. Which, considering his position in a Motorcycle Club, and his service history, I guess he might well have.
“Better?” he asks when he’s finished, his hands still cradling my bandaged feet.
I can barely speak past the lump in my throat. When was the last time someone took care of me?
“Thank you,” I whisper.
He nods once, then looks up at me with those piercing green eyes. “Now. Tell me what happened.”
I open my mouth, but the words stick in my throat. How do I tell Lee Armstrong—Emma’s brother, the man I used to have such an embarrassing crush on—that my own mother’s boyfriend tried to beat me?
“It’s okay,” he says, and his voice is gentler now. “You’re safe here.”
I stare at my hands, twisted together in my lap. “My mom was passed out,” I whisper. “Again.”
“And?”
“And her new boyfriend came over. Rick.” The name tastes bitter in my mouth. “He’s been staying with us for a few weeks now, and he… he looks at me sometimes. Says things.”
Lee goes very still. “What kind of things?”
Heat floods my cheeks. “Just… comments. About how I’m useless. A drain on them. Tonight he…” I swallow hard, forcing the words out. “He cornered me in the kitchen. He was drunk and—” I cut myself off, shaking my head violently.
One of the other men curses under his breath. Someone else mutters something I can’t quite catch, but it sounds angry.
Lee’s jaw is tight when I finally look up at him. “He hurt you.”
Just the one slap, but it was enough.
“I got away,” I say, avoiding his question. “I kneed him and ran. I didn’t know where else to go. Emma’s gone, and I don’t have any other friends, and I just… I remembered this place.”
Lee reaches out to catch my chin with his hand, turning my head to the left. I close my eyes, knowing he’ll see the handprint and slight bruise marked there.
“You did the right thing coming here.” His voice is controlled, but there’s a cold and dangerous bite lurking underneath. It makes my pulse quicken. “You’ll sleep in Emma’s room tonight.”
It’s not a request.
He lets me go, and I nod, suddenly exhausted. The adrenaline is wearing off, leaving behind a bone-deep weariness.
“Go to bed, Kya.” Lee says, his voice softer. “Get some rest.”
I stand on shaking legs, Lee’s clothes swallowing me. “Thank you,” I whisper. “For helping me. For not… for not turning me away.”
A strange look flickers across his face. “Kya,” he says, and my name sounds different in his mouth now. Careful. Important. “You never have to thank me for keeping you safe. Ever.”
The weight of his words settles over me like a blanket, and I have to blink back sudden tears. When was the last time someone said something like that to me? When was the last time someone looked at me like I mattered?
I turn, making my way back up the stairs before I do something stupid like cry.
Emma’s room is exactly as she left it before she moved to New York. The walls are still painted pale pink, with dance posters covering nearly every surface. Her desk is cluttered with old schoolbooks and jewelry, a thin layer of dust coating everything like snow.
It’s a time capsule to a girl who’s now living her dream as a principal ballerina with the National Dance Academy.
I crawl into her twin bed, pulling her lavender comforter up to my chin. I close my eyes and try to pretend, just for a moment, that she’s still here. That we’re still those innocent girls who believed in forever friendships and happy endings.
But then I hear the front door slam, followed by the rumble of motorcycle engines roaring to life. Multiple bikes, from the sound of it. I slip out of bed and tiptoe to the window, pushing aside the sheer curtains just enough to peek out.
Lee strides across the front yard toward his bike, three other men flanking him. Another two men are already on their bikes, waiting.
Even in the dim streetlight, I can see the tension in Lee’s shoulders, the way his hands are clenched into fists. He swings a leg over his Harley and kicks it to life, the engine’s growl echoing through the quiet neighborhood. Before he can pull away, his gaze lifts to Emma’s bedroom window.
My heart skips as our eyes meet across the darkness. His expression is serious, lethal, filled with a promise I don’t fully understand but feel in my bones. Even from this distance, I can see the controlled fury radiating from him, the deadly intent written in every line of his posture.
I don’t know for certain that he can see me until he jerks his chin up, offering me a half-smile. Then he revs the engine once more and disappears into the night with the others, leaving me standing at the window with my heart hammering against my ribs.
They disappear into the night, and I know—somehow, I know—exactly where they’re going.
I should feel guilty. I should be worried about what they might do to Rick, what kind of trouble this could cause. But all I feel is a strange, warm satisfaction in my chest. Someone cares enough to do something. Someone thinks I’m worth protecting.
Time moves strangely after that. I drift in and out of a restless doze, my mind churning with everything that’s happened. Every time I close my eyes, I see Rick’s face, feel the sharp crack of his hand on my face. But then Lee’s voice is there, soothing steady and sure.
You’re safe.
I’m not sure how long they’re gone, but I jolt awake when I hear the front door open again. I listen to heavy footsteps on the stairs, knowing it’s Lee. I slip out of bed and crack open Emma’s door, peering into the hallway.
Lee stands at his bedroom door, his back to me. His cut is gone, replaced by a simple black T-shirt that clings to the broad expanse of his shoulders. But it’s his hands that catch my attention—his knuckles are raw and swollen, streaked with blood that looks dark in the dim light.
He must sense me watching because he turns, and our eyes meet across the hallway. For a moment, neither of us speaks. The coldness in his expression should scare me, but it doesn’t.
“Is he gone?”
Lee nods once. “You’re now club property, Kya. You’re under the protection of Stoneheart MC.”
“What does that mean?” I whisper.
His smile is sharp, all teeth and shadows. “It means you’ll never be unsafe again, Kya. Anyone who even thinks about hurting you will have to answer to us. To me.”
A voice calls softly from behind him—feminine, sleepy. “Babe? You coming to bed?”
A woman appears in his doorway, barefoot and wearing nothing but one of his T-shirts. She’s beautiful in that effortless way some women are, with long blonde hair and legs that go on for miles. She exactly the kind of woman I’d expect him to have in his bed.
The sight of her hits me harder than it should. Of course he has a girlfriend. Of course someone like Lee wouldn’t be alone. I’m such an idiot for even—
“Hey, sweetheart,” the woman says, noticing me. Her smile is warm, genuine. “You okay? That bruise looks nasty.”
I nod, suddenly aware of how I must look in Lee’s oversized clothes, my hair probably sticking up at odd angles. “Fine,” I mutter, glancing away. “Just tired.”
She makes a noise of sympathy. “Get some rest, okay?”
Lee’s eyes never leave mine. “Night, Kya.”
Then he steps into his room, and the door clicks shut behind him, leaving me alone in the hallway with the memory of his bloody knuckles.
I slip back into Emma’s bed and pull the covers over my head, pressing my face into the pillow. I should feel satisfied. After all, I’m safe. And I do, mostly.
But there’s something else, too—a hollow ache in my chest that I’m afraid to name. I fall asleep thinking about green eyes and bruised hands.
I dream of motorcycles and leather cuts, of strong arms and bloody knuckles. I dream of a man who would burn the world down just to keep me safe.
And when I wake, I know what I have to do.