Chapter 20
TWENTY
brOOKE
“So,” Bri says, drawing the word out as she shifts against her pillows. “Tell us.”
I quirk a brow at my baby sister. “Tell you what?”
“How’s it going with you and Rev?” she asks, eyes bright. “Or should I call him Javier?” She laughs like she’s already pleased with herself.
I give her the full mom look I perfected while raising her. “You, dear sister, will call him Rev and nothing else.”
Bella squeals and kicks her feet from her spot on the opposite end of the couch. “I love that you two are finally together.”
“Finally?” I echo. “What do you mean finally?”
She shrugs, lips twitching like she’s holding onto something. “Oh, nothing,” she says, way too innocently.
I point at her. “Uh-uh. You don’t get to say nothing with that face. What are you being secretive about?”
She glances between me and Bri, her smile widening into something almost giddy.
“Okay, this is going to sound super sappy, and I’m totally blaming pregnancy hormones,” she says, bracing herself.
“But when Switch and I first started dating and we all went to Perdition together, hanging out with the guys, I kind of thought it would be really cool if you all ended up together.”
My eyes narrow slightly. “You did not.”
“I absolutely did,” she insists. “I could tell Rev was attracted to you, Brooke. And Blade practically tracked Bri around the bar all night. It was so obvious.”
Bri groans. “I was not being tracked.”
Bella points at her. “You absolutely were. By a very tall, very grumpy shadow.”
I laugh. “So you were already writing our love lives in your head.”
“Maybe,” she admits, unapologetically. “It just made me hope we’d all end up with big, bad, scary biker men and become this weird little biker family.”
Bri shakes her head, laughing despite herself. “You’re crazy.”
Bella beams and throws a pillow at Bri. “Oh stop, you know you love me. You both do.”
Bri tips her head toward me, eyes curious. “Okay, so… how are things actually going with you and Rev?”
“Things with Javier are going really freaking good,” I admit, smiling so hard my cheeks start to ache. “I know we’re complete opposites, but somehow it just works… in all the right ways.” I smirk and wiggle my brows.
Bri makes a loud gagging noise. “Absolutely not. I did not need that visual.”
“You literally asked,” Bella says, laughing.
“I asked about feelings,” Bri argues. “Not… whatever that was.”
I laugh, sinking back into the couch. “Relax. I’m not giving you details.”
“Good,” Bri says quickly. “Because I’m pregnant and emotionally fragile.”
Bella snorts. “You cried over a commercial yesterday.”
“It was emotional,” Bri insists. “There was a dog.”
I shake my head, still smiling. “You’re both pregnant and hormonal.”
Bella shifts against her pillows and grins at me. “I’m really happy for you though. You deserve this.”
Something warm settles in my chest. “Yeah,” I say quietly. “I really am.”
Bri points at me with a piece of popcorn. “Okay but if he ever messes up, Blade and I get the first punch.”
Bella nods seriously. “Second punch.”
I laugh. “Noted.”
Bri reaches for her phone and squints at the screen. “Blade just texted me again.”
Bella groans. “Let me guess. Another reminder not to open the door for strangers, delivery drivers, wildlife, or the ghost of Christmas past.”
Bri reads it anyway, lips twitching. “ ‘Doors locked. Windows locked. Alarm armed. Don’t answer the door for anyone, including us.’ ”
I snort. “We already promised.”
“Twice,” Bella adds. “With eye contact.”
Bri shakes her head, thumbs flying as she types back. “I swear, if he checks the cameras one more time like we’re teenagers throwing a party…”
“He’s absolutely checking the cameras,” I say.
Bella points a piece of popcorn at me. “They’re all checking the cameras.”
She’s not wrong. The guys are all holed up at Bella and Switch’s place tonight with the baby, and they made us lock every window and door before they even pulled out of the driveway.
Blade walked the house himself, tugging on locks, testing the alarm panel, checking the back door twice like it might suddenly decide to betray us.
Rev lingered in the hallway pretending not to hover while absolutely hovering.
Switch did a slow sweep of the yard before he left, eyes scanning shadows that weren’t moving.
And then the lecture came. Don’t answer the door. Don’t open windows. Keep your phones on you. Text if anything feels off.
Bri laughs softly, setting her phone down. “They’ve got the security feed pulled up on the TV over there. Blade said he’s got all the camera angles on split screen.”
“Of course he does,” Bella says dryly. “Nothing says romance like surveillance.”
I smile into my drink. “At least if someone walks past the mailbox wrong, we’ll know about it in under three seconds.”
Bri grins. “Protective idiots.”
My chest warms at the word even as a small, quiet part of me stays aware of the locked doors and drawn curtains.
Not afraid. Just alert in the way you get after something shakes your sense of normal for a while.
The house feels safe, full of laughter and snacks and sisters, but I still know exactly why the guys didn’t want us answering the door tonight.
Bella tosses a piece of popcorn into her mouth. “Honestly, I kind of love it. We’re basically in a very well-guarded snack bunker.”
Bri lifts her drink. “To the bunker.”
I clink mine against hers. “To locked doors and overprotective bikers.”
I roll my drink slowly between my palms, watching the ice shift in the glass before I glance between them. “Does all the secrecy ever bother you guys?” I ask, keeping my tone light even though the question isn’t. “Do you ever want to know exactly what’s going on with the guys?”
Bri leans back against her pillows and exhales through her nose. “Sometimes,” she admits. “Not because I don’t trust Blade. Just because my brain likes answers. Silence gives it way too much room to spiral.”
Bella nods slowly. “Yeah. Same. There are nights I catch myself wondering what they’re dealing with, if they’re safe, if something’s about to spill over into our world.”
She shifts, one hand settling instinctively over her stomach. “But then I remember they don’t keep things from us to control us. They do it to protect us. There’s a difference.”
Bri’s mouth tilts into a faint smile. “Blade tells me what I need to know. Not the ugly parts. Just the parts that help me feel steady.”
Bella snorts. “Switch once tried to explain something technical to me and I made him stop halfway through because my eyes were glazing over.”
I laugh softly. “Fair.”
Bri glances at me. “What about you? Does it bother you?”
I think about Rev’s quiet steadiness. The way he never lies, never overpromises, never pretends his world is clean, but also never drags me into the parts that would sit heavy in my chest.
“Sometimes I’m curious,” I admit. “But I don’t need the details to trust him. I just need to know he’s coming home.”
Bella smiles at that. “That’s the real part.”
The room settles into a comfortable pause, the show still murmuring in the background, the quiet punctuated by the rustle of snack bags and the occasional clink of ice in a glass. The question lingers in the air without feeling unresolved, like something understood instead of answered.
Bella tips her head, studying me. “What about the illegal parts?”
The word hangs there heavier than the rest of it has.
I don’t rush to answer. I pick at the edge of a napkin instead, feeling the texture between my fingers. “Yeah,” I say finally. “That part. Does that ever mess with you? Knowing what they’re actually involved in?”
Bella exhales slowly and shifts against her pillows. “I won’t pretend it doesn’t cross my mind,” she says. “Especially when Switch comes home wired tight or quiet in that way that means something big went down.”
Bri nods. “Same. Sometimes I catch myself wondering where the line is. What I want to know versus what I probably don’t.
” Her hand drifts absently to her stomach, protective without her even thinking about it.
“It hits differently when you’re about to have a kid.
You start thinking about risk in a whole new way. ”
I swallow. “Yeah.”
Bri glances at me. “But here’s the thing. I’m not with Blade because I think his world is clean. I’m with him because I know his code. I know who he protects. I know where he draws the line.”
Bella adds quietly, “They don’t hurt innocent people.
They don’t bring that mess to our doors.
They don’t lie to us about who they really are.
Switch straight up told me on our second date that his hands weren’t clean,” Bella says.
“Not proud. Just honest. I respected that more than someone pretending they’re perfect. ”
I lean back into the couch, letting that settle. “Rev’s the same way,” I admit. “He never sugarcoats who he is, just makes it clear where I fit in his priorities.”
Bella smiles softly. “And that’s the part that matters.”
Bri tilts her head. “Does it scare you sometimes?”
I think about locked doors. Security cameras. The way Rev checks windows without realizing he’s doing it. The way he holds me like something that could be taken if he lets go. “Sometimes,” I say honestly. “But not enough to make me want to walk away.”
Bella’s mouth curves into a small, knowing smile. “Yeah. Same.”
The TV keeps playing in the background, someone on screen yelling dramatically about something that suddenly feels very small compared to the quiet weight of what we’re really talking about.
Bri breaks the tension first. “Okay, but if any of them ever start acting shady in a way that crosses our line, we’re forming a secret sister council.”
Bella perks up. “Do we get robes?”
I laugh. “Obviously.”
“Okay good,” Bri says. “Then I’m in.”
We finally call it a night a couple of hours later.
Bella heads down the hall toward one of the guest rooms with a pillow tucked under her arm, already half-asleep.
Bri takes the other, stopping long enough to remind me to text if I need anything, like I’m going somewhere instead of ten feet away.
We trade quiet goodnights and click off the lights one by one.
I love having them here. I really do. The house feels warmer when it’s full of people. But the second I step into my bedroom and shut the door, the quiet hits different. The bed feels too empty on one side.
I change into one of Javier’s old t-shirts and crawl under the covers, reaching out without thinking before I catch myself.
I haven’t slept a night without him in a long time.
Not really. Even when one of us comes home late, there’s always the expectation that he’ll be there eventually.
His weight settling beside me. The familiar warmth.
The way his arm finds my waist in his sleep like it’s on autopilot.
I didn’t realize how used to that I’d gotten until tonight.
I miss him. Plain and simple. Not in a dramatic way.
Just in the quiet, slightly uncomfortable way that settles in your chest when something that belongs in your space isn’t there.
I stare at the ceiling for a minute, listening to the house settle, the muffled sound of one of my sisters moving down the hall, the refrigerator kicking on in the kitchen.
And somewhere in the middle of that stillness, the thought shows up steady and clear.
He’s it for me. I know it’s fast. I know if I said it out loud some people would probably give me a look.
But I’ve known him long enough to know the important stuff.
I’ve seen how he shows up for his mom and his sisters without needing credit for it.
I’ve watched how loyal he is to his club, how seriously he takes that responsibility.
I know the way he puts me first without making me feel small or crowded or like I have to fight for space in his life.
And I know how he takes control in the quiet ways that actually matter.
How when he’s here, I don’t have to hold everything together by myself.
I don’t have to stay braced for the next thing or keep all the plates spinning in my head.
He sees what needs to be handled and handles it.
Carries the weight so I can finally set mine down.
I didn’t realize how badly I needed that kind of steadiness until I had it.
I roll onto my side and pull the blanket higher around my shoulders, letting my eyes finally close. I just want him home. Not because I can’t function without him. Because life feels lighter when I don’t have to carry everything alone.