Chapter 6 - Ivy
Phoenix doesn't have an answer for my question, and I can see the weight of it settling over him. This man, this president who built an entire motorcycle club on principles and honor, has been carrying guilt for three years over a choice that probably saved his life.
"You keep talking about your brother," I say, because I've been wondering about this since last night. "Carter, right? Is he—" I stop, unable to finish the question.
Did he die too? Is Phoenix carrying the guilt of losing his brother on top of everything else?
It's hard to ask, invasive maybe, but I want to know everything about Phoenix. Want to understand the man who's standing between me and the Vipers, who's preparing to go to war because I knocked on his door at four in the morning.
Phoenix's expression softens. "He's alive. Safe. He's with another MC, an honorable one. The Savage Riders."
Relief floods through me so fast I almost sag. "He left the Iron Phoenix?"
"Officially, he never joined it." Phoenix's voice holds no bitterness, just acceptance.
"When Carter and I left the Vipers, we went separate directions.
I came here to Millhaven, built the Iron Phoenix from the ground up.
Carter went to Blackwater Falls and ended up patching in with the Savage Riders. "
"Why didn't he stay with you?" The question comes out before I can stop it. "You're brothers. You survived the Vipers together. Why would he leave?"
"Because he needed to step out of my shadow.
" Phoenix says it simply, like it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"I'm three years older. I've always been the one who went first, took the hits, cleared the path.
Carter spent his whole life following me, being my little brother, existing in my wake.
When we left the Vipers, he saw a chance to be his own man.
To build his own identity instead of just being Phoenix's brother. "
"You supported that," I say.
"Of course I supported it. I'd have done the same thing in his position.
" Phoenix shifts against the dresser, and I catch myself noticing the way his muscles move under his t-shirt.
"Carter needed to prove himself on his own terms. The Savage Riders gave him that chance.
They're good men. Nine of them, all patched, all honorable.
Their president is a guy named King. Solid leader, runs a clean club.
Carter's happy there. That's all that matters to me. "
"Do you see him often?"
"Every few months. We talk regularly, visit when we can. The bond between us is unbreakable." His voice is certain. "Distance doesn't change that. Different cuts don't change that. He's my brother. That's forever."
The love in his words makes my chest ache.
I can't remember the last time someone talked about family with that kind of conviction, that certainty of belonging.
My parents loved me, but they've been gone for seven years.
And Cole… Cole talked about the Vipers like they were family, but it was the kind of family that devoured its members.
This is different. This is real.
"Are you going to tell him?" I ask. "About the war? About what's coming?"
Phoenix is quiet for a moment, considering. "Yeah. I'll call him today."
"Will you ask the Savage Riders for help?"
"No." The answer is immediate, certain. "Carter will offer the second I tell him what's happening. Probably won't even wait for me to finish explaining before he's promising to bring King and the whole club. But I won't accept."
"Why not?" I lean forward slightly. "You said the numbers aren't in your favor. If Carter brings the Savage Riders, that's ten more men."
Phoenix moves suddenly, and I tense before I can stop myself. But he's not coming toward me. He's sliding down to sit on the floor near the door, his back against the wall, long legs stretched out in front of him.
The position puts him lower than me. Less threatening. More approachable. He knows what he's doing, I realize. Making himself smaller, less intimidating. Giving me the higher ground, both literally and psychologically.
He takes a deep breath, and I watch his chest heave. The movement pulls his t-shirt tight across his torso, and I can see the definition of his muscles, the shadows of tattoos beneath the fabric. He's built like a fighter, like a Greek god sent specifically to protect me.
Maybe he is. Maybe Phoenix is my guardian angel, dressed in leather and ink instead of white robes and wings.
The thought is ridiculous. I don't believe in divine intervention, fate, or the universe sending help when you need it most. But sitting here with Phoenix, I can almost believe in something bigger.
Something that put me on the road to Millhaven, that made me brave enough to knock on his door, that led me to the one man who might actually keep me safe.
"Carter has a daughter," Phoenix says, and his voice transforms. Softens in a way I haven't heard before. "Maya. She's five years old."
The information hits me sideways. Carter has a daughter. Phoenix has a niece.
"She's one of the biggest reasons we left the Vipers," Phoenix continues, and there's something in his voice I can't quite identify.
Pain, maybe. Or love. Or both. "Maya's always been with Carter, with us, since she was born.
And when the Vipers started getting darker, started trafficking women and children, we knew we couldn't stay.
Couldn't raise a little girl in that environment.
Couldn't let her grow up thinking that was normal. "
I try to imagine it. Two brothers trying to protect a baby in the middle of a corrupt motorcycle club. Trying to shield her from the violence and degradation surrounding them. Trying to be good men in a place that punished goodness.
"Where is she now?"
"With Carter in Blackwater Falls. Safe. Happy. He even got a girlfriend now too. Someone who loves both him and Maya, who's building a life with them. He's finally got what we never had growing up. Stability, peace, a real family."
The way he says it, with pride instead of envy, with joy instead of bitterness, tells me everything about who Phoenix is. He’s a good man.
"You're very curious," Phoenix says suddenly, and there's a hint of a smirk playing at his lips.
"I am," I admit. The observation should embarrass me, but it doesn't. "I thought I'd forgotten how to be. Cole didn't like too many questions."
The smirk fades instantly. Phoenix's expression goes hard, dangerous. "Of course he didn't. Men like Cole don't like women who think for themselves. Who have opinions and questions and minds of their own. Easier to control someone who's been trained not to ask."
He's right. God, he's so right it hurts.
Cole spent two years systematically dismantling my curiosity, my intelligence, my tendency to question things I didn't understand.
Every time I asked why or how or what does that mean, he'd get that look.
The one that preceded violence or lectures about respecting him or long silences that were somehow worse than the hitting.
Eventually, I learned to stop asking. Learned to nod and smile and accept whatever Cole told me without question.
Sitting here with Phoenix, asking questions and getting real answers, feels like coming back to life.
"I just don't want Maya to turn into an orphan," Phoenix adds, returning to our earlier conversation. His voice is rough now, weighted. "I won't call Carter back to a war that might leave his daughter without a father. I won't do that to her. To him. To the family he's built."
"So, you're going into this fight knowing you're outnumbered," I say slowly. "Knowing the Savage Riders would help if you asked. But you're choosing to face it alone rather than risk your niece losing her dad."
"We're not alone. We've got eight good men who know what's coming and are choosing to stand anyway." Phoenix's eyes meet mine. "That's enough. It has to be enough."
"What if it's not?" The question comes out smaller than I intend. "What if the Vipers are too much and you—" I can't finish. Can't voice the fear that Phoenix and his brothers might die because I ran to them for help.
"Then we adapt. We strategize. We survive.”
I want to believe him. Want to accept that this isn't my fault, that the war would have happened regardless. But the guilt sits heavy in my chest anyway.
"Tell me about her," I say, changing the subject because I need to think about something other than the violence coming. "Your niece. What's she like?"
“She's everything good in this world. Smart as hell. She reads at a second-grade level already and she just turned five. Wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up even though we're nowhere near an ocean."
"A marine biologist at five?" I can't help but smile.
"Carter takes her to the aquarium in the city once a month.
She can name every species of shark, knows which ones are endangered, and gets genuinely angry about ocean pollution.
" He's talking faster now, animated in a way I haven't seen before.
"Last time I visited, she spent two hours explaining the difference between great whites and bull sharks.
Two hours. And I listened to every word because she was so damn excited about it. "
The image makes my heart race faster. Phoenix sitting and listening to a five-year-old talk about sharks for two hours because he loves her that much.
"She sounds amazing," I say.
"She is. She's—" He stops, and I see the emotion flicker across his face.
"She's the proof that we did something right.
That leaving the Vipers, building something new, fighting for honor instead of profit, it all mattered.
Because Maya gets to grow up safe. Gets to be curious and smart and passionate about sharks.
Gets to have a childhood that isn't poisoned by violence and corruption. "
"That's why you won't risk Carter," I understand now. "Because losing him would destroy her."