Chapter 3 #2
Anchor rubbed a hand over his face. “Until we figure out what’s going on, she stays here.”
Nobody argued.
Not one person.
McKayla noticed that too.
Her gaze moved slowly across the room.
The club. The brotherhood. The silent agreement between all of them. Then her eyes landed back on me briefly, like she’d finally realized I hadn’t been bluffing underground.
Pearl shifted closer to her. “You’ll be okay here.”
Shay nodded immediately. “Really.”
McKayla looked skeptical. “That’s easy for you two to say.”
Pearl’s expression softened. “I thought this place was insane when I first got here too.”
“That’s because it is insane,” Pull muttered.
“Accurate,” Skull agreed.
Prime sat beside Shay and draped an arm across the back of the couch behind her. “You’ll get used to it.”
“That’s somehow more concerning.”
Piney pointed at her. “See? Firecracker.”
McKayla sighed heavily and rubbed at her temple. “Please stop calling me that.”
“No promises,” Piney chuckled.
I watched her carefully while everyone talked. Doc was right. The exhaustion was catching up to her fast. Her blinking slowed, and her posture sagged little by little.
“You’re tired,” I said.
Her eyes shifted to mine. “It’s been a weird night.”
“Understatement.”
Pearl stood. “We’ll show you around in the morning.”
Shay nodded. “And the kitchen. Lost gets cranky if people touch his coffee maker wrong.”
“I heard that,” Lost called.
“You were supposed to,” Shay shot back.
That earned another laugh from around the room.
Normal.
For a second it didn’t feel like a place where bodies washed up.
I moved closer to McKayla again. “Come on.” I bent slightly to pick her up again.
Her hand immediately landed against my chest.
“I can walk.”
I looked down at her. “You sure?”
“Yes.”
“You fall again, and Anchor’s gonna yell at me.”
“Pretty sure Anchor yells at all of you anyway.”
“Also true.”
I hesitated another second before finally stepping back. I didn’t like it, but she was already glaring at me for hovering too much.
McKayla pushed herself carefully off the couch and steadied. She was wobbly, but upright. “See?” she said quietly.
I stayed beside her anyway, just in case.
The hallway leading toward the bedrooms was quieter than the rest of the clubhouse. Softer lighting. Worn hardwood floors. Doors lining both sides.
McKayla moved slowly beside me while the sounds of conversation faded behind us.
“You all really live here together?” she asked.
“Most of us.”
“And nobody kills each other?”
“Sometimes we think about it.”
That earned a tired little laugh from her. I liked hearing that sound more than I should’ve. We stopped outside one of the bedroom doors. “This one.”
I pushed the door open and stepped aside for her.
The room wasn’t huge, but it was clean. A dresser sat against one wall beside a narrow bed and a small nightstand.
Shay had stayed there when she first came to the island before moving into Prime’s room.
McKayla stepped inside slowly and looked around. “Nicer than the motel I was staying at,” she admitted. “Though all my stuff’s still there.”
“We’ll get it tomorrow.”
Her eyes lifted to mine immediately. “I’m going with.”
“We’ll see what Anchor wants to do.”
That seemed to irritate her instantly. “Do you always have to run everything by Anchor?”
“When it’s club business? Yeah.”
She crossed her arms carefully. “So I’m club business?”
I leaned against the doorframe slightly. “Right now? Yeah.”
She stared at me for a second before dragging her fingers through her messy hair with a sigh. “This is all too much.” The sarcasm was gone now. All that was left was exhaustion. “I can’t figure out what to think anymore,” she admitted quietly.
“It’s the concussion,” I told her. “You’ll feel better in the morning.”
“Is that your medical opinion?”
“Nope.”
“Good to know.”
Another tiny smile. Jesus. I needed her to stop doing that.
I pushed away from the doorway. “Get some sleep.”
She nodded slowly. “You can go.”
Something about the words hit strangely.
Like she thought I was standing there because I didn’t trust her.
Maybe part of me didn’t, but mostly? I just didn’t like the idea of leaving her alone yet. Still, I nodded once. “If you need anything,” I said, “just holler. My room’s right next door.”
Her eyebrows lifted slightly. “Convenient.”
“Intentional.”
That earned me another look. Longer this time, but then she finally nodded. “Okay.”
I stepped backward into the hallway and pulled the door shut behind me before heading next door toward my own room. The second the door closed behind me, the quiet hit hard.
I sat down heavily on the edge of my bed and rubbed both hands over my face.
What a goddamn mess.
A dead body down at the docks again, a missing woman tied to Skull Island, and another woman with a concussion sleeping twenty feet away from me.
And somehow, despite all the chaos, all I could think about was the way McKayla kept looking at me like she didn’t know whether to trust me or run from me.
Hell, maybe she didn’t know. Maybe I didn’t either.
All I knew was that the second she hit that ground tonight, something in my chest locked up hard enough to scare the shit out of me. And that was a problem I definitely didn’t need right now.