Chapter Seventeen
Hope
The porch light was on when I pulled into the driveway.
That wasn’t unusual. Faith always left it on when one of us was out late. But the figure sitting on the front steps, silhouetted against the warm glow spilling from the windows, made my stomach drop.
Zeke.
I turned off the truck’s engine and sat there for a moment, my hands still gripping the steering wheel.
My heart was still racing from Chapman’s words, from the way he had held me in the diner parking lot like I was something precious.
The scent of his cologne still clung to my jacket, and I could still feel the ghost of his arms around me.
I’m falling for you, Hope.
His words echoed in my mind, sweet and terrifying all at once.
But now, looking at my brother waiting on the porch in the warm summer night, reality came crashing back.
Zeke didn’t know where I had been. Didn’t know who I had been with.
And if he found out, if he discovered I had been meeting Chapman Moore, his former Golden Skulls brother, in secret for the past few weeks, there would be hell to pay.
I took a breath, steadying myself, and climbed out of the truck.
The gravel crunched under my boots as I walked toward the porch.
Zeke didn’t move, didn’t look up. He just sat there with his elbows resting on his knees, his hands clasped loosely between them.
The porch light caught the edges of his dark hair, and I could see the tension in his shoulders even from a distance.
He was waiting. And he wasn’t happy.
I climbed the steps slowly and sat down beside him, leaving a small space between us. The wood was cool beneath me, and the night air carried the faint scent of wood smoke from someone’s fireplace down the road. Somewhere in the distance, a dog barked.
Zeke still didn’t say anything.
I waited, giving him time. I knew my brother well enough to recognize when he was struggling to find the right words. Zeke was a man of action, not conversation. When he had something difficult to say, he needed a moment to work up to it.
But after a full minute of silence, I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Out with it,” I mumbled, my voice cutting through the stillness. “Just talk to me.”
He let out a long breath, his shoulders sagging slightly. “Where have you been?”
“At the diner.”
His head turned toward me, and even in the dim light, I could see the look in his eyes. It wasn’t anger. It was something softer. Something that looked almost like hurt. “Don’t lie to me, Hope,” he said, his voice low and steady. “We’ve never lied to each other before. Don’t start now.”
My chest tightened. He was right. Zeke and I had always been honest with each other, even when the truth was hard. Even when it hurt. We had been through too much together to start hiding things now.
But this was different.
This was Chapman.
“I know you’ve been meeting up with someone,” Zeke continued when I didn’t respond. His gaze was steady, searching. “Who is it?”
I looked away, staring out at the dark expanse of the farm. The greenhouse was a shadowy outline in the distance, and beyond it, I could just make out the faint glimmer of the pond under the moonlight.
The pond where everything had started.
“Are you asking as my brother,” I asked carefully, “or as a Diamondback officer?”
Zeke flinched. I saw it. The way his jaw tightened, the way his hands clenched briefly before relaxing again. The question had hit its mark.
“Depends on who the hell it is,” he said after a moment, his voice rougher now. “Is he a club brother?”
I turned to look at him, looking into his eyes. “No. He’s not one of your club brothers.”
The tension in Zeke’s shoulders eased immediately. He let out a breath, and some of the hardness in his expression softened. “Good.”
“Zeke,” I said, my voice firmer now. “You realize I’m a grown-ass woman, right? I can spend time with whoever I want. I don’t need your permission.”
“I know,” he grumbled, rubbing a hand over his face. “But it’s different when it comes to the club.”
“I said he wasn’t a Diamondback.”
“Then who is he?”
I held his gaze, my heart pounding. “Does it really matter?”
Zeke groaned, tipping his head back to stare at the porch ceiling. “Fuck no. Gonna hate whoever he is.”
Despite everything, despite the tension and the secrets and the weight of what I was hiding, I felt a smile tug at my lips. I leaned over and rested my head on his shoulder, the way I used to when we were kids and the world felt too big and too scary.
“I know,” I said softly. “And I love you for that. It means a lot to me that you care so much.”
Zeke’s arm came around me, pulling me closer.
His hand rested on my shoulder, warm and steady.
“I know it’s not easy having four sisters, Zeke,” I continued.
“You and Balthazar deserve a medal for sure. But you can’t stop the inevitable.
Charity’s already married. Soon Joy will be going off to college. And Faith already has an admirer.”
Zeke’s body went rigid beside me. “I’m not worried about Faith. She keeps Whisper at arm’s length.”
I couldn’t help the smirk that spread across my face. “For now. Something tells me Whisper is in it for the long haul. He’s patient, and that’s what Faith needs.”
“No,” Zeke muttered, shaking his head. “Faith needs to tell him to get fucking lost.”
“She won’t do that. She enjoys his company.”
“They don’t even talk.”
“Silence speaks volumes,” I said, my voice gentle but firm.
Zeke let out a long, frustrated breath. “You’re all gonna be the death of me.”
“Probably,” I agreed, my smile widening. “But you love us anyway.”
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I do.”
We sat there in comfortable silence for a moment, the cool night air wrapping around us. I could hear the faint rustle of leaves in the breeze, the distant hum of traffic on the highway, the soft creak of the porch beneath us. And beneath it all, I could still feel the echo of Chapman’s words.
I’m falling for you, Hope.
My chest ached with the weight of it. The joy and the fear, and the impossible complexity of what we were doing.
Chapman was a Golden Skulls executioner.
Zeke had left the Golden Skulls to protect his sanity when club life became too much for him, and here I was, falling for a man who was still deep in the heart of it.
A man who had loved and lost his wife. Who had a daughter he had abandoned in his grief.
Who carried darkness in his soul that I couldn’t fully understand.
But he was also a man who looked at me like I was the only thing keeping him tethered to the earth. Who shared his pain and his memories, and his broken pieces without hesitation. Who made me feel seen in a way I had never felt before.
“Hope.”
Zeke’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. I lifted my head from his shoulder and looked at him.
“I’m not gonna push,” he said, his expression serious. “If you’re not ready to tell me who he is, I’ll respect that. But I need you to promise me something.”
“What?”
“If he hurts you. If he does anything that makes you feel unsafe or disrespected, you tell me. Immediately. I don’t care who he is or where he’s from. You tell me, and I’ll handle it.”
My throat tightened. “Zeke.”
“I mean it, Hope.” His hand squeezed my shoulder gently. “You’re my sister. I will burn the whole damn world down to keep you safe.”
I believed him. I knew he would. And that was exactly why I couldn’t tell him about Chapman.
Not yet. Not until I knew what this was, where it was going, and whether it had any chance of surviving the storm that would come when the truth finally came out.
“I promise,” I said quietly. “If he hurts me, you’ll be the first to know. ”
Zeke studied my face for a long moment, as if trying to read the truth in my eyes. Then he nodded, seemingly satisfied. “Good.”
We fell into silence again, but this time it felt lighter. Less fraught. Zeke’s arm was still around me, and I let myself lean into his warmth, into the comfort of having a brother who loved me fiercely and without condition.
“You know,” I said after a while, my voice soft, “you’re gonna have to let us go, eventually. All of us. We can’t stay your little sisters forever.”
“I know,” Zeke said, his voice rough. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
I smiled against his shoulder. “No. I guess it doesn’t.”
“Just—” He paused, and I felt him take a breath. “Just be careful, okay? Whoever this guy is, whatever you’re doing, be careful. The world’s a dangerous place, Hope. Especially for people like us.”
People like us. People with ties to the MC world, whether we wanted them or not. People who carried the weight of family history and club politics, and violence that simmered just beneath the surface of everyday life.
“I will,” I promised. “I’m being careful.”
It wasn’t a lie. Not entirely. Chapman and I had been careful.
We’d kept our meetings secret, avoided being seen together, taken every precaution to make sure no one, especially Zeke or Kansas or anyone from the Diamondback MC, found out.
But careful didn’t mean safe. And I knew, deep down, that what we were doing was anything but.
Zeke seemed to sense my hesitation because he pulled me closer, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “I trust you,” he said quietly. “I don’t trust him, whoever he is. But I trust you.”
His words settled over me like a blanket, warm and heavy. Zeke trusted me. He believed in my judgment, in my ability to make my own choices. And that trust meant everything. Even if I wasn’t entirely sure I deserved it. “Thank you,” I whispered.
We sat there for a while longer, neither of us speaking.
The night deepened around us, the stars growing brighter overhead.
I could hear the faint sound of laughter from inside the house—probably Faith and Joan watching some ridiculous reality show in the living room.
Joy was likely in her room, headphones on, lost in whatever music or art project had captured her attention tonight.
This was my family. My home. The life I had built here in Oklahoma, far from the chaos of our childhood in Arizona. A life that was quiet and simple, and safe.
And now Chapman was threatening to upend all of it. Not because he wanted to. Not because he was trying to hurt me. But because loving him, falling for him, meant stepping into a world I had spent years trying to avoid. A world of violence and loyalty, and impossible choices.
A world where men like Chapman lived and died by the club’s rules.
“You should get some sleep,” Zeke said, breaking the silence. “It’s late.”
I nodded, pulling away from him reluctantly. “Yeah. You too.”
He stood, offering me his hand. I took it, letting him pull me to my feet. For a moment, we just stood there on the porch, facing each other in the dim light.
“I love you, Hope,” he said, his voice steady and sure. “No matter what. You know that, right?”
“I know,” I said, my throat tight. “I love you too, Zeke.”
He pulled me into a hug. One of those bone-crushing, all-encompassing hugs that made me feel like a kid again. Safe and protected and loved beyond measure.
When he finally let go, I stepped back, forcing a smile. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
I turned and walked toward the front door, my hand on the handle, when Zeke’s voice stopped me.
“Hope.”
I looked back at him.
“Whoever he is,” Zeke said, his expression unreadable, “he better be worth it.”
My chest tightened, and I felt tears prick at the corners of my eyes. “He is,” I said softly. “I think he is.”
Zeke nodded slowly, as if accepting something he didn’t fully understand. “Then I hope he knows how lucky he is.”
I didn’t trust myself to speak, so I just nodded and slipped inside the house.
The warmth hit me immediately, along with the familiar scent of home—lavender from the diffuser in the hallway, the faint smell of popcorn from the living room, the lingering aroma of dinner. I could hear Faith and Joan laughing at something on the TV, their voices light and carefree.
I leaned back against the door, closing my eyes and letting out a shaky breath.
Chapman’s words echoed in my mind again, as vivid and real as they had been in the diner parking lot.
I’m falling for you, Hope.
And God help me, I was falling for him too.
But falling was easy. It was the landing that would break us both.
I pushed away from the door and headed toward my room, my footsteps quiet on the hardwood floor.
I needed to sleep. Needed to clear my head and figure out what the hell I was going to do.
Because sooner or later, Zeke would find out.
Kansas and the entire Diamondback MC would find out, and then Balthazar would find out, which meant Reaper would find out.
And when they did, there would be no more hiding.
No more stolen moments in empty diners or quiet walks on Medicine Park trails.
There would only be the truth.
And all the consequences that came with it.