30 #2
She stared at the ceiling as if that might somehow hide the grin from a boy who wasn’t even in the room. “Yeah,” she said, aiming for casual and missing it by a little. “I’d like that.”
His answer came easy, without hesitation. “Good.” The warmth in that one word sent a ridiculous little rush through her.
She rolled onto her back, one hand resting over her stomach like she could physically settle the feeling there. “Okay. Cool.”
“Cool,” he echoed, and she could hear the smile in his voice. Then his tone settled into something steadier. “Text me when you want me to come by. Or call. Whatever.”
It sounded like more than making plans. It sounded like he wanted her to know he would show up if she needed him. “Okay,” she said, softer this time.
Their goodbyes had barely started when Lila knocked to threaten bodily removal from the bedroom if Jade missed dinner, which made Cage laugh and kept the mood light until the call finally ended.
The quiet afterward felt abrupt. Jade stayed on the bed with her phone in hand, letting herself hold on to the good parts for another minute.
Cage. Tomorrow. The way talking to him made her feel steadier and more like herself.
Then Deacon. Her father. The word still felt strange, but not nearly as strange as it probably should have.
She had adjusted to him too quickly, almost as if some part of her had recognized where he fit before the rest of her caught up.
Family day had done that too. The clubhouse had been loud and full of leather, men, Old Ladies, and enough bikes to make the place feel dangerous at first. Then she had noticed the children weaving through tables and adults keeping track of them without seeming to try.
That was the part she hadn’t expected, the family tucked inside everything people outside the club would probably judge first. Deacon had belonged there.
More than that, he had seemed happy she was there, as if her being beside him in that world made sense to him too.
For a little while, that memory sat warm in her chest. Then the texts came back.
Jade unlocked the phone. Cage’s name at the top of her recent calls did nothing to change what waited underneath.
Unknown: You looked real happy today.
Unknown: Thought your biker daddy was gonna make everything better?
A newer message sat beneath them, timestamped while she had been laughing with Cage.
Unknown: Cute laugh. Wouldn’t be laughing if you knew what was coming.
Cold spread through her before she could move. The earlier messages could have come from someone who had seen her in public, maybe at the clubhouse. This one felt closer. Whoever sent it knew she had been laughing while she sat inside her own bedroom.
Her gaze snapped to the window. The blinds were half closed, and darkness had turned the glass into a reflection of the room. She could see herself staring back, pale and rigid, with nothing beyond the glass clear enough to prove she was alone.
A knock at the door made her jump. “Jade,” her mother called. “Dinner. Now.”
Her voice sounded normal. Safe. Close. Jade forced air into her lungs and made her own voice match. “Coming.”
She looked back at the phone. Tell Mom. The answer was obvious. Show her the messages and let an adult deal with it.
Then came everything after. Her mother would worry.
Deacon would definitely find out. Grandpa probably would too, and suddenly Jade would be in the middle of another family disaster, watched too closely while everybody argued about how to protect her.
And what if it was just some sick idiot trying to scare her?
What if she blew everything apart over nothing?
She deleted nothing and answered nothing. It was a terrible compromise, which probably made it exactly the kind of sixteen-year-old decision adults were always warning about. Before leaving the room, she closed the blinds completely and shoved the phone into her back pocket.
Her mother glanced up when she joined her at the table. “There you are.”
Jade pulled out a chair and tried to make herself look as normal as her voice sounded. “Yep.”
Lila studied her face for half a second. “Everything okay?”
The phone felt heavier against Jade’s hip, but she kept her expression steady. “Yeah.”
It was getting easier to lie, and that felt like its own warning.
Her mom passed her a plate anyway, and Jade did her best to be a girl eating dinner in a normal apartment with normal problems. She laughed once at something Lila said, ate enough not to draw attention, answered questions, and made it through the meal without checking the phone.
Later, after the dishes were done and homework was supposedly finished, Jade lay in bed with the screen lighting the dark.
The messages were still there. So was Cage’s name in her call history and the wallpaper she had taken at the clubhouse, sunset catching the fence and rows of bikes until they looked almost beautiful.
Her dad. Cage. The clubhouse. Her mom. New pieces of her life were finally settling into place, and somebody out there had decided to reach into them and make her afraid.
Jade turned the phone facedown beside her and listened to the apartment settle around her. She had wanted to believe the messages were only words. Now, lying in the dark with the blinds closed, she could no longer convince herself whoever sent them was far away.
And that scared her more than she wanted to admit.