8. SARAH
SARAH
Rook died at twelve nineteen. At one-oh-seven, Finn walked back through the Iron Flames gate with blood drying on his clothes and Noah’s plastic shark still tucked safely inside his cut.
Our son had fallen asleep on the clubhouse couch between Maddie and a pile of blankets, but the sound of Finn’s boots brought his eyes open. He sat up, blinking through exhaustion, and held out both arms.
Finn crossed the room without breaking stride.
“Did the shark bite the bad guys?” Noah asked as Finn lifted him.
“Took a big chunk out of one.”
“Really?”
“Biggest bite I ever saw.” Finn pulled the toy from his pocket and placed it in Noah’s hand. “Told you I’d bring it back.”
Noah examined it carefully, then looked at the soot on Finn’s face and the fresh blood soaking through his bandage. “Did you make them go away?”
Finn’s gaze met mine over our son’s head. “The man who chased you can’t hurt either of you again.”
It was not the same as saying we were safe.
Rafe Maddox was still somewhere beyond the gates, and the map recovered from the compound attack proved someone was feeding him information.
However, Noah was four years old and had spent enough of his life listening for danger, so I let the answer be simple.
“We’re staying here now,” I told him. “No more running.”
“Forever?”
Finn went still.
The question was mine to answer. I understood that by the way he watched me, making no demand and offering no order even though both were written across his face.
“If Dad wants us,” I said.
His jaw tightened. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Make him think there’s a chance I don’t.”
Noah looked between us. “Are you fighting?”
“Constantly,” Finn said.
“Is that bad?”
“Not with your mom. Means she’s still close enough to yell at me.”
Noah seemed satisfied with that. He put his head on Finn’s shoulder and closed his eyes, the shark trapped between them. Elaina appeared from the hallway with a medical bag. She took one look at the blood along Finn’s side and pointed toward the treatment room.
“You tore every stitch.”
“Not every one.”
“Do you want me to count them out loud while I put them back?”
“No, ma’am.”
She looked at me. “Make him sit down before he passes out and crushes your kid.”
Finn muttered something impolite but handed Noah to me and followed her.
Axel had already been taken to the hospital with a concussion, although he had regained consciousness long enough to complain about missing the end of the fight.
The other brothers moved through the clubhouse around us, bruised and exhausted but alive.
Hawk stopped beside me as I settled Noah beneath the blankets again.
“The yard’s secure,” he said. “Two Black Thorns are dead, four are in custody, and the weapons in those trucks won’t reach the street. Rafe lost the route and most of the crew he sent to claim it.”
“But he got away.”
“He never came.”
“Will he try again?”
Hawk did not insult me with reassurance he could not give. “Eventually. Not tonight. Gunner rebuilt the security system, and until he identifies the leak, every family connected to this club will have protection. That includes you and Noah whether Knox is standing beside you or not.”
I looked around the battered clubhouse. Callie had fallen asleep with her head against Reaper’s shoulder.
Eloise stood behind the bar pouring coffee while Diesel watched her as if the building could collapse around them and he would still know exactly where she was.
These people had known me for less than two days, yet they had bled to keep my son safe because Finn had called him family.
I had spent years believing distance was the only protection I could give Noah. The Iron Flames protected by closing ranks.
“Thank you,” I said.
Hawk nodded toward the treatment room. “Keep him in bed for a day and we’ll call it even.”
“I heard that,” Finn called through the open door.
“Good.”
It was nearly three before we returned to Finn’s rooms. He carried Noah again despite Elaina’s threats, while I brought the duffel containing everything we had managed to carry with us.
I put our son in the smaller bedroom and waited until his breathing deepened before closing the door most of the way.
Finn stood in the kitchen when I returned, stripped to his jeans with fresh white bandages wrapped around his ribs. He had placed the photographs, his father’s knife, and the tracking device on the table. Five years of fear reduced to a handful of objects that could no longer control me.
My duffel sat beside them.
“You packing?” he asked.
“I was thinking about unpacking.”
His shoulders loosened, but only slightly. “You said if I wanted you.”
“I needed to hear you say it.”
“I’ve been saying it since you came through the gate.”
“You’ve been ordering me to stay because I’m Noah’s mother. That isn’t the same as wanting me when the danger is over.”
Finn crossed the kitchen and stopped in front of me. “Danger ain’t over. The leak’s still out there. Even when they’re gone, there’ll be somebody else stupid enough to test the club. This life doesn’t turn clean because I found something worth losing.”
“Then what are you offering me?”
“The truth.” His hands settled around my waist. “I won’t promise you safe every second.
I won’t promise never to be angry or never to ride out when the club needs me.
I can promise you’ll know where I am, you’ll get a voice in every choice that affects our family, and no bastard will ever use my silence to make you run again. ”
“And the years I took from you?”
Pain crossed his face, but he did not look away. “I can’t pretend they don’t matter. I missed his first word. His first step. Four birthdays I should’ve been there for. I’m gonna be angry about that for a long time, and some of that anger belongs to you.”
I nodded because I deserved the honesty, even when it hurt.
“But most of it belongs to Rook,” he continued. “He put you in a room alone and convinced you loving me would get me killed. I know what fear does to a person, Sarah. I know you did what you thought would keep Noah alive, and I know you carried all of it without anyone beside you.”
His thumb traced the bandage around my arm.
“I should have trusted you,” I whispered.
“Yeah.”
“You could make this easier by disagreeing.”
“Never lied to you before. Ain’t starting now.”
Despite everything, I laughed. The sound broke something open between us, and Finn’s forehead lowered to mine.
“I should’ve looked harder,” he said. “Should’ve known you wouldn’t leave without a reason. I let being pissed off convince me you didn’t love me because that hurt less than thinking you were somewhere scared and I couldn’t find you.”
“I loved you every mile I put between us.”
His fingers tightened around my waist. “Don’t say that like it’s finished.”
“It isn’t.” I slid my arms around his neck. “I chose you before I knew what it would cost. I’m choosing you now because I finally understand what running cost us both.”
“Say it plain, sweetheart.”
“I love you, Finn. I never stopped.”
His eyes closed, and the breath that left him sounded almost broken. “Again.”
“I love you.”
He kissed me, and for the first time since I came home, there was no anger in it. His mouth moved over mine slowly, one hand sliding into my hair while the other drew me against him with a care that felt more intimate than anything we had done in the dark.
“I love you too,” he said against my lips. “Hated you some days. Wanted you every one of them. Never stopped loving you.”
I kissed him again, tasting the truth of it, and backed him toward the bedroom.
“Elaina said bed,” I reminded him.
“Pretty sure this ain’t what she meant.”
“She should have been more specific.”
Finn locked the door and let me push him onto the mattress, but this time he caught me before I could climb over him and rolled us carefully until he was above me. His palm curved around my throat, not squeezing, simply feeling my pulse beneath his skin.
He undressed me without tearing anything, kissing every piece of skin he exposed until my body softened beneath his.
He reached into the nightstand for a condom, rolled it on, then pushed inside me slowly and deeply, his forehead against mine and his hand still resting around my throat.
There was no fight for control, no need to punish the years out of each other.
Only Finn filling the empty places he had left behind and my arms holding him where he belonged.
He whispered my name with every thrust, the sound rough with everything he rarely said. I wrapped my legs around him, drawing him deeper, and when pleasure began tightening inside me, he watched my face as though he needed to see the exact moment I came apart.
“Don’t look away,” he murmured. “I missed enough.”
I held his gaze while the orgasm rolled through me, slower than the desperate ones before it but powerful enough to leave tears burning in my eyes. Finn followed with my name against my mouth, then lowered himself carefully beside me and pulled me against his uninjured side.
We lay together in the dark, listening to Noah breathe in the next room.
“What happens tomorrow?” I asked.
“We get your things from St. Louis. Buy Noah a bed that wasn’t made for drunk bikers. Figure out where the hell to put four years of toys.”
“He has a lot of dinosaurs.”
“Then they live here too.”
“And after that?”
Finn kissed my forehead and tightened his arm around me.
“After that, we stop counting the years we lost and start making damn sure we don’t lose another one.”