4. Judge
JUDGE
The photograph on my phone turns the whole room red. Not because I lose control. Because I don’t, I’m better than that.
I study every inch of the image while Shay pulls her shirt into place. The angle. The light. The reflection caught in the preschool window. Whoever took it was parked across the street, close enough to watch my daughter laugh and then learn her routine.
I send the photograph to Kane and call Cash.
“Mercer’s watching Shay and Evie.”
His voice changes instantly. “Where’s Evie?”
“At Dottie’s.”
“I’ll send Tank. Nobody will move her until you get there.”
Kane calls before I can put the phone away.
“Bring them both to the compound.”
“I need to talk to Shay first.”
“Then talk to her.”
I lower the phone and Shay watches me. “Who's Mercer?”
“A man King did business with, debt collection.” Her expression says she expected nothing better.
“King took an advance to collect from a criminal associate. The man disappeared, so Mercer decided we should grab his sister and hold her until he came back.”
“And Kane refused, because she’s innocent in all this?”
“Yes, exactly.” Some of the tension in Shay's face shifts. Not gone. Recalibrated.
“And now Mercer is coming after us because of you. “The words are blunt and true.
“Because I returned the money and put one of his men on the floor when they tried to stop me leaving.”
“So, what happens now?”
“You and Evie come to the compound until we handle him.”
Her eyes narrow.
“I have rooms ready, armed men on the gates, and—”
“No.”
“Shay, he knows your address, your job, and Evie's preschool.”
“I heard you.”
“Then you understand why I need to move you somewhere safe.”
She shoves some of her work things into her bag. “You’re doing it again.”
The words hit harder than the photograph.
“What?”
“Danger happens, and your answer is to decide where I go.”
“This isn't the same Shay.”
“It feels exactly the same from where I'm standing.”
“Mercer threatened our daughter. Let me keep you safe.”
“By deciding where I go and telling me it’s for my own good?” The silence after her question makes me hear myself properly.
Shay shoulders her bag. “You haven't learned a fucking thing.”
She moves toward the door. I catch her arm, release it the moment she stiffens, and step back.
“Wait.”
“I've waited long enough for you to realize I'm capable of making decisions about my own life.”
“You're right.” Her hand stills on the lock.
I move between her and the dark street beyond the glass. “I heard the threat, panicked, and started moving you around like a piece on a board.”
Her expression remains guarded. “But the compound really is the safest place,” I say. “Closed gates, armed men around the clock, rooms on-site. You’d stay with me, and nobody moves in or out without the club knowing. But it’s your decision.”
“You make that sound normal.”
“For us, it is.”
“And the salon?”
“You work if you decide to. We watch the street and both exits. Nobody gets close without us knowing.”
“Like nobody got close enough to take that photograph?”
The failure cuts. “We didn't know Mercer had identified you then. We do now.”
Shay looks through the glass at the rain-darkened street. “I need the whole truth. Not the version you think I can handle.”
So I give it to her.
I tell her about Reddick's debt, the missing money, and the sister Mercer wanted us to seize.
I tell her King accepted the original contract and Kane returned the advance when Mercer changed the terms. I tell her about the warehouse, the men reaching for weapons, and Mercer's threat afterward. No softening of the truth.
“We collect from criminals,” I say. “Sometimes we hurt them. Sometimes worse. Kane's changing who we point that at, not what we're capable of doing.”
“Mercer thinks that's weakness. So he's using me to make you break Kane's decision.”
“He's trying.”
“Will you?”
“No.” The certainty fills the salon. “I'll kill Mercer before I let him put his hands on you or Evie, but I’m also not going to let an innocent woman get hurt either.”
For a long moment, Shay says nothing. Then she nods. “ Fine, we go to the compound then.”
Relief hits me hard enough to feel like weakness.
“I am not being sent anywhere,” she says. “I'm choosing the safest place for Evie and me.”
“Understood.”
Once she knows that the choice is hers, I call Cash.
Tank is already with Evie. Cash and Gray are on their way to us.
This is the part I know how to do. Giving Shay a choice doesn’t mean standing uselessly beside her after she makes it.
Mercer’s man reaches her as we’re leaving the salon.
Shay’s car is parked in the rear lot. We’re heading for it when she realizes her purse is still behind the register.
“I'll get it,” I say.
“Seriously Judge? It’s twenty feet.” She's already through the rear door before I finish the sentence.
The alley is dark and wet, the light above the salon entrance throwing a weak circle onto the pavement. A man steps from behind the dumpster and he grabs Shay's wrist and yanks her toward him.
I'm across the distance before he gets out a full word. Shay drives her knee upward. He turns enough that she catches his thigh instead of his balls, but the movement buys her the second she needs.
I get there in time and hit him from the side.
His shoulder slams into the brick wall. I trap his throat beneath my forearm and drive until the back of his skull cracks against the building.
“Mercer send you?” His eyes bulge.
I ease the pressure enough for him to speak.
“He wants the deal honored.”
My vision narrows to the hand that touched Shay. “You grabbed the wrong woman.”
He tries to reach beneath his jacket, but instead, I catch his wrist and wrench it backward until the joint gives with a wet pop.
His scream tears through the alley. Cash appears at the entrance with his gun drawn, then lowers it when he sees the man hanging in my grip.
“Car's moving at the north end,” he says.
“Try to get the plate. Don't chase past the river road.”
Cash runs to his bike.
I strip the weapon from the man’s man, put him facedown on the wet pavement, and plant my boot between his shoulders.
“Tell Mercer this was the warning. The next man who touches Shay doesn't go home alive.”
When I turn, she's standing by the rear door with one hand wrapped around her wrist. Everything inside me changes.
I leave Mercer's man coughing in the rain and cross to her. “Let me see.”
“I'm fine.”
“Shay.”
She lowers her hand. Red marks already circle her wrist. My fury goes cold and deep. I take her fingers carefully and turn her arm beneath the light. “Anywhere else?”
“No.”
“You hit him.”
“I tried.”
“You bought me time.”
“I didn't need rescuing.”
“No.” I meet her eyes. “You had backup.”
Something in her face shifts. Not surrender. Trust, taking one cautious breath. Shay drives to her rental and packs under the club’s watch. Then we collect Evie from Dottie’s. I ride ahead of Shay’s car, Tank takes the rear, and the compound gates close behind all three of us as we ride in.
Evie sleeps in her car seat, Bun-Bun clutched beneath her chin. I kill my engine beside Shay’s car as Tank rolls in behind us.
Cash and Gray are already waiting outside the clubhouse. I reach Evie’s door before Shay has unfastened her seat belt, while Tank lowers his voice to a rumble and tells a staring prospect to clear the walkway.
Gray kills his engine beside us. “Rear fence is covered. Two men are watching it.”
“Good.”
Cash lifts Shay’s bag from the car. “Room’s checked. Windows are locked.”
Beneath the ordinary updates, every man here is armed, alert, and exactly where Kane ordered him to be. This is what my brothers do when the alternative is acknowledging how close Mercer came to my family.
Shay takes it all in through her car window. The armed brother posted near the gate, the bikes lined beside the clubhouse, and the Kingdom Come emblem painted across the wall beyond them.
“This is your normal,” she says quietly.
“It's my life.”
She glances at me. “There's a difference?”
“Not much.”
I carry Evie to my room. She stirs when I lower her onto the bed, but Shay sits beside her and smooths a hand through her hair until she settles.
My room has never looked small before. Now it holds three people, a child's backpack, Shay's overnight bag, and a stuffed rabbit apparently named Bun-Bun. It looks better than it ever has.
Shay notices me staring. “Don't make this into something it isn't.”
I take the first-aid kit from the bathroom. “Sit down.” She gives me a look.
“Recommendation,” I correct. “Not an order.”
That almost earns me a smile. She sits in the chair beside the bed, and I kneel in front of her. The marks on her wrist have darkened.
I wrap some ice I grabbed from the bar on the way up here in a clean cloth and hold it gently against her skin. Her knees bracket me, bare skin inches from my mouth, and the memory of the salon returns with enough force to tighten my hand around the cloth.
She feels it. Her breathing changes, but I keep my eyes on her wrist. Fear and adrenaline aren't consent. Neither is being trapped in my room because a criminal wants to use her against me.
“Where are you sleeping?” she asks.
“Floor.”
“There's a couch in the common room.”
“I'm not leaving you and Evie alone.”
“You trust the armed men outside?”
“With the compound. Not enough to put a wall between me and you tonight.”
A knock sounds. Kane waits outside the room. “Church.” His gaze drops to Shay's wrist and turns hard. “We found the car.”
I stand, put the cold cloth into her hand, and settle my cut over my shoulders. The man kneeling in front of her disappears. The vice president walks into church.
Kane lays out the assignments. Cash has the vehicle description.
Gray and Tank rotate protection around the salon and preschool.
Two brothers watch Shay's rental. Nobody enters or leaves the compound without being checked.
Griz's gaze moves briefly toward the hallway leading to my room. “Full lockdown?”
“Until Mercer is handled,” Kane answers.
Griz gives a low grunt and sits back. Chains taps one finger against the table, then stills it without speaking. The moment passes.
Kane looks at me. “We end it clean.”
“We end it completely.” His nod is all the agreement we need.
When I return to my room, the lights are low. Shay sits against the headboard. Evie sleeps curled against her side, one small hand resting on the empty part of the bed.
I take off my cut and boots, then lower myself to the floor.
“Judge,” Shay whispers.
I look up and she studies me for a long moment, then lifts the edge of the blanket.
It isn't forgiveness or a promise. It's a choice. I climb onto the far side of the bed and lie above the covers, leaving space between us.
Sometime after midnight, Evie shifts away from Shay and curls against my chest. My arm closes around her before I'm fully awake. Across the pillow, Shay watches me hold our daughter.
Then Cash knocks once quietly and opens the door far enough to speak. “We found Mercer's second car.”
I ease Evie onto the pillow and rise. Shay's gaze follows me as I pull on my cut. She sees both men. The one who held ice against her bruised wrist and the one who will make sure nobody marks her skin again.