Chapter 14 #2
Emma’s eyes go straight to Raven first, then to Lexi in my arms, and whatever questions she has get buried immediately under the kind of soft, efficient concern only women who’ve seen too much know how to wield.
“Hey, sweetheart,” she says to Raven in a voice that somehow manages to be gentle without sounding pitying. “Come on inside.”
Mac steps in beside her, dark hair pulled up, expression alert but warm. “We’ve got you.”
Simple words.
But I watch the way Raven reacts to them anyway. She doesn’t melt. Doesn’t visibly sag or cry or do anything dramatic.
Still, I see the tiny hitch in her breathing. See the way her shoulders drop just a fraction. See the way her eyes flick between Emma and Mac like she doesn’t quite know what to do with women stepping in without demanding anything from her first.
That tells me enough.
Logan comes down the last step and looks at me once. Just once. That’s all it takes.
He reads the whole situation the way men like him do, fast and clean and without needing half the explanation most people would.
“Everything quiet?” he asks.
“Yeah.”
“Anybody follow?”
“No.”
He nods once, trusting that answer completely. Then his attention shifts to Raven and he reins his presence down the way good leaders know how to when they’re trying not to make something already tense worse.
“Raven,” he says. “I’m Logan.”
Her grip tightens on the backpack strap. “Hi.”
“This is safe ground,” he tells her. “We’ll get you settled tonight. Anything else can wait till morning.”
She looks at him for one long second, like she’s trying to decide whether she believes that. Then she nods.
Emma steps closer. “You hungry? Thirsty? Need a shower? Just want to lie down and not talk to anybody?”
That last one nearly gets a smile out of Raven.
Nearly.
“Lie down sounds nice,” she says softly.
“Then that’s what we’re doing,” Emma replies immediately, like there is no other possible answer.
Mac reaches for the duffel before I can shift it higher on my shoulder. “I’ll take that.”
I hand it over.
No point pretending I need to carry everything myself.
Still, as the women close in around Raven and start guiding the whole thing forward with that particular kind of female competence men like us are smart enough not to interfere with, I become uncomfortably aware of something I hadn’t really let myself think about on the drive back.
This is temporary. That’s the whole point.
Temporary room. Temporary hideout. Temporary safety until something more permanent gets figured out.
I knew that before I ever crossed into Louisiana.
Doesn’t stop the thought from landing wrong now. Doesn’t stop me from hating it a little.
Inside, the clubhouse quiets in a strange ripple as we step through the door. Not fully, because that would be impossible in this place, but enough that every brother within sight notices and then very carefully pretends not to stare too hard.
It’s not subtle.
Cain is leaned against the bar and actually chokes on his drink when he sees me carrying a sleeping little girl while a dark-haired woman in my sweatshirt follows behind.
Jimmy, sitting at one of the tables with Landon, just slowly lowers his beer and mutters, “Well, that’s new.”
I don’t break stride. But I do cut a look across the room sharp enough to make three grown men suddenly find the wall deeply fascinating.
Smart.
Emma leads us toward the hall off the main floor, the one with the guest rooms and a few of the downstairs bedrooms. Better. Quieter. Away from the main traffic of the common area.
Raven slows a little when we hit the hallway, probably because now that we’ve stopped moving, the exhaustion is catching up with her in real time.
Emma notices too. “You alright?” she asks.
Raven nods too fast. “Yeah.”
Mac snorts softly. “That’s woman code for no.”
Raven blinks at her.
And to my complete surprise, Mac gives her a half-smile and says, “Good news is you don’t have to be alright tonight.”
That one lands. I can see it land.
Raven looks away too quickly after, but not before I catch the way her throat works once like she’s swallowing something she doesn’t want anyone to see.
Emma stops outside one of the guest rooms and opens the door. “This one’s yours.”
Then she points to the next one down. “And that one can be Lexi’s, unless you want her with you.”
Raven looks horrified. “No, she stays with me.”
Emma smiles softly.
Raven’s face flushes just a little, and for some reason I find that absurdly humanizing after everything else.
Mac slips inside first and flips on the lamp. And that’s when I realize exactly which room Emma has stopped us in.
Because the door right next to it?
Mine.
I go still. Not visibly. I’ve had a lot of practice at not visibly reacting to shit that catches me off guard. But internally, the whole thought hits like a dropped wrench.
Right next to mine.
That should not matter. There is no version of this where that should matter.
She’s here temporarily. I am not a damn teenager.
And yet the second the fact settles, I become far too aware of the wall separating my room from the one Emma is ushering Raven into like it’s already somehow changed shape.
Annoying.
Logan catches the look on my face and, because he’s a bastard who enjoys my suffering more than is probably healthy for a chapter president, one corner of his mouth twitches.
I narrow my eyes at him.
He has the nerve to look innocent. I hate him.
Emma turns back toward me and glances down at Lexi. “You can set her on the bed.”
I step into the room before Raven can protest and carry Lexi over to the mattress, lowering her carefully onto the comforter without waking her all the way. She squirms once, Bunny mashed tighter to her chest, then goes limp again.
Raven moves closer immediately, instinct pulling her straight to the bed like a magnet. She kneels to untie Lexi’s shoes with fingers that look like they’re operating on the last available drop of fuel. Mac sets the duffel near the dresser and starts checking drawers for extra blankets.
Soft landing. That’s what it is. And watching it happen does something complicated and irritating to the inside of my chest.
Because it’s good. Because she needs it. Because Lexi needs it. Because I’m grateful as hell that the women here know exactly how to step in without turning it into some pity parade. And because some part of me already resents that this is all supposed to be temporary enough to end.
I back out of the room before I start thinking too hard about any of that.
Logan follows me into the hall. “You good?” he asks quietly.
I look at him flat. “You told me I was picking up ‘something.’”
He folds his arms. “Was I wrong?”
I stare at him.
He stares right back.
I hate that he almost gets a grin out of me. “You’re an asshole,” I mutter.
“Worked, didn’t it?”
I glance toward the room. “Yeah.”
He studies my face for a second too long, then wisely decides not to say whatever he was about to. “Get some sleep. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“Mm.”
He claps my shoulder once and heads back toward the main room, leaving me alone in the hallway with the muffled sounds of women moving around in Raven’s room and the sudden, stupid awareness of the door to mine sitting directly beside it.
I should go inside. Shut the door. Take a shower. Maybe punch a wall for balance.
Instead, I stay where I am for another minute longer than necessary.
That’s when Raven steps out into the hall.
Emma is still inside with Lexi, probably helping settle her for the night, and Mac must’ve gone to grab something because for one strange, suspended second it’s just the two of us again.
She’s standing in the soft spill of lamplight from the open doorway, hair still loose over her shoulders, my sweatshirt still swallowing her whole, face tired enough to break something in me if I look too long.
She looks disoriented. Like her body hasn’t caught up to the fact that the drive is over and the world hasn’t ended yet. She also looks too damn beautiful for a hallway at nearly two in the morning.
Which is rude, honestly.
Her eyes lift to mine, and for a second she just stands there like she forgot what she came out to say. Then she clears her throat softly. “Thank you.”
Two words. Quiet enough that if the hallway were any louder, I might’ve missed them.
But I don’t. And because I’m apparently useless tonight, my brain completely abandons me. There are a thousand things I could say.
You’re welcome.
You’re safe here.
Get some sleep.
No problem.
Anything remotely normal.
Instead, what comes out is, “Yeah. Sure.”
Outstanding. Real smooth.
Raven’s mouth twitches like she might smile despite herself. That somehow makes it worse.
I shove one hand through my hair and look away first because if I don’t, I’m going to say something even dumber and there are only so many humiliations a man should endure in one night.
“You should get some rest,” I mutter.
She nods. “You too.”
Then Emma says something from inside the room, Raven turns back toward the doorway, and just like that the moment is over.
She disappears inside.
The door closes softly. And I stand there for another full five seconds staring at the wood like a complete idiot before finally dragging myself into my own room.
I shower.
Doesn’t help.
I lie down.
Definitely doesn’t help.
Because the second the lights are off and the room goes quiet, all I can think about is the fact that Raven is on the other side of the wall.
Right there. Separated from me by drywall and bad timing and the kind of temporary arrangement that shouldn’t matter half as much as it suddenly does.
I stare at the ceiling. Listen to the pipes knock once somewhere in the building. Listen to muffled footsteps in the hallway fade. Listen for absolutely no reason at all to the faintest possible sounds from the room next door, though I can’t hear much of anything.
And then I spend half the goddamn night wide awake, pissed off, overthinking, and fully aware that this whole situation is already getting under my skin in ways I absolutely did not sign up for.