22. Finn
Finn
My gut twisted the second I stepped into the war room.
Everyone was already there.
Keno leaned against the wall, jaw tight. Riot sat motionless beside Link while security footage played across the laptop screen. Reaper stood at the head of the table, arms folded across his chest.
The tension in the room hit like a fist to the throat.
Reaper didn’t waste time. “Car’s been spotted circling the block a few times.” His gaze locked on me. “Same sedan me and Lucy saw yesterday when we took Kate and the kid into town.”
Heat rushed through me.
“We think it’s her parents.”
Kate’s bruises flashed through my head. The way she’d flinched that first night. The fear in her eyes whenever somebody knocked unexpectedly.
Nowhere is safe.
Rage hit so hard, my vision blurred and before Reaper even finished talking, I was moving. The war room door slammed open behind me as I stormed through the clubhouse.
“Finn,” Reaper barked after me. “Stand the fuck down.”
I ignored him, I couldn’t stop, fury pushed me forward. The prospect at gate duty looked startled when he saw me coming.
“Open it,” I snapped.
He barely got the gate moving before I shoved through it.
The sedan sat near the curb outside the lot, its engine idling quietly. I saw them immediately. Older. Worn down. But their eyes were cold. Cruel. The kind of eyes that left bruises people learned to hide. I stormed toward the car before I even realized what I was shouting.
“You think you can come around here?” I roared. “Think you can touch her again? Touch that kid?”
The man behind the wheel stiffened. The woman grabbed his arm, and the sedan lurched forward.
Tires screeched against the pavement as they tore away from the curb.
I grabbed the nearest rock and hurled it after them, but it fell short.
It didn't help the rage burning through me either. My chest heaved as I stared after the disappearing car. I wanted to chase them. Drag them out through the windows and make them understand exactly what they’d done to her.
Boots pounded behind me.
Reaper.
Keno.
Riot.
“Goddammit, Finn,” Reaper snapped the second he reached me. “You storm out here like that again and you’ll start a war before we even know who we’re dealing with.”
I barely heard him. All I could see was Kate, scared, bruised. Trying so damn hard to believe she was finally safe.
A cold promise settled deep in my chest. Nobody was putting their hands on her again.
Nobody.
“Finn,” Reaper barked, “take five and cool the fuck off.”
I dragged both hands over my face roughly and forced myself to turn away before I punched something.
“Check the perimeter,” Reaper ordered the others. “Make sure they didn’t circle back.”
I headed around the side of the clubhouse, needing space.
Needing quiet. The second I was alone, I slid down the brick wall and dropped my head into my hands.
I could still see their faces. The dead look in their eyes.
My fists clenched tightly. Then Kate's bruises flashed through my head again.
Dark marks wrapped around pale skin. Finger-shaped. Violent. They did that to her.
A slow burn spread through my chest until it felt impossible to breathe around it. They didn’t get to walk away from that. Didn’t get to keep breathing like nothing happened.
I’d make sure of it.
Then another thought hit me hard enough to turn my stomach.
I’d hurt her too. Not like them, not physically, but still . . .
My mind dragged me straight back to Reaper’s office.
“She means nothing.”
And the look on her face when she heard me say it.
“Fuck.”
I scrubbed both hands down my face hard enough to hurt. I’d seen what had been done to her. Seen how badly words could cut her down and I still found a way to hurt her anyway because I thought it was easier, safer. The club came first.
She was supposed to be a responsibility, a job. But somewhere along the line, she stopped being either of those things.
That was the real problem. She mattered way too fucking much.
My fist slammed into the wall beside me before I could stop it and pain shot through my knuckles, but I barely felt it.
Kate heard me tell another man she meant nothing.
After touching her. After kissing her. After making her believe I wanted her.
The memory made me sick. I forced in a long breath.
Then another. None of it changed anything.
What I felt didn't matter. What I wanted didn't matter. The club always came first.
“Finn.” Reaper’s voice cut through my thoughts.
I pushed to my feet slowly, shoving everything back down where it belonged. Locked tight and buried deep.
Reaper watched me carefully when I rounded the corner. “Church,” he said. “Now.”
I gave a short nod. “Yeah.”
We headed back towards the clubhouse together.
The noise from the bar bled through the hallway as we stepped inside.