4. SARAH
SARAH
The Iron Flames called their meeting room the chapel, but there was nothing holy about seven furious bikers deciding how many men they were willing to bury before midnight.
I sat beside Finn at the long scarred table while Hawk watched the video again.
The screen on the wall showed my old apartment building, Finn’s bike beneath the streetlight, and the bedroom window where we had slept without knowing someone was recording us.
When the image went black, nobody spoke for several seconds.
Eloise sat across from me in jeans and one of Diesel’s shirts, her wedding dress packed away less than a day after she wore it. Diesel stood behind her with his hands braced on the back of her chair, all traces of his usual humor gone.
“They aren’t getting the south yard,” Eloise said. “Not for one night, one truck, or one threat. Preston used my family and that property to arm them once. I won’t let Rafe do it again.”
“Nobody’s asking you to,” Hawk replied. “We give them a route that looks open, let them believe fear made us stupid, then shut the door once they’re inside.”
Finn’s arm rested along the back of my chair, his knuckles brushing my shoulder whenever I moved. It was not affection. It was possession disguised as casual contact, a silent reminder to every man at that table that I belonged beside him.
After last night, I could hardly argue.
Gunner emptied my duffel onto the table.
Noah’s clothes, two books, a plastic shark, and the envelope I had carried through five years and six different homes landed beneath the harsh overhead lights.
Finn pulled his father’s knife from the bottom of the bag and stared at it for a long moment before setting it down.
“Lock wasn’t forced,” he said. “Whoever took this knew the code or had time to work it out.”
“How many people had access to your rooms back then?” Hawk asked.
“Brothers on security rotation. Prospects assigned to clean. Maybe twelve men total.”
“And how many are still around?”
Finn’s jaw tightened. “Most of them.”
The answer changed the air in the room. The Black Thorns had not merely followed Finn home. Someone had reached inside a locked drawer in the heart of Iron Flames territory and taken the one object guaranteed to convince me they could kill him.
Gunner was separating the photographs when he paused over the empty duffel. He ran his fingers along the inside seam, reached for his knife, and cut through the lining.
A black device no larger than a quarter dropped into his palm.
“GPS tracker,” he said. He turned it over, examining the tiny hole in its casing. “And a microphone.”
Finn surged to his feet so fast the chair struck the wall. “That thing’s been inside my rooms all night?”
“Looks that way.”
“Kill it.”
“Wait.” Hawk leaned closer without touching the device. “If it’s still transmitting, we have a direct line to whoever planted it.”
Gunner carried it into the adjoining security room, connected a small reader, and confirmed the signal was live. Every conversation near my bag since I reached the compound could have been transmitted straight to Rafe’s men.
Including their demand for the south yard and Finn’s promise to hunt them.
“Then we tell them something useful,” I said.
Finn looked at me. “We ain’t telling them shit.”
“They think we don’t know it’s there. Let them hear us panic. Tell them you’re moving Noah and me somewhere less secure before the yard handoff.”
“No.”
“You haven’t even heard the plan.”
“Don’t need to. You’re not bait.”
“I was bait before I ever drove through that gate. At least this time I would know the trap was there.”
His eyes went flat and dangerous. “Sarah. Hallway. Now.”
I followed him because fighting in front of the entire club would not help either of us. The moment the chapel door closed, Finn caught my waist and backed me into the wall.
“You think because I fucked you last night, you get to stand in there and volunteer yourself for a gunfight?”
“No. I think being the woman they hunted for five years gives me the right to decide whether I help end it.”
“You help by staying alive.”
“And you help by listening to me. They want Noah and me. If they don’t see at least one of us in the vehicle, they won’t expose themselves.”
“Then they don’t expose themselves tonight.”
“They try again tomorrow. Or the day after that. Maybe next time they aim for his side of the car instead of mine.” My voice shook, but I refused to lower it.
“I spent four years running because I was terrified of making the wrong choice. I won’t spend the rest of my life waiting for another car to appear in the mirror. ”
Finn planted one hand beside my head while the other tightened around my hip. “I just found you.”
The anger left his voice on the final word, revealing something raw beneath it.
“I know.”
“You don’t.” He brought his forehead to mine.
“You don’t know what it did to me when I saw that wreck this morning.
Don’t know what I pictured before Gunner said there wasn’t blood inside.
I can protect you when you’re beside me, but I can’t do it if you’re determined to throw yourself at every bastard who wants you. ”
I reached up and held the back of his neck. “Then keep me beside you.”
His eyes closed for a second.
“Body armor,” he said when he opened them. “You stay in my vehicle and do exactly what I tell you. First shot, you get down and don’t move until I come for you.”
“Agreed.”
“And Noah stays here with Reaper and Callie.”
“I wouldn’t take him anywhere near this.”
His hand moved from my hip to the back of my neck, holding me there. “If this goes wrong—”
“It won’t.”
“Don’t give me promises you can’t keep.”
“Then don’t ask questions you don’t want answered.”
His mouth touched mine once, hard and brief, then he dragged me back into the chapel.
The plan came together quickly. We would let the microphone hear that the Iron Flames were moving Noah and me to a hunting cabin north of town before dark.
Finn and I would take the lead SUV, with blankets arranged in the back to make it appear Noah was asleep beneath them.
Gunner and Axel would follow at a distance with their lights off, while Hawk, Chains, and the others covered the roads leading to the cabin.
Diesel remained at the compound with Eloise and the children. He argued until Hawk reminded him that the south yard and his wife were still targets.
I recorded the false conversation beside my open duffel, allowing my voice to tremble as I begged Finn to move Noah somewhere safer. Finn answered with angry reluctance, playing the part so convincingly that for one uncomfortable moment I forgot it was an act.
Gunner checked the transmitter. “Signal spike. Somebody received it.”
We left the device where it was and carried the bag back to Finn’s rooms.
Noah was on the clubhouse floor building a tower with Maddie when we went to say goodbye. Callie sat nearby with a sleeping baby doll in her lap while Reaper stood against the wall, arms folded, looking terrifying enough to make the real world seem harmless by comparison.
“Mom and I have to go out for a while,” Finn told Noah, crouching beside him. “You’re staying here with Uncle Reaper.”
Noah looked toward Reaper. “Does he know games?”
“No,” Reaper said.
Maddie sighed. “He does. He just pretends he doesn’t.”
Noah considered that before handing Finn the plastic shark from our bag. “This can bite bad guys.”
Finn accepted it as solemnly as if our son had handed him a loaded weapon. “I’ll keep it close.”
“You have to bring it back.”
“I will.”
Noah wrapped his arms around Finn’s neck without warning.
Finn froze, one hand still holding the shark while the other hovered over our son’s back. Then his eyes met mine, and he pulled Noah close.
“Be good for Callie,” he said roughly.
“Okay, Dad.”
I turned away before my fear could become tears. If Finn had looked reluctant about the plan before, that single word nearly ended it. He stood, took my hand, and did not release it until we reached the armory.
Gunner fitted me with a lightweight vest beneath a loose black sweatshirt. Finn checked every strap himself, his hands moving over my ribs and stomach with professional precision until he reached the bottom buckle and paused.
“Last chance to stay.”
“Last chance to trust me.”
His mouth tightened. “Ain’t the same thing.”
“Maybe it should be.”
Night had fallen by the time we drove through the compound gate.
I sat in the passenger seat while Finn drove one-handed, the plastic shark tucked into the chest pocket of his cut.
He checked the mirrors every few seconds, his expression cold and focused, but his free hand remained locked around my thigh.
We turned onto the narrow road leading north. Trees crowded both sides, cutting off the moonlight, and the farther we traveled from the compound, the more every dark gap between them seemed to move.
“Gunner’s half a mile back,” Finn said. “Hawk has the cabin covered. If anything feels wrong, you get on the floor.”
“You already told me.”
“I’m telling you again.”
“You can’t control every—”
Headlights exploded behind us.
A truck came out of a side road and struck the rear quarter of our SUV hard enough to throw me against my belt. Finn corrected the skid, slammed the accelerator down, and reached beneath his cut for his gun.
Another vehicle appeared ahead, parked sideways across both lanes.
“Down!”
Finn braked and turned at the same time. The SUV slid across the road, stopping broadside thirty feet from the blockade. I dropped below the window as armed men emerged from the trees.
One of them walked into the headlights without raising his weapon.
He wore a Black Thorns cut now, but I knew his face. Five years ago, he had been an Iron Flames prospect who brought beer to the table while Finn and I laughed with his brothers. He had watched us together. He had known which room belonged to Finn and where he kept the key.
Then he spoke, and the last doubt disappeared.
“You should’ve kept running, Sarah.”
Rook.
The man who had stolen Finn’s knife and threatened me from behind a mask had once been trusted inside the Iron Flames clubhouse.