Chapter 25
Quinn
Checking the clock on the wall, I hold my breath for a moment. Time is moving too slowly. After I closed the shop for the day, I sent my crew off early and raced to my parents’ house, irresponsibly leaving the dirty dishes, a full register, and overflowing garbage cans.
But Lucas wasn’t at the house. He texted and said he’d meet me at Fallstown at eight instead. I’m sure Madoc wrangled him into an outing at the races tonight, but I would’ve hoped Lucas would just politely decline. I don’t want to go to Fallstown.
I want to see my collar.
And we need to talk.
But first, I want to see my collar.
Throwing down the dishcloth onto the worktable, I lock my hands on top of my head and lift my eyes to the ceiling, pacing the kitchen.
What do I know so far? He started Green Street. With Drew Reeves.
He unintentionally killed someone and banished himself over the guilt.
Now, he’s being exiled again by Green Street’s new leader.
I try to retrace memories from years ago. How he’d come over for dinner but then jet off to see friends. That one time he was taking me to the library and we ran into someone he knew.
He didn’t want them talking to me. Was it Drew?
I draw up the image in my head, but I can’t get a clear picture.
Then there was that day under the dock when we hid. Was that before or after the killing? He didn’t want to see whoever that was.
And now he hates himself.
I drop my arms, putting the cloth in the laundry and sitting down at my open laptop.
When he held me in the car, everything was right.
He was like Lucas a decade ago. That’s the Lucas I want back.
That’s the one I deserve. He’s not a murderer, and he’s not a bad man. He let Drew Reeves cost him too much.
I glance at the clock again. I showered, changed into clean clothes, and came back to the bakery, having time to kill yet. Where is he right now? Every second he’s not with me, I’m worried. As if Hugo will snatch him off the street.
I’m surprised he doesn’t send Farrow to pick me up and bring me to the track.
I let the wheels spin in my head. Yeah, that is surprising. He didn’t send Farrow because he’s with Farrow. Dread starts to curl its way through my mind. Are they up to something?
Why is it so hard for Lucas to talk to me?
To hell with it. If he’s not at the track, he will be soon.
Closing my laptop, I swing my crossbody over my head and grab my phone, about to head to my bike.
But then I remember…
Doubling back, I swipe my new car keys off the worktable and turn off the bakery lights.
My phone rings as I open the alley door, and I glance at the screen. I answer as I lock the door. “Hi,” I chirp.
“Hey, kiddo,” Jax replies.
I slip my work keys into my purse and head around the block, toward my new-to-me Jeep.
“Sorry I haven’t been around much,” he tells me. “This summer is flying by.”
“It’s okay. We’re all busy.”
“It’s not okay.” He pauses, his voice softening. “I miss you.”
I toss my purse into the back of the car and hesitate, loving how that feels.
When Jared calls, it’s not always unpleasant, but he usually has an ulterior motive, and when Madoc reaches out, it’s to get me to join in on a picnic or a party.
Again, not unpleasant, but it always feels like I’m a baby bird being tucked back under a giant wing.
When Jax calls, I just feel like he wants me to feel loved. Like he didn’t growing up.
“You don’t miss me?” he blurts out.
I grin, climbing into the car. “I do. I’m just too busy smiling at how sweet you are.”
He falls quiet for a moment. “Yeah, well…”
I can just envision the blush on his cheeks.
The youngest of my three brothers is just as formidable as Jared, and just as powerful as Madoc, but he’s always a little gentler.
Maybe it’s in his nature to keep his emotions in check, but I think part of him constantly feels like he doesn’t have the right to bark or make demands of me like the other two.
Jax and I don’t share blood. There’s an invisible line he just never seems to cross, and out of the three, I wish he would the most. He is my brother, and I want him to know it.
“I appreciate you, you know that,” he says. “Hawke is driving me nuts right now, and I look at you and think maybe I was a good influence on someone. Because, let’s be honest, Jared and Madoc weren’t.”
I laugh a little, but the guilt makes my smile quickly fall. If he knew I was keeping a secret—or a few, actually…
Starting the engine, I put my earbud in and lay my phone in the passenger seat. “What’s going on with Hawke?”
I pull away from the curb and make my way down High Street, toward Fallstown.
“Oh, this frat he’s started.” His tone drips with disdain. “I didn’t think I raised a fucking preppie.”
I nearly snort. “He’s not a preppie.”
Hawke, Kade, and Hunter started a fraternity at Clarke University last fall, Sigma-something-or-other. They even renovated a derelict house on campus. So far, it’s just the three of them, but they’ve aligned with a national organization, formed an executive board, and begun the recruiting process.
He goes on, “Even Aro is disgusted she’s in love with a frat-bro.”
“Or oddly turned on.”
If I know anything about Aro—and Dylan—they will relish the challenge of their boyfriends belonging to clubs they can’t join. They don’t like—
Movement catches my attention, a car in my rearview mirror. I tense, recognizing the now-familiar sight of the black Dodge.
“Where are you?” he asks.
“Almost at Fallstown.” I turn left. “Dylan is racing tonight.”
I grip the wheel, glancing in my mirror again. That damn car is just pissing me off now. What does it want?
I clear my throat, shifting gears and speeding up. “You know I’m going to make some mistakes sooner or later, right?” I tell him.
“As long as he has a job, a license, no criminal record, and no sexual past, I approve of any of your mistakes.” I hear him chew something crunchy. “I’m very proud of the man Aro chose. And the one Dylan chose.”
Yeah. Both their guys are family members of his.
And virgins, from what Aro told me the other night in the bounce house and Dylan confided about her and Hunter ages ago.
I’m choosing someone who will make Jax more nervous because I’m in love with someone a lot older than me.
Someone with a past that’s causing him a lot of problems.
“Well, thank goodness your criteria weren’t in place when Juliet, Tate, and Fallon were falling in love.”
“Right?” he retorts.
I chuckle. We all know that he, Jared, and Madoc would’ve had a hard time getting around those rules.
The car behind me closes in. “Get back to work,” I tease. “I gotta go.”
“Love ya, kiddo.”
We hang up, I press on the gas, shift gears again, and hightail it to Fallstown.
I race down the long lane to the track, keeping an eye in my mirror. “What do you want with me?”
Are you spying on me? Protecting me? Pondering when to strike?
Lights glow up ahead, and cars sit in the makeshift lots off to the right, before the tracks. Picking up my phone, I dial the number Deacon called me from once. I wait for the light of my call to glow inside the Dodge.
But it doesn’t.
If it is Deacon, he’s not carrying that phone.
Ending the call, I jerk the wheel and bounce over the already-trampled grass to a quick parking spot. Shutting off the engine, I grab my phone and keys and run back over to the main road, the car still stopped in the middle—staring at me.
Come on, I urge them. Just get out of the car.
It’s just sitting there.
What the hell do they want? I led it to the camp last night, and it ditched me. I don’t understand.
Moving toward the car, I watch it suddenly back up. I stop, letting it retreat as I hold back a scream of frustration.
“Hey, you came!” I hear Dylan behind me.
Spinning around, I open my arms just in time for her to barrel into me with a hug. I don’t know if she sees the car behind me, but there are vehicles coming in and out of here all night. “I told you all I’d figure out some free time eventually,” I tell her.
She rocks me side to side, gleeful. “Wanna race with me?”
She pulls away, and I glance over my shoulder, seeing the car back away down the long road.
“If you still raced cars, then maybe,” I say.
“That could be arranged.”
She races motorbikes now, and I knew she had no interest in racing anything else anymore.
I walk over to the tracks with her. “Just be safe.”
“I’ll be the only thing I can be.”
I throw her a small smile, but she doesn’t see it. I love that she knows who she is. There’s never really a fork in her road.
Engines roar in the night, the bleachers are filled, and lines stretch from the food trucks and merch tents. This is the last race before Jared heads out on the road with his team for a whole month. Rumor has it he’s stopping in Colorado. Maybe Noah can see his dad.
And I also heard Dylan will be joining them all for her first real circuit. Which he only agreed to if she promises to be home by the time the fall semester starts.
Lucas stands in a group with my brothers, his hands in his pockets. I stop at his side—close—and feel him go instantly still. I hide my amusement.
Jared doesn’t even say hi. Just arches an eyebrow at me. “Nice Jeep.”
Jared’s not a fan of me making any decisions without him.
“Don’t give her that look,” Lucas teases. “I checked it out and bought it for her as a surprise. It was cheap, but it runs well.”
Madoc twists his mouth to the side but keeps it shut.
Lucas continues, “You can talk her into something with higher safety ratings and bulletproof glass after I leave. Just be glad I got her driving.”
“Yes, thank you,” Madoc grumbles. “As usual, you’re the only one she listens to.”
Do I listen to Lucas? I almost laugh, remembering how he had to chase me last night.
But wait… after I leave, he’d said. Is Lucas not at least considering staying now? I don’t know why that surprises me. It shouldn’t. I told him I didn’t want more than last night anyway.