Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Shay
Prime walked a half-step ahead of me as we crossed the common room toward the kitchen, like I was a VIP guest and a flight risk at the same time. His shoulders were tense, jaw ticking, and his eyes constantly swept the room like he expected danger to come flying out of the cereal cupboard.
He made me feel safer than anyone ever had.
And that scared the crap out of me.
“Sit,” Prime ordered and pointed at one of the barstools.
“Bossy,” I muttered.
“Yep.”
I sat.
He moved around the kitchen like he’d done it a thousand times. He grabbed bowls, a pan, eggs, bread—real food, not the half-stale cereal from yesterday.
“What exactly are you doing?” I asked.
“Making you breakfast.”
“Do I get a say in that?”
“No.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Prime.”
He cracked an egg with one hand. Show-off.
“You haven’t been eating enough,” he said. “You need food. Protein.”
“Oh my god,” I groaned. “Are you the biker nutritionist?”
“No,” he said. “I’m a biker who knows you need to eat more.”
I couldn’t help it, I snorted. “I ate dinner last night.” I was still getting used to being surrounded by burly bikers.
When I had first gotten here, I was so glad that Pearl was here, but with Bernice dying, Pearl had retreated to her cabin.
Everyone was grieving Bernice, and while I thought it was horrible she had died, I didn’t have any connection with her like everyone else did.
My grief was surface-level. Pearl’s and the club’s went deep.
Prime glanced at me over his shoulder. “Half a peanut butter sandwich is not dinner.”
I shrugged. “I wasn’t hungry. I just wanted to sit after traipsing after you all day.”
“That’s why today you are going to hang out with Pearl. Anchor needs me in the security room, so one of the other guys will be with you.”
“All day?” I asked.
Prime turned back to the stove. “For the most part. I’ll check in on you when I can.”
I should be fine with that, but there was a part of me that was disappointed I wouldn’t see him all day.
“What if Pearl isn’t up for company today?” I asked.
“I already talked to Anchor. She said she wants you to come over.”
Well, I guess that settled that.
I watched Prime finish cracking the eggs into the bowl and then grabbed a fork to beat them. Just as he grabbed a pan to put on the stove, Wannabe barreled in like a golden retriever on caffeine.
“Hey! Morning!” He waved both arms at once. “You’re alive!”
I blinked. “Uh… yes?” Should I have not been?
“Great! Fantastic!” He bounced once on the balls of his feet. “Skull said he heard you scream last night and—”
Prime didn’t even turn around before snapping, “Get out.”
Wannabe froze.
“But I want coffee,” he whined.
Prime pointed toward the door without looking.
Wannabe sighed dramatically and trudged out the front door.
When he was gone, I whispered, “I screamed last night?”
“Yeah,” Prime said.
I blinked rapidly. “Uh, care to elaborate a bit?” I obviously didn’t remember screaming. All I remembered was waking up, convincing Prime to let me watch TV, and then I promptly passed out on the couch.
He shrugged and set the pan on the stove. “Not much else to say about it. You were sleeping, you screamed, I made sure you were okay, and then you went back to sleep.”
I stifled a laugh. “When you put it that way, I guess it wasn’t much of a big deal.” Though I was a bit embarrassed I had screamed. One perk of living and sleeping in my car was that no one was around when I sleep talked or screamed.
“You’ve been through a lot of shit, babe. It would be kind of odd if you were able to sleep like a baby.” The pan sizzled as he dropped a pat of butter in and then poured in the scrambled eggs.
Five minutes later, he slid a plate of scrambled eggs and toast in front of me. “Eat.”
“I feel like a toddler.”
“Then eat like one.”
I glared at him but took a bite anyway. The eggs were good. I had no idea how that was possible, given the amount of stress radiating from him.
“You actually cook?” I asked between bites.
“Everyone here cooks,” he said. “We’d starve otherwise.”
“You’re actually kind of good.”
“Don’t spread it around. I’ll get assigned kitchen duty again.”
I shook my head and tried to hide my smile behind a piece of toast.
He leaned on the counter across from me, arms crossed, and watched me eat like it was his only job.
It was unnerving.
Comforting.
All at once.
How was what that possible? I should be terrified and ready to crawl out of my skin here. There was a psycho out there trying to kill me. I should be trying to figure out why I was here, and not eating eggs with a sexy biker.
Ugh, that was another thing I needed to figure out.
Prime.
“Shay.”
I looked up.
He wasn’t glaring or trying to be intimidating.
He was serious.
“You’re safe here,” he said. “You’re not alone. We’ll figure out the why. All of it. But you don’t have to figure it out today.”
My jaw dropped open with a mouthful of egg. “Did you just read my mind?”
Prime chuckled. “No. I can tell what you’re thinking by the way you look.”
I wrinkled my nose. “I looked terrified, confused, and—” I wasn’t going to finish that. He did not need to know that I thought he was sexy.
Nope, that was going to stay buried deep.
“Yeah, among other things,” he replied.
We sat there in silence for a few seconds, the quiet kind that only felt awkward because I didn’t know what to do with the fact that Prime had somehow known exactly what I was thinking. I went back to eating, and Prime worked on cleaning the dishes.
When he was done, he turned fully toward me and leaned against the counter. “You done?” he asked.
I shoveled the last bite of egg into my mouth, followed by the corner of toast left. “Yeah.”
“Good. Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“Off to Pearl’s cabin.”
My stomach dropped. “Like, right now?” I was kind of hoping to have a second to, I don’t know, gather my wits?
“Yeah, babe. I have things to do, and I need to make sure you’re safe before I do that.”
He rounded the table and grabbed my hand. He pulled me off the stool, and I followed him willingly because it felt nice having my hand in his.
And also, I didn’t really have much choice.
Prime led me toward the door, his grip warm, firm, and way too steady for a man who barely slept. The screen door creaked when he pushed it open, letting in a rush of cool air that smelled like damp pine and lake water.
He stepped out first, scanning as he always did: left, right, treeline, roofline, shadows, movement. I’d watched him do it so many times now that I knew the silent pattern of it, the way his body changed shape when he was in protect mode.
Which was… always.
“Come on,” he murmured, and tugged gently.
I stepped out onto the porch.
Somewhere in the distance, a bird screeched over the water.
The fog that had clung to the lake earlier was lifting now.
Prime took us down the porch steps and onto the small dirt path that wound toward Pearl’s cabin.
I didn’t know Skull Island well, but I knew this stretch from when we went to visit Bernice two nights ago.
The narrow trail that ran between two leaning pines, the lake on our left just barely visible through the brush, and the dense undergrowth on the right that looked like it hid every bad thing imaginable.
The ground was soft, damp, and uneven under my shoes. Moss-covered roots twisted across the path like they were trying to trip us, and Prime kept tightening his hold every time he felt me stumble even a little.
“You good?” he asked without looking back.
“Yeah,” I said. “Just trying not to face-plant into nature.”
“Nature’s the least of your problems.”
“Wow. Motivational and creepy.”
He snorted, the sound low and almost fond. “Just stay close.”
I already was.
Prime walked half a step ahead of me, not letting go as he guided me around rocks, over roots, and down the slight slope that led toward the cabins by the water.
Pearl’s was the one with the rocking chair and the chipped white railing, tucked beneath a crooked maple tree like it had grown there instead of being built. A soft trail of smoke drifted from the chimney, faint but enough to say she was inside.
“When you get inside,” Prime said quietly, “you stay there until I come back. Don’t leave. Not even to poke your head out. Got it?”
I nodded, even though my pulse kicked hard at the idea of him leaving at all. “Got it.” How had I gotten so attached to this man so quickly? I had been on my own since I left my ex, and I liked it that way. Now the thought of being without Prime upset me.
He shot me a look. “Say it.”
“I won’t leave Pearl’s cabin.”
His shoulders relaxed by half a degree.
Good grief.
We reached the small porch, and he stopped at the bottom step, turning to face me. His thumb dragged lightly across my knuckles, like he didn’t realize he was doing it.
“You’re safe here,” he said. “Wannabe is inside. He won’t let anything happen to you.”
“I know.”
“And I’ll be back.”
I swallowed. “Okay.”
He leaned in slightly, not enough to kiss me, not enough to call it anything, just close enough that his breath warmed my forehead.
“Stay where I put you,” he murmured.
Then he squeezed my hand once, slow, deliberate, and let go.
I didn’t think I’d hate the feeling of my hand being suddenly empty as much as I did.
Pearl’s door opened just then, and her warm voice floated out. “Shay! Anchor said you were going to come hang out with me today.” She smiled warmly, but I could see the sadness on her face.
“Dammit, Pearl,” Wannabe called, “I told you not to open the door,” he scolded from further in the cabin.
Pearl rolled her eyes. “I saw Shay and Prime walking down the path, Wannabe. I wasn’t opening the door to the psycho.”
“Just let me open the damn door. You’re gonna get me in trouble with Anchor if he hears that you’re just opening the door.”