26. Finn
Finn
Nine days without Kate and Noah had turned my house into somewhere I only slept instead of lived. Every room still carried traces of them.
One of Noah’s toy cars sat crooked beneath the coffee table where he’d kicked it. Kate’s shampoo still lingered faintly in the bathroom. Even the blanket she’d wrapped around herself at night was still folded over the arm of the couch.
I should’ve packed it all away. Instead, I kept coming home and staring at it like some pathetic bastard hoping they’d walk back through the door.
By the time I pushed into church that night, the meeting had already started. The second my boot hit the clubhouse floor, every voice cut off.
Reaper looked up from the head of the table. “You’re late.”
“Gate relief didn’t show.”
His stare held steady on mine. “You don’t miss church,” he said evenly. “And you don’t walk in after it starts.”
A beat passed.
“Or did you forget how this works?”
“No, Pres.”
The silence stretched just long enough to settle under my skin before he finally nodded towards the table.
“Sit.”
I dropped into my seat, aware of every pair of eyes following me.
Reaper got straight back to business. “Kate and the kid are secure,” he said. “Cabin’s holding. Keno’s still there full-time. Prospects rotate through the lower property.”
Relief hit harder than it should have.
Safe.
At least they were safe.
“Lucy’s been riding my arse about visiting,” Reaper added, irritation threading through his voice. “Wants to check on the baby.”
A couple of brothers smirked.
Reaper ignored them completely. “I’ll head out there myself soon,” he continued. “Make sure everything’s still locked down.”
My chest tightened at that. He was going himself, which meant he didn’t fully trust the situation either.
Link turned his laptop around. “I dug deeper into the parents,” he said. “Names are real, but everything after that gets messy.”
“How messy?” Riot asked.
“No recent card activity. No motel hits. No traffic cameras. Nothing tied to either of them since they disappeared.”
Spider leaned back slightly.
“So, they either got smart?—”
“Or someone cleaned it up for them,” Riot finished.
“What about the address Kate gave us?” Reaper asked.
“Rental,” Link replied. “Already stripped before we got there.”
“Clean?”
“Too clean.”
That settled heavy around the table. People running scared made mistakes. People disappearing that neatly usually had help.
“What about Volkov?” Riot asked.
Link shook his head. “Still quiet.”
I frowned. That bothered me more than if the bastard had started shooting. Men like Volkov didn’t go silent unless they were planning something.
“We assume worst case until proven otherwise,” Reaper said firmly. “Nobody relaxes because things got quiet.”
A few nods circled the table, then Spider looked at me.
“Problem is,” he said casually, “we’ve got distractions inside the club too.”
I already knew where this was going.
“Say it plain,” Reaper demanded.
Spider shrugged. “Finn.”
The room quieted again.
I lifted my gaze. “Go on.”
“You got too close,” Spider said. “Everyone here saw what happened because of it.”
My jaw tightened, but I didn’t deny it.
Riot folded his arms. “You ran through that gate without backup or a plan.”
“I knew who it was.”
“And they saw you react,” Riot replied calmly. “That matters.”
Reaper finally spoke again. “You wanna care about her?” he asked.
My eyes locked on his.
“Fine.”
A few heads shifted slightly around the table.
“I don’t care who you want,” Reaper continued, “but feelings don’t come before the club. Ever.”
The words landed hard because there wasn’t anger behind them this time. Just fact.
“You don’t get reckless,” he said. “You don’t make us reactive instead of prepared.”
“I know.”
“You sure?” Spider muttered.
Reaper lifted one hand slightly and Spider shut up immediately.
Then Reaper looked back at me. “You fucked up,” he said bluntly. “But you owned it. That’s the only reason you’re still sitting at this table instead of prospecting again.”
That got everyone’s attention.
Reaper leaned back slightly in his chair. “You wanna earn trust back?” he asked. “Then prove you can think clearly when it matters.”
“How?”
“You stop acting like a man chasing a woman and start acting like a patched brother again.”
The words stung more than I expected, because he wasn’t fully wrong.
A long silence followed before Reaper added, “And if Kate asks for you again . . .”
Every muscle in my body locked tight as his gaze stayed on mine.
“That becomes a different conversation.” Reaper had acknowledged something nobody else would touch out loud.
Kate mattered.
Whatever had happened between us, he’d seen it too.
His expression hardened again. “Until then, you stay focused.”
I gave a single nod. “Yeah, Pres.”
Reaper studied me another second before looking away. “Church is done.”
Chairs scraped back as conversations started again around the room, but I stayed where I was for a moment longer.