6. Meg
MEG
The compound sounds wrong without the bikes.
Most of Kingdom Come rode out after nine.
Colt and Wilder remain on the gates, with a handful of brothers covering the rear road and fence line, but inside the clubhouse the silence has weight.
I put Ruby to bed in one of the guest rooms myself.
I told her only that her daddy had some work to do and would be back late.
“Will he come see me when he gets home?” she asked.
“Even if you’re asleep.”
She accepted that and curled onto her side with the stuffed red panda tucked beneath her chin. I stayed until her breathing deepened. Tessa is sitting with her now, close enough that Ruby won’t wake alone.
I pour myself coffee from the pot behind the bar but leave it untouched.
My classroom tote sits on the stool beside me.
The blue lanyard spills over one side, my keys resting against the scarred wood.
I sort through orientation papers I can’t seem to concentrate on and try not to check the time again for the tenth time.
The bag belongs to the life I was building before Gray kissed me.
The bruises don’t change that. But neither does Perdition.
Outside, a motorcycle passes the windows as the gate watch changes.
Nobody offers me a promise about the men on the road.
Kingdom Come doesn’t make promises it can’t guarantee.
I wait anyway and hope for the best. At eleven forty, engines rise beyond the trees and every person inside the clubhouse hears them.
The gates roll open. Headlights cut through the yard in a staggered line, not triumphant and not rushed. Kane enters first. Judge rides beside him. Gray and Tank come through close enough that their bikes almost share one shadow.
My lungs work again as Gray parks near the garage and removes his helmet.
Blood darkens one knuckle. His mouth is bruised from Tank’s punch earlier.
Otherwise, he’s whole and I can’t help but thank the universe.
Tank kills his engine beside him. Gray and Tank unload the first crate together, moving with the same hard rhythm they’ve carried into fights for years.
Gray sees me beneath the clubhouse light.
He gives Tank his end of the crate and walks across the yard until I meet him halfway.
His hands close around my waist and I touch his face, check the bruise and taste river air when his mouth comes down on mine.
The kiss isn’t careful. It’s relief with teeth.
I feel the night in him, the violence he held in check and the certainty he brought back.
His cut is cool beneath my hands. The patch presses against my wrist while he draws me closer without touching the sore side.
Somebody carries the crate past us while Cash says, “There are rooms with doors, if either of you remembers.”
Gray doesn’t lift his head. “Keep walking,” he says before continuing his slow, deep kiss. I smile against his mouth.
When we separate, he rests his forehead against mine. “You all right?”
“I’m better now.”
“Ruby?”
“Asleep. Safe.”
He closes his eyes for one second.
“Is it finished?” I ask.
“Immediate problem is.”
No vague promise that Perdition has vanished.
No lie about the wider world becoming safe.
Behind him, Kane directs the last crates into the garage while Cash counts the steel boxes and Tank checks every returning bike to make sure every brother is accounted for.
Kingdom Come took guns and money tonight, and nobody pretends otherwise.
Kingdom Come is still the club that kept Ransom afraid for thirty years. Kane hasn’t made it clean. He’s changed where its teeth land. Gray belongs to it, and loving him means I can’t pretend otherwise.
“The men from the house?”
“Alive, unfortunately.”
I look at the blood on his knuckle and Gray notices me looking.
“He’s experiencing quite a lot of pain now, it seems,” he says. “His hand may not work like it used to.”
Satisfaction moves through me, cold and clean.
“Good.”
Gray studies my face. “Does that bother you?”
“That you broke the hand a man used to hit me? No.”
My shoulders loosen. Gray takes my hand. “Come with me.” He leads me to the quiet side of the garage, away from the unloading and the common-room windows. The workbench is behind us, but this isn’t the house and isn’t a return to what happened there. He leans against the closed bay door.
“I love you.”
The words tighten my throat.
“Say it again.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
His hands settle on my hips, but there’s still something guarded in his face.
“There’s more,” he says.
“Good.”
Gray takes a breath. I can see him building the next words from parts that don’t fit easily in his mouth.
“I don’t know what this looks like yet,” he says. “I know I want you in my bed and beside me when I wake up. I want your keys next to mine when you’re ready to leave them there. I want Ruby to care about you without me treating it like something dangerous.”
His hands tighten on my hips.
“And I’m done pushing you away because I’m scared you’ll leave.”
My throat tightens. “That sounds difficult for you.”
“Probably will be.”
“Good thing I’m stubborn.”
“I noticed.”
The truth tightens my throat as he continues. “And when I get scared, I tell you. I don’t shove you out first and pretend it’s for your own good.” He means every word, including the parts he knows he’ll get wrong.
“I’m not asking you to move in tomorrow,” he says. “I’m not asking you to give up your place or your job. But I want us working toward something.”
His hands tighten on my hips.
“I want you in my life. In Ruby’s. And maybe it takes two months. Maybe it takes two years. I don’t care how long, as long as we’re heading toward the same place.”
My throat tightens. “What place is that?”
“One life. Yours and mine together. Not you fitting into the spaces I already have. Something we build between us.”
I hold his gaze. “That’s what I want too.”
“Yeah?”
“Not tomorrow. But one day, I want to wake up knowing I don’t have to decide which home I’m going back to.”
Gray draws me closer. “Then we’ll get there.”
“You sound very sure.”
“About you? I am.”
I kiss him.
This time, he smiles against my mouth.
We stay there for another few minutes, hidden from the activity on the other side of the garage, before Gray takes my hand and leads me back toward the clubhouse.
Tessa appears at the hallway door with Ruby beside her.
The stuffed red panda is tucked beneath one arm, and sleep has flattened her hair against one cheek.
“The bikes woke her,” Tessa says. “She wanted to see her daddy.”
Ruby spots him and hurries across the common room. Gray drops to one knee before she reaches him, and she throws both arms around his neck.
“You came back.”
“Told you I would.”
He closes his eyes and holds her, one broad hand spread across her back. The last of the strain leaves his face as she presses closer. When Ruby finally draws away, she touches the bruise at the corner of his mouth.
“What happened?”
Gray glances toward Tank, who’s standing near the bar. “Ran into something hard.” Tank turns away and finds sudden interest in the crates being carried through the clubhouse. Ruby studies Gray for another moment, but whatever she sees satisfies her. He’s here. He came back.
Ruby looks at me. “Will you finish my story?”
“Of course.”
Gray’s gaze meets mine. “Come with us?” Previously, he tried to move me out of Ruby’s life before either of us could get hurt. Now he’s asking me to step closer.
“Yeah, I’d love to.”
Tessa squeezes Ruby’s shoulder. “I’ll leave you guys to it.
” Gray takes Ruby’s hand, and I walk on her other side as we cross the clubhouse.
Behind us, Kingdom Come unloads what Perdition brought into Ransom.
Boots strike concrete. Wooden crates scrape across the floor.
Cash checks the steel boxes while Judge directs two brothers toward the garage.
Kane stands in the middle of it all, waiting until Ruby is out of the room before he starts giving orders in a voice that carries through the noise.
The club is still armed and moving, but the pressure inside the room has changed.
Every man who rode out has come back. In the guest room, Gray hangs his cut over the back of a chair and sits beside Ruby.
She climbs beneath the blanket with the red panda tucked under her chin.
I find the marker inside the book and settle on her other side.
“Start from the picture,” Ruby says.
“You’ve already heard that page.”
“I was tired.”
Gray looks at me. “Better start from the picture.”
“You’re both very difficult, you know that?” I laugh.
“She’s just persuasive.”
“Just like her daddy,” I reply with a small laugh.
Ruby smiles and closes her eyes while I begin reading.
She lasts three pages. Her breathing deepens, and her fingers loosen around the panda.
I finish the paragraph before closing the book.
Gray pulls the blanket higher over her shoulder.
His hand rests briefly against her hair before he stands.
We leave the door open a few inches and step into the hall.
“Thank you,” he says.
“For reading three pages?”
“For getting her out of the house. For standing between her and those men.” His gaze moves over the bruise on my cheek. “For still being here.”
I touch the corner of his swollen mouth. “Don’t confuse what’s between us with gratitude.”
“I’m not.” His hand closes gently around my wrist. “I wanted you before today. You know that.”
“I do.”
“I just need you to know I saw what you did, what you did to keep my daughter safe.”
My throat tightens. “She knew the route. She did the hard part.”
“You bought her the time to use it.”