Chapter Seventeen
Chase
Chase sat on the roof of the clubhouse, legs dangling over the edge, the cool night air doing nothing to settle the storm in his chest. Below him, the inside lights were still on.
There were too many brothers still up, voices low and serious as they rotated watch shifts and ran down leads on the threat.
The threat against him.
He kept turning Mason’s words over in his mind. An old enemy tied to Carrie. Someone who saw him as unfinished business. Someone dangerous enough that the entire club had shifted into protective mode.
And Kath was out there with no idea.
He pulled out his phone for the tenth time that night and stared at their last messages. Her simple reply after the Michigan gig. He thought of his own half-finished texts that he kept deleting before sending. Every time he started typing, the same thought stopped him:
If they’re watching me, they might watch her too.
He couldn’t risk it. Not yet. Not until Mason and the club had a better handle on who this enemy was and how serious the threat actually was.
But God, he missed her.
The way she’d looked at him when they were writing together—like his music made her words feel safe. The quiet laugh she let slip when she was letting her guard down. The way she’d said, “I kinda like you, you know?” like it cost her something to admit it.
Chase rubbed a hand over his face, exhaustion and frustration warring inside him. He wanted to call her. Wanted to tell her everything. Wanted to drive over to her place right now and pull her into his arms and promise her he wasn’t disappearing.
Instead, he was up here hiding like a coward.
The door below creaked open. Bear stepped out, looked up, and spotted him.
“Figured I’d find you up here,” Bear called. “You coming down, or you planning to brood all night?”
Chase swung his legs back and dropped down the ladder. Bear waited for him, arms crossed, expression unreadable in the dim light.
“You talk to her yet?” Bear asked.
Chase shook his head. “Not yet. I don’t know what to say. ‘Hey, sorry I’ve been ghosting you, but there’s a dangerous asshole from my dead mom’s past who might come after anyone close to me’? Yeah, that’ll go over great.”
Bear sighed. “I told you she came by the garage earlier. Looked worried. Hurt. I told her you’d call when you could.”
Chase’s stomach twisted. “And I can’t yet. You know that as well as I do.” He lifted his chin, saying, “If she came looking for me, how much danger does that add to her?”
“I don’t think we can know, but hopefully her being at the garage didn’t increase the threat level for her.
” Bear’s voice softened. “Kid’s got it bad for you.
And you’ve got it bad for her. I get why you’re keeping distance right now—club comes first when there’s blood in the water.
But don’t delay too long. Some things don’t wait. ”
Chase nodded, chin tipping downwards. “I know. I just...I don’t want her anywhere near this. She’s already got enough shit going on with her sister and her mom’s mess. She doesn’t need my ghosts showing up too.”
Bear clapped a heavy hand on his shoulder. “You’re a good kid, Chase. But good kids sometimes forget that the people who care about them want to stand with them, not be protected from them.”
Chase stayed quiet as Bear headed back inside. He pulled his phone out again and opened his messages with Kath.
His thumbs hovered.
He typed:
*I’m sorry I’ve been quiet. There’s some heavy club/family stuff going on right now. I didn’t want to drag you into it. I miss talking to you. Miss working on that song with you. I’ll explain more when I can. Promise.*
He stared at the message for a long time...then deleted it.
Not yet.
He wasn’t ready to lie to her. And the truth was too dangerous to tell.
Instead, he opened his voice memos and played the rough recording of the melody they’d started together. The notes floated into the night air, warm and hopeful, carrying the ghost of Kath’s voice in his head.
Chase closed his eyes and let the music wrap around him. It was the only thing that made sense right now.