11. Eden
CHAPTER ELEVEN
EDEN
Thursday morning starts slow, like a sunrise in reverse.
The shop is quiet, just me at the front counter, the faint growl of impact wrenches and heavy metal echoing in from the garage bays.
Bones and Diesel are somewhere in the back, prepping a custom job that’s already hours behind schedule.
Chris is at the parts store, probably flirting with the cashier instead of picking up our order.
I take advantage of the rare silence to file a mountain of paperwork. My fingers are stained with printer ink and my brain is half-fried from billing hell when the chime over the door slices through the calm. I don’t look up at first. I’m expecting the next customer on the schedule.
But this isn’t a customer.
Henderson stands just inside the doorway, arms rigid at his sides, face a weird shade of splotchy red. He’s wearing a dirty white button-up and wrinkled pants that have definitely seen better days. His greasy comb-over is a mess. He actually looks like he’s been run through a car wash.
I freeze. He doesn’t move. For a full ten seconds, the shop is so quiet I can hear my own heartbeat.
Then he lunges forward, finger out, stabbing the air between us. “You!” he shouts, voice already cracking. “You fucking bitch. You ruined my life.”
The words slap me in the face. I can’t move, can’t think. The past months fall away, and I’m back in that shitty office, back in my tiny shoes, too scared to breathe.
But then I remember—Bones is in the back. Diesel too. And I’m not the girl I was a few months ago.
I stand up straight and level my gaze at him. “You need to leave,” I say, but my voice sounds thin, even to me.
He barrels on, getting louder, more erratic. “You think you’re so smart? You think you can just quit and walk away? ADC’s investigating me because of that goddamn report you turned in. My career is fucking over. You did this to me!”
It’s not just rage. It’s desperation. I can see it in the way his hands shake, the sweat shining on his upper lip. He’s not drunk, but he’s riding a cocktail of anger and panic that’s a thousand times worse.
My hands find the edge of the desk. “I’m sorry you’re having a rough time,” I say, keeping my tone as flat as possible. “But your shady business practices did this to you.”
His eyes go wide, bulging like a cartoon villain. He moves around the counter, faster than I expect. “You little cunt,” he snarls, “I should have fired you when I had the chance.”
He reaches for me, and everything inside me goes cold.
But before he can touch me, before his hand is even halfway to my throat, Bones appears behind him. I don’t know how he got there. One second, it’s just me and Hender-slime, and the next, Bones is a fucking shadow over us both, moving so fast the world blurs.
He grabs Henderson by the back of the neck and yanks him away from the counter like he weighs nothing. Henderson lets out a strangled, pathetic yelp, but Bones doesn’t give him a chance to recover. He slams him into the nearest wall, the drywall giving a sick crunch under the force.
Bones leans in, voice so low and quiet it’s scarier than any shout. “You come near her again and I’ll bury you under the fucking parking lot.”
Henderson whimpers, all fight gone.
Diesel shows up in the doorway, arms crossed, mouth a straight line. “Want me to take out the trash?”
Bones lets go, and Henderson slumps to the floor, gasping. “Yeah,” he says, never taking his eyes off me. “Do it.”
Diesel grabs Henderson by the arm and hauls him upright. “You’re done here,” Diesel grunts, dragging him to the door. “If I see you again, I’ll make you wish you’d never been born.” They vanish into the sunlight, Henderson a ragdoll in Diesel’s grip.
The second they’re gone, the adrenaline drains out of me. My knees buckle, and I grab the counter to stay upright. My hands shake so bad I can barely see them.
Bones is there in a heartbeat, pulling me into his arms, crushing me to his chest.
“I’m okay,” I mutter, but it’s a lie. My voice is barely above a whisper, the tremor in it giving me away.
Bones holds me tighter. His breath is rough in my ear, but he smells like home. Like safety. Like the opposite of Henderson, in every possible way.
“Are you hurt?” he asks, voice ragged.
I shake my head. “No. Just shaken up.”
He lifts my chin with his thumb, making me meet his eyes. “He’s never going to touch you. Never going to come near you again. I swear it on my fucking life, Eden.”
I believe him.
For a long time, we just stand there, breathing together. Then I remember Henderson, remember how pathetic he looked in Diesel’s grip.
I pull back just enough to ask, “Is Diesel going to… you know… hurt him?”
Bones’s eyes flick to the door, then back to me. “Diesel doesn’t have to. Henderson’s already pissed off some very dangerous people. Diesel’s just making sure they know where to find him.”
He strokes my cheeks, big hands gentle as velvet. “My world isn’t perfect,” he says, voice soft but fierce. “But I won’t let any of the bad things touch you. I’ll always protect you. I love you.”
The words hit me harder than Henderson’s threats.
I wrap my arms around his neck and hold on, really hold on, for the first time in my life.
“I know,” I say, the words no longer scary or strange, but so easy, so true. I don’t know how I ever lived without them. “I love you, too.”
He kisses me, slow and sure, right there in the ruined office, where my old life collided with my new one.
For the first time ever, I know I’ll be okay. I have a place. I have a person. I have a future.
And nothing, or no one, can take that away.