Chapter 1 #2
She finally took a few steps forward and wrapped her hands around the coffee mug Anchor had poured. She didn’t drink it at first. Just held it like the warmth might seep into her bones.
She stared into the black surface.
“I shouldn’t be here,” she said again, but this time there wasn’t any fight in it.
Just exhaustion. “You don’t know me. I don’t know you.
If this guy is targeting me because of something that happened here…
” She shook her head. “I don’t want you guys to be hurt because of it.
I should go away and have this crazy guy follow me. ”
“You're not bringing any hurt to us,” I said. “This psycho is. He was targeting us before you got here.”
Anchor nodded. “We were already in this long before we found your picture. Bernice, the bodies—this is our problem. You’re just…”
“Collateral damage? More of the problem?” she suggested.
I felt my jaw clench. “No,” I said. “You’re not a problem.”
She lifted her eyes to mine.
“You’re under our roof. That makes you ours to protect.”
Something flickered in her gaze.
It was small.
But I saw it.
Anchor pushed off the table. “You’re staying until we figure out why he wants you. That’s not up for debate. In the meantime, you don’t leave that back hallway without one of us with you. Not to the kitchen. Not to the bathroom. Not to the front porch. Nowhere.”
Her mouth dropped open. “I’m on house arrest?”
“Consider it very aggressive witness protection,” Anchor said. “You can do what you want, just one of us has to be with you. It will be Prime most of the time, but if he can’t, you don’t do anything unless you’ve got someone with a patch next to you.”
“I’m not helpless,” she argued.
“Never said you were,” I said quietly.
She went still.
“You might remember more,” I added. “About the island. About that night. About your mother. About whatever the hell might connect that night to this psycho.” It really was a stretch.
The odds that twenty-some years ago Shay had seen something, and that this guy was coming after her because of it was way out in left field, but honestly, everything that had been happening was way out of left field.
“I don’t want to remember,” she whispered. “It might get me killed if I do.”
“Doesn’t matter what you want,” I said. “Whatever happened that night could lead us right to this guy.”
Her throat bobbed like she was swallowing glass. “You say that like it’s supposed to make me feel better,” she said.
“It should,” I said. “Because whether you like it or not, you’ve got a whole club between you and him now.”
“Why do you care?” she asked suddenly.
The question hit harder than it should have.
Because I’d been asking myself the same damn thing since I walked into that grocery store, saw her behind the register with her name badge on, and felt something in my chest go tight.
“I don’t like predators,” I said. “And I don’t like someone thinking they can use a woman to screw with my club.”
“That’s it?” she asked, eyes searching my face like she knew there was more.
“That’s enough,” I said.
Anchor checked the clock on the wall. “I’m gonna go check the west perimeter and then head back to the cabin. Pearl might swing by if I let her. In the meantime, Prime’s on you.”
She blinked. “On me?”
I answered, “I don’t leave this room unless you do. Remember that?”
“I do, but I’m not going to like it,” she said.
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “Be weird if you did.”
She huffed. “It’s like I’m a prisoner.”
“No,” I said. “Makes you a priority.”
She looked away fast, but not before I saw the flush hit her cheeks.
Anchor watched the exchange with that too-knowing look he got when he saw something before the rest of us.
“I’ll be in and out,” he said. “If either of you remembers anything else…”
“Yeah,” I said.
He headed out the door, and it shut with a thud behind him.
That left just me and Shay in the common room.
Her.
Me.
She blew out a breath and finally took a sip of coffee. Her nose wrinkled. “This is terrible.”
I smirked. “Skull made it.”
“The stuff in the break room at the grocery store is better than this,” she muttered.
I jerked my chin toward the couch. “You can sit, you know.”
“You’re not,” she pointed out.
“I don’t sit,” I said.
“Ever?”
“Sometimes,” I said. “Not now.”
She studied me for a beat, then walked around the coffee table and planted herself on the end of the couch with one leg curled under her.
“So what am I supposed to do?” she asked. “While I’m a ‘priority’?”
“Eat,” I said. “Sleep. Hang out with Pearl. Stay in my sight. Try to remember anything that might help us not end up with your picture in another file.”
“That’s dark,” she muttered. “And not very fun.”
“That’s reality,” I said.
She blew out a breath. “And you’re just… going to stand there? All day?”
“Pretty much,” I said.
“What if I have to pee?” she asked.
“I walk you to the bathroom, check to make sure it’s safe, then wait outside the door until you’re done.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope.”
“What if I want a snack?”
“I walk you to the kitchen.”
“And if I decide to make a run for it?” she challenged.
I met her gaze, dead-on. “You won’t.”
“How do you know?” she asked.
“Because you’re smart,” I said. “And you already know leaving here makes you easier to find.”
She swallowed hard.
She did know.
She leaned her head back against the couch and stared at the ceiling. “Does it get less terrifying?” she asked quietly. “Knowing someone out there picked you for something like this?”
I thought about the file.
About Bernice.
About my own rage.
“No,” I said honestly. “But it’s less lonely now.”
She looked over at me again.
“Because of you?” she asked.
“Because of all of us,” I said. Then, softer, “But, yeah. Because of me too.”
We held each other’s gaze a second too long.
Then Skull’s voice came from the hallway, loud and obnoxious.
“TIME FOR SOME brEAKFAST, FUCKERS.”
Shay flinched.
I sighed.
“Welcome to the Kings of Anarchy,” I said. “It’s loud and crazy, but you’re safe here.”
For the first time that morning, the corner of her mouth lifted in something that wasn’t just strain.
It wasn’t a full smile.
But it was close enough to make the rage in my chest settle into something sharper.
He wanted her because she was connected to us, but none of us knew how. He was trying to use her to break us.
Instead, he’d just given me something new to fight for.
And I didn’t lose what was mine.
Not ever.