4. Meg
MEG
Gray leaves at three forty-two.
At three fifty-one, Ruby carries her new stuffed red panda into the living room and drops onto the couch with the boneless exhaustion of a child who has walked every path at the zoo.
“Can I watch something?”
“Yeah, but only a kids’ show.”
“Dad lets me watch grown-up stuff on Saturdays.”
“Your dad also asked me not to believe everything you say when he’s out of the room.”
She considers that, then smiles despite herself.
“Okay, kid stuff.” I hand her the remote and take the empty water glasses to the kitchen.
Ordinary actions settle the house around us.
The air conditioner clicks on. A cartoon voice starts in the next room.
Outside, cicadas grind through the heavy afternoon.
My body is sore in places that make the memory of Gray in the garage rise with every step.
I’m rinsing a glass when I hear an engine slow on the road.
I look through the window above the sink and a dark pickup turns into Gray’s drive.
The cracked left taillight is obvious, and there’s no front plate.
Every soft part of the afternoon disappears.
Nothing about it looks right. It’s definitely not a Kingdom Come club truck, and I don’t recognize the people in it.
“Ruby.”
She hears my voice and mutes the television.
Two men climb from the truck. One is tall and narrow, with a shaved head and a dark beard.
The other is heavier through the shoulders.
Both wear ordinary clothes, no cuts, but the bearded man has a black bandana tied around one wrist. I lock the door, take my phone from the counter and call Gray.
Gray’s number rings out. By the time his voicemail picks up, one man is heading for the side door and the other is circling toward the front.
So I call my brother. Tank answers on the second ring.
“Meg?”
“Two men are outside Gray’s house. Ruby’s with me.”
His voice hardens instantly. “Use the route. Get her out. I’m calling Kane.”
The side-door handle jerks.
The side-door handle turns once, hard.
“Ruby.” I look into the living room. Her face has gone pale. “Cedar.”
She moves immediately, with no question and no frozen second.
She runs through the kitchen, opens the back door and crosses the yard.
I watch until she drops beside the loose fence panel and crawls through.
The side door jumps in its frame. I lock the back door again and take Gray’s square-edged house key from the hook beside it.
I notice the small fire extinguisher next to it and grab that too.
Suddenly, the sound of wood cracking fills the room.
The side door swings inward and strikes the wall. The bearded man enters first. He looks toward the living room. “Where’s Gray?”
I pull the pin from the extinguisher. “Get out.” The second man appears behind him. He’s shorter, with pale eyes and a deep dent in the bridge of his nose.
“Bishop said Gray needed one warning,” he tells the first. “Find the kid.”
I discharge the extinguisher into both of their faces. White powder fills the doorway. The bearded man swears and throws an arm over his eyes. I drive the metal cylinder into his knee as he comes through.
He folds immediately. The other man reaches for me through the cloud.
I swing again, but he catches the extinguisher and tears it from my hands.
It crashes against the refrigerator. I run toward the hall, but he catches the back of my shirt and drags me around.
The fabric bites my throat. I drive Gray’s key across his face with my whole fist. The square edge cuts a crescent from the corner of his left eye toward his cheek.
Blood appears instantly, and he roars before striking me with his left hand. Pain explodes through my mouth and cheek. I hit the wall shoulder first, scrape along the edge of a framed photograph and fall onto one knee. The bearded man pushes through the powder behind him. “Where is the kid?”
“Gone.”
The injured one seizes my hair with his left hand and hauls me upright.
“Where?”
I grab his wrist and drive my heel down onto his foot. He jerks me backward. My head misses the wall, but my shoulder catches it again.
“I’m not telling you.”
The hand in my hair tightens. Blood runs along the man’s cheek and drips from his jaw.
“You tell Gray he opens the road now, or else.”
I spit blood onto his shirt. His face twists, and his left hand lifts again.
“No time,” the bearded man snaps. “Leave it.”
He takes a can of red paint from inside his jacket and sprays two words across the pale kitchen wall.
OPEN THE ROAD.
The injured man shoves me down. My palms strike the floor, and pain shoots through my scraped shoulder. They run. The truck throws gravel as it backs into the road. I catch the broken taillight before it disappears toward the river.
For several seconds, I stay on my hands and knees in Gray’s kitchen.
I push upright. My legs shake, but they work.
My side aches where I hit the floor. Blood fills my mouth from a split inside my lower lip.
I grab my phone and go out the back. Mrs. Lawson’s door is locked when I get there.
I knock three times, say my name and hear the bolt turn.
Ruby runs toward me. Mrs. Lawson catches her before she reaches my arms. “Honey, wait.”
Ruby stares at my mouth. “Meg?”
“I’m okay.” I keep my voice even. “You did exactly right. I just needed to check you were safe.”
“They came in?”
“They did, and you followed the plan.”
Mrs. Lawson draws Ruby against her side.
A motorcycle comes hard along the road. It’s Gray.
He enters the drive too fast, brakes in a spray of gravel and is off the bike with a gun drawn before the engine dies.
He checks the broken side door, the backyard and the fence route in one sweep.
I step onto Mrs. Lawson’s back porch. His gaze catches the blood on my face.
Something in him stops, but Ruby cries, “Daddy,” and Gray turns toward her.
He crosses the grass, lowers the gun, puts it in his waistband before he goes to her and crouches in front of his daughter. Both hands move over her arms, head and back.
“You hurt?”
Ruby shakes her head and grips the front of his cut. “Meg said cedar. I went through the fence.”
“Good girl.”
Only when he’s sure Ruby is okay does he look at me, and I wouldn’t trust a father who did anything else. Gray rises and comes toward me slowly, as if the restraint in his body is the only thing keeping the whole afternoon from breaking open.
“Where?”
“Lip, cheek and shoulder. My side is sore. Nothing broken, I don’t think.”
He touches the uninjured side of my face. His fingers are steady.
“Did they put hands on you?”
“One did.”
“Did they hurt you?”
“One of them hit me. I cut his face with your house key.”
“Which one?”
“He had pale eyes. Crescent down his left cheek.”
Gray’s expression goes cold. “I’ll find him.” Gray’s attention doesn’t leave me until Kane’s bike arrives behind him, followed by Judge, Tank and Cash. Tank sees my face and the sound he makes is barely human.
Cash catches Tank’s arm before he crosses the yard. “She’s standing. Let her tell you before you react.” My brother looks at me. Rage shakes through his huge frame.
“I’m all right,” I say. “Ruby is safe.”
He comes close enough to touch me, then stops when Gray’s hand settles at my back. Tank’s gaze drops to it. Not now. There’ll be time for that kind of trouble later. Kane walks through the damaged door with Judge. He sees the red words on the wall, then looks at Gray.
“Church,” Kane says. “Right here.”
Gray gives him everything. No private version. No softened edge. He stands in the wrecked kitchen with me, Tank, Judge and Cash listening and tells Kane about Bishop’s message, the old landing, the single clear window and the order not to report it.
“I refused,” Gray says. “I gave him nothing.”
Kane looks at the paint on the wall. “And then?”
“I didn’t bring it to you.”
“Why?”
“Didn’t want the table asking why Bishop thought I might turn.”
Tank’s head comes up. Judge remains still beside Kane. Kane’s jaw hardens. “So you kept another club’s approach quiet because you didn’t want us looking at you.”
“I refused him.”
“And left every brother here blind.” His gaze moves to the broken door, then the red words across the wall. “You don’t decide alone what your president needs to know.”
“I know.”
“You know now. After they came through your door with your kid inside.”
Gray takes the hit without looking away. “Yeah.”
“We’re not finishing this here. We deal with your mistake after your people are behind Kingdom Come gates.” He looks at Cash. “Get the truck. Tessa takes Ruby. Tank, check the rear road. Judge calls every brother in. Gray stays with Meg.”
Gray takes Kane’s calm order harder than he would have taken a punch. He turns to me. “You need hospital?”
“No.”
“Meg.”
“Urgent care can clean the cuts and check my ribs. I don’t need an emergency room unless they find something worse.”
“Cash knows a clinic that stays open,” Kane says.
Gray asks, “Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
Gray keeps his hand around mine while we leave.
The clinic confirms what I already know.
Split lip. Bruised cheek. A scraped shoulder and deep muscle soreness along my side, but no broken ribs or concussion. By dusk, Gray, Ruby and I are behind the Kingdom Come compound gates.
Kane gives me the options without pretending any of them are perfect.
My rental has one front door, a narrow alley behind it and no way of knowing how many people Bishop has watching Ransom or anyone connected to Gray.
The compound has steel gates, armed brothers and men who understand exactly what they’re protecting.
I choose the compound. Gray doesn’t argue, and Tank probably wouldn’t have let me choose otherwise.
Kane doubles the watch at the gates and puts brothers on the roads leading in.
Tessa settles Ruby into one of the guest rooms and stays with her.
I take the room next door, and Gray uses the empty one across the hall.
He checks that Ruby is settled, walks the perimeter himself and speaks to the brothers on watch before he finally comes into my room with a bottle of water and an ice pack wrapped in a towel.
He closes the door behind him, and I sit on the edge of the narrow bed while he kneels in front of me.
Gray holds the ice pack against my bruised cheek, careful not to press it against the split in my lip.
“You should’ve told Kane,” I say.
“Yeah, I know.”
“Those men walked into your house because you kept Bishop’s approach to yourself.”
His jaw tightens. “I know.”
“I’m angry at you for putting us at risk.”
“You should be.”
“Stop agreeing like it makes this easier.”
Gray lifts his eyes to mine. “Nothing makes this easier.” He doesn’t defend himself or ask me to make his guilt easier to carry. He only keeps the cold pack steady against my face.
“I left you there,” he says.
“You went to church because your president called.”
“After I kept the reason for that church from him.”
“Yes, you did that.”
His gaze moves over the bruise spreading across my cheek. “And Perdition came at my family.” The words hang between us with no hesitation and no attempt to take it back.
“You tried to push me out this morning.”
“I know.”
“Sex didn’t fix that.”
“I know that too.”
“But you mean this?”
He lowers the ice pack. His thumb settles beneath my chin, careful of my lip.
“They came through my door looking for Ruby and put their hands on you,” he says. “You’re mine to protect now.” The room goes quiet.
“You mean that?”
“Yeah, I do.” The answer is rough enough to be true.
I touch his cheek. “I’m still angry.”
“Stay angry.”
“You might not enjoy it.”
“Probably won’t, but I deserve it.”
I lean forward and kiss him carefully. There’s no hunger in the first touch. Only recognition. Gray cups the back of my neck and kisses me around the injury instead of over it. When we separate, he rests his forehead against mine.
“Get some sleep,” he says.
“Another order?”
“No, just a request.”
“Needs some work.”
“Meg.”
“There it is.”
The corner of his mouth moves before he leaves for the room across the hall. His door closes a moment later. Only a few steps separate us. Neither of us believes they’ll hold for long.