Chapter 27
Reaper
The warehouse was still burning when we pulled away.
A dull orange glow in the trees behind us, smoke curling into the dark sky.
Riot drove and Keno rode shotgun. Lucy sat beside me in the back, quiet, eyes on the dark trees blurring past the window.
She didn’t look scared. She looked like she was lost in thought.
Boxer, Link, and Finn sat opposite us, looking grim.
They were bloodied from being ambushed outside, but none of them were too badly hurt.
We all needed to breathe, but none of us could. Not after what we’d found, and not after what we’d done. We had disrupted one of the Fangs’ warehouses and had the duffel bags full of their stuff in the back with us.
Later, the clubhouse was near-empty. The others had peeled off to clean weapons and patch wounds.
I found myself in the kitchen, gripping a chipped mug like it might anchor me.
Coffee, not whisky, the real poison came later, when the adrenaline wore off and the silence kicked in.
Maria had made a stew that I’d eaten a little of, but my appetite had left me.
The door creaked open and Lucy stepped in.
For a second, she lingered near the door like she wasn’t sure if she was welcome.
She was still in my clothes, Henley hanging loose on her frame, sleeves pushed up, trousers hugging her hips like they belonged there.
Christ, she looked better in them than I ever had.
Better than anyone. Some part of me, the part I tried hardest to bury, liked it. Too much.
I didn’t tell her that. Didn’t even let my eyes linger.
“You okay?” she asked, setting her own empty bowl into the sink and washing it down.
I didn’t look at her, I stared into the mug. “No,” I said simply.
She didn’t flinch and didn’t fill the air with words to make it easier. She waited, wiping the bowl and putting it away.
I finally looked up. “This is the point where you run,” I said.
“I’m still here.”
“You shouldn’t be.”
She crossed the room and stood close but didn’t touch me.
“I didn’t come this far to quit when it got real.”
I grabbed the edge of the counter.
“They’re going to come for you now. Not only Gage, the Fangs. Maybe someone still inside the club. You’ve got that flash drive. You’ve got my name. Caleb’s name. That makes you a threat.”
“They were coming for me anyway. I don’t care.” She folded her arms and cocked her hip.
“I do.”
Silence pressed in.
Then I asked, “You ever care about someone enough to want to hurt them just to keep them safe?”
She swallowed. “You’re not hurting me.”
“I will. If you stay.”
Her hand found mine and my heart jumped a beat.
“You already did,” she said. “When you let me walk away, telling me you wouldn’t miss me when I was gone.”
I met her eyes. “That was me trying to protect what was left of you.”
“And this is me telling you there’s more of me than you think.”
She wasn’t wrong. That night at the warehouse raid, she’d moved like someone who knew how to end a life and carry the weight after.
She’d taken down Malo without blinking then stood over his body like she knew what it meant and what it cost. I knew some of her family background, knew they didn’t have it easy from what Caleb had shared, but he’d never gone into details.
Now, I knew there was more to the story.
I stepped closer and placed my forehead on hers, my hands settling on her hips. Breathing in her fire like it might burn away the parts of me that still hoped this could end clean.
“I want you to run,” I said, “but I don’t want to be here when you do.”
“I’m not running,” she ground out, like she was sick of repeating it.
I exhaled like it physically hurt. “Then I hope to God you’re ready for what’s coming.”
Old ladies and kids had been brought in to keep them safe, filling the spare bedrooms and even side rooms to the max.
Riot was outside locking down the perimeter. The rest of the club was out gathering intel, calling in favours, shaking trees to see what would fall. Inside, in the war room, it was just me and Lucy.
She sat across from me at the table, back in her own dress.
The Henley I’d lent her was folded on a chair in the corner.
For a second, I saw her in it again, the soft fabric hanging off her shoulders, sleeves hiding her hands, the way the fabric had rose and dipped over her breasts and something sharp hit me in the chest. She’d worn my clothes like she belonged in them, and now she’d slipped back into her armour.
Flash drive in her hand, spinning it between her fingers.
I’d seen the files. Enough to know how deep it went.
Gage hadn’t only betrayed us, he’d sold secrets to cartel-connected hitters who had federal protection and local enablers.
There were names on that drive I couldn’t even say out loud without drawing fire and we were deciding what to do about it.
Burn it all down? Go public? Use it as leverage?
I didn’t know, but I knew it started with finding Gage and making sure he didn’t get the chance to do more damage.
“I got a feeling he might be heading east,” I said, breaking the silence. “Back towards the state line. There’s a cabin up there. Club used it back in the early days. Off grid.”
Lucy nodded. “You think he’d risk circling back?”
“He’s desperate. Desperate people go where they think no one will look.”
She leaned forward. “Then that’s where we go.”
I stared at her, unsure if I admired her courage or hated that she had any reason to need it. She looked at me, no fear in her eyes, only fire. I nodded once, then forced my gaze from hers. Time for plans.
“We’ll take at least two bikes. I’ll tell Riot to bring two extras for lookouts. We go to that cabin, check it out. If Gage is there, we talk and keep him alive.”
“If he’s not?” she asked.
“Then we light a signal fire he can’t ignore.”
I took a deep breath. “Is it too much to ask that you stay here?”
“Fuck you, Jay.”
“That’s what I thought.”
She didn’t flinch. She slid the flash drive into her jacket and grabbed her helmet off the table. I watched her for a second longer.
That’s when her phone buzzed. She moved too quick, shoving it into her pocket, but not quick enough.
The preview lit across the screen before it vanished.
Unknown: Still breathing? Thought I told you this ends with you in the ground.
My gut clenched. My voice dropped into a growl. “What the fuck was that?”
Her shoulders tensed. “It’s nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
She hesitated, then exhaled. “It’s Gage. He’s been texting me.”
My pulse spiked. “Been?”
“A couple times since the night after the alley.”
I was on my feet before I realised it, heat flooding through me. “You’ve been sitting on threats from him for days and didn’t say a goddamn word?”
“I didn’t want to make it worse,” she snapped. “You had the club tearing itself apart already. I thought—”
“You thought wrong,” I cut her off, fist slamming the table hard enough to rattle the bottles on it. “You don’t keep something like that from me. Not when it’s Gage, and definitely not when it’s about you.”
Her eyes went sharp, wounded and furious at once. “I’m not one of your brothers or club whores, Jay. I don’t need your permission to breathe.”
The silence shattered like glass. She shoved the helmet under her arm and stormed out, the door slamming hard enough to make the maps on the wall sway.
I stood there, chest heaving, fury and fear tangled until I couldn’t pull them apart.
My gaze slid to the chair in the corner. The Henley I’d given her was still there, folded. But all I could see was her in it, bare feet on the clubhouse floor, sleeves swallowing her hands, fire in her eyes that I couldn’t stop wanting even when I knew I should.
If Gage got to her first, all I’d have left was a shirt that still smelled like her and the weight of what I didn’t say.