10. Saint
SAINT
Rook was waiting in church at seven.
He had heard us. The dead silence when I entered made that clear. Mace stood near the window. Riot leaned against the wall with his arms folded. Neither had been invited. Both had decided keeping Rook from shooting his vice president before breakfast counted as club business.
I closed the door.
Rook looked at the empty space beside me. “Where’s Avery?”
“Shower.”
“You have something you need to tell me?”
I removed my cut.
Mace shifted. Rook’s gaze dropped to the VP patch before I laid the leather across the back of a chair.
Not on the table and not surrendered. I was here as his oldest friend and his vice president. Both men had failed him. Both were going to tell the truth.
“I broke my word.” Rook’s face stayed blank.
“I’ve been sleeping with Avery.”
Riot looked at the ceiling, muttering a curse word. Mace examined the floor.
Rook came across the room, and his fist caught my jaw, hard.
I let it. But the second hit I blocked.
“One,” I said. “You got one.”
“I put her in your fucking hands.”
“I know.”
“She was terrified, trapped here. Dependent on you.”
“She kissed me first.”
“Don’t you dare put this on her.”
“I’m not. I chose her. I hid it. That’s entirely mine.”
Rook shoved me against the wall. Pain pulled at the stitches in my side.
“You promised.”
“A promise neither of us had the right to make.”
“You agreed fast enough.”
“Because I believed denying myself made me honorable.”
“You were supposed to protect her.”
“I did.”
“From everyone except you.”
Anger rose, but guilt remained beneath it. He had a right to the betrayal. Not to Avery.
“I never coerced her. Never used the attack. I loved her before Pike entered her house, and I’ll love her when she doesn’t need me standing outside her goddamn door.”
Rook released my shirt.
“Love.”
“Five years.”
That landed. He stepped back as if distance might change what he’d heard.
“You watched her date other men.”
“Every one.”
“And said nothing.”
“Gave you my word.”
“Now it means shit?”
“Now I understand it was about our fear, not her future.”
The office door opened. Avery entered wearing my black shirt and her jeans. Rook saw the shirt and his expression could have stopped traffic.
“Out,” he told her.
“No.”
“This is between me and Saint.”
“It became my business when you made him promise never to touch me.”
“You were twenty-two.”
“An adult.”
“You didn’t know what club life meant.”
“Are you kidding? I practically grew up around it.”
“Around the edges. I kept you away from the worst of it.”
“And I love you for wanting me safe. I don’t love you deciding safety matters more than my love life.”
Rook rubbed a hand over his mouth. “He had power over you.”
“Saint gave me every chance to say no. I made him come into my room.”
“I absolutely do not need details.”
Mace made a choking sound that might have been a laugh. Rook turned his head.
“Both of you. Out.” This time Mace and Riot obeyed.
Avery came to my side and took my hand. Rook noticed that too.
“I chose him,” she said. “Not because I was afraid. Not because you ordered him to protect me. Because I’ve wanted him for years and because being close to him showed me the man underneath all that miserable self-control.”
Rook looked at the bruise along her jaw. “You were trapped here with him.”
“No, I was trapped here by you.”
The words hit him. Avery didn’t soften them.
“Saint took me home when you said I couldn’t go.
He gave me the lockbox combination instead of telling me to hide.
When I froze in my bedroom, he sat on the floor and let me be afraid.
When I told him I wouldn’t be the reason he surrendered his patch, he listened even though every instinct in him wanted to decide for me. ”
Rook’s gaze cut to mine.
“You gave her the lockbox combination?”
“She needed it.”
“Not the point.”
“It is exactly the point,” Avery said. “He wasn’t perfect. He was controlling, overprotective, and frequently unbearable.”
“This defense needs work,” I muttered.
“But when I pushed back, he changed. Not because the danger ended. Because he understood I meant it.” She linked our fingers.
“I didn’t choose him because he made me feel helpless. I chose him because he saw what I could handle and learned to stand beside me.”
Rook studied our joined hands. His anger had nowhere simple to land. The brother who had betrayed him was also the man who had challenged his worst decision. The sister he wanted to protect had survived without becoming smaller.
Rook closed his eyes briefly. “What happens when this stops being exciting?” he asked her.
“I go back to complaining about his personality.”
“She’s good at it,” I said.
Rook ignored me. “When the danger’s gone?”
“It is gone. Pike’s dead. I’m still here.”
He turned to me. “You prepared to leave the club for her?”
Avery’s hand found mine. This was the test.
The old answer waited on my tongue. Yes. Anything. Take the patch, take the years, take every piece of me that proved the feeling hurt enough.
I looked at the cut on the chair. Then at Avery.
“No.” Rook’s brows drew together.
“I’m prepared to fight for both,” I said. “I’m not walking away from her, and I’m not throwing the Wraiths at her feet like my life has to burn before love counts.”
Avery squeezed my hand. “If you strip the patch because I lied to my president, that’s club law. I’ll take it. But I won’t surrender it to make your decision easier.”
Rook studied me. The anger didn’t leave his face. Something else joined it. Reluctant respect, maybe. Recognition of the man he’d trusted before we both made a bad promise.
“You hurt her,” he said, “and I forget every mile we’ve ridden together.”
“Fair.”
“You lie to me about her again, and we settle it a very different way.”
“Fair.”
“And if I hear her through that wall one more fucking time, I burn this compound down.”
Avery smiled. “That seems dramatic.”
“I’m serious.”
“So was I.” She smiled.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Avery.” Rook turned away and braced both hands on the table.
Not approval. Not yet. Acceptance was a longer road.
“Slate confirmed the broker used Gravewater channels,” he said after a moment. “Their president’s missing, and somebody claiming new leadership wanted us to strike first.”
I understood the shift for what it was. Club business, offered to his vice president. “We don’t strike blind,” I said.
“No. We find out who’s sitting in that chair and why.”
“Pike’s people?”
“Finished. Avery’s not the target anymore.”
I felt her exhale beside me.
Rook faced us again. His gaze dropped to our joined hands.
“She gets her own life.”
“Yeah.”
“And she doesn’t move into this fucking compound.”
“Agreed.”
Avery looked between us. “Wonderful. I’m so glad you two finished planning my future.” Then she smiled.
“Fortunately, it matches what I’d already decided.”
Rook pointed at the door. “Get out.”
Avery didn’t move immediately. She crossed to her brother and wrapped her arms around him. Rook stood rigid for a second, anger and relief fighting across his face. Then he held her.
“You could’ve told me,” he said.
“Would you have listened like a reasonable human being?”
“Probably not.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m still furious, by the way,” he said.
“You can be furious and bring doughnuts or something to our house.”
“Our—”
He looked at me, and I kept my face blank.
“Hypothetical future house,” Avery added.
“There better be thick fucking walls if I ever stay.”
She kissed his cheek and left the office.
Rook and I were alone. He looked at the door she had closed, then at the cut waiting on the chair.
“Five years,” he said.
“Yeah.”
“You should’ve told me.”
He held out his fist. I looked at it. “You already used that.”
“Don’t be an asshole.”
I touched my knuckles to his. It wasn’t forgiveness. Brothers like us didn’t repair years of trust with one gesture. It was permission to start. I collected my cut and put it on.
Avery and I walked into the main room together.
Brothers looked up from breakfast. Mace raised his mug.
Riot grinned and wisely hid it when I stared at him.
I put my arm around Avery’s waist. No corridor checks.
No closed blinds. “Everybody clear?” I asked.
The room gave a rough chorus of agreement.
I held out a hand to Avery. She looked at it, then at the brothers watching.
“What?”
“You said being chosen in secret wasn’t enough.” Understanding warmed her face.
I drew her fully against my side. “Avery’s with me.”
The room went still enough to hear the coffee machine hiss.
“Anybody treats her like club property, answers questions for her, or decides where she belongs, you answer to both of us.”
Avery slid her arm around my waist. “And anybody calls me Saint’s old lady before I decide whether I want the patch can answer to me first.”
Dare raised his mug. “That seems safer.”
Several brothers laughed. Rook didn’t. He stood in the office doorway watching his sister define the terms of her place.
Then he tipped his chin in acknowledgment.
Mace came forward first. He held out a hand to Avery rather than to me. “If he gets unbearable, my door’s open.”
“Your door’s never open,” Riot said. “You sleep with a chair under the handle.”
“Because I know you.”
Avery shook Mace’s hand. “I’ll keep the offer in reserve.” She laughed.
“Breakfast?” Dare asked.
“Cold,” Riot said.
“Because nobody helped.”
“Builds character.”
“I’m full of fucking character.”
Avery sat. I took the chair beside her.
Rook joined us last.
One brother muttered, “About fucking time.”
Rook appeared in the office doorway. “Who said that?”
Nobody answered. Avery leaned into me, laughter warming her body against mine.
For years I had mistaken distance for loyalty. Now I stood in the center of my club with the woman I loved at my side and my patch still on my back.
Nothing about it was easy. That was how I knew it was real.
EPILOGUE
AVERY
Four months later, Saint handed me a key.
Not a key to his room at the compound. I already had one of those, though Rook had threatened to weld the door shut after finding me in Saint’s lap during church break.