8. Riot
RIOT
Rook listened without interrupting while I laid out Hale’s information in church.
Anna waited in the main room. She’d given us the route log and the possible location, but that didn’t put her at the table or give her access to the club’s response.
Mace studied the photographs on my phone. “Tanker closure is public record. Time on the route change puts Riot out.”
“I was already fucking out,” I said.
“To us. This gives Crow’s old guard something Stone can’t bullshit his way around.”
Havoc unfolded a county road map. “Maintenance property has three buildings and one usable vehicle exit.”
“We wait for identification,” Rook said. “Then Riot takes Mace and Havoc. Dare holds transport at the perimeter. No patches beyond what’s needed, and no full fucking club rolling through Gravewater roads.”
Saint leaned forward. “Why the fuck are we helping recover a rival president?”
“Because Crow alive blows a hole through Stone’s story,” Rook said. “Somebody inside Gravewater tried to kill Anna on our line and turn her body into a declaration of club war. Stone benefits from every part of that. We bring Crow out, we take that weapon away.”
“And because Anna asked me,” I said.
Rook held my gaze and nodded. “That too.”
Havoc marked two approach roads. “We need somewhere to hold Crow after. He can’t go to Gravewater until we know who’ll shoot him for Stone.”
“I’ll handle it,” Rook replied. “Until Hale confirms, Anna comes behind the gates. Stone knows her house and the motel won’t stay private another night.”
Church ended. I found Anna near the clubhouse doors with a bag holding clean clothes Mace had collected from her home. She stood straight when Rook approached.
“You’ll be safer inside the compound until we move on Crow,” he told her. “That’s an offer, not an order. If you choose somewhere else, Riot goes with you.”
Anna looked past him at the inner gate. Forty-eight hours ago she’d stood between those barriers accusing us of taking her brother. “I’ll stay.” The gate rolled open and she walked through beside me.
Conversation in the main room lowered when Crow’s sister came through the doors. No one challenged her presence with Rook beside her.
“Main room, kitchen, yard when it’s cleared and the officers’ corridor,” he said. “Locked doors stay locked. You need to leave, tell Riot so we can plan for it.”
“Understood.”
“Crow isn’t coming through these gates if recovery makes another location safer. We’ll decide after we see his condition.”
“Bring him out alive. I don’t care where the first bed is.”
Rook nodded once and moved toward the office.
I took Anna down the officers’ corridor. She’d been inside the compound before, but never this part of it and never my room.
I unlocked the door and stepped aside for her.
The space held a double bed, gun safe, dresser and old leather chair. A few photographs were pinned around a county map beside the mirror. One was from a winter charity ride during the old truce, Anna standing between Crow and me with snow caught in her hair.
“You kept this,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“I forgot you had a copy.”
“Never saw a reason to throw it out.”
“What happens after we bring Crow out?” she asked.
“Depends what he knows and who’s loyal.”
“I mean us.”
I glanced at my phone though there was no new message. “Gravewater stays Gravewater. Finding Crow doesn’t make the clubs friends.”
“I know. Did you ever stop loving me?”
There was nowhere left to hide from the answer. “No.”
Anna held my gaze.
“I tried,” I said. “Thought if I held on to how angry I was, the rest would die. It didn’t.”
“I loved you when I left too. For a long time, calling it hate was easier than admitting I might have been wrong.”
“And now?”
She put her palm over the enforcer patch on my chest. “Now I know you told me the truth. I’m choosing you before we know whether Crow comes home, and I’m choosing you knowing I’ll still love my brother and you’ll still be Wraith.”
“I won’t ask you to stop loving him.”
“And I won’t ask you to be less loyal to your club.”
“That doesn’t make this easy.”
“No. But it makes it honest.”
She stayed close. “I’m also not moving into this room because somebody shot at me. I’ve got a house and a life outside these gates.”
“I know.”
“If my safety is affected by something you can’t explain, tell me enough to make my own decision.”
I considered it. She wasn’t asking for Wraith business, only the truth about her own risk. “That I can do.”
“And I don’t use Crow to demand what isn’t mine.”
“Then we’ve got rules we should’ve had the first time,” I said.
I covered her hand with mine. “You understand what you’re choosing?”
“I do.”
For eighteen months I’d imagined that if Anna ever came back, we’d somehow have to become the people we’d been before. Standing in my room with her hand on my chest, I understood neither of us wanted that version back.
This one had fewer illusions. She knew exactly where my club came first, and I knew loving Crow would always pull part of her toward Gravewater. Neither of us was pretending that would disappear after one conversation.
She’d walked through my gates knowing every ugly complication between our clubs and still chosen to stay.
I slid my hand into her hair. “Come here.”
She did, closing the distance herself.
I kissed her with nothing left to prove, and Anna melted into me before the kiss turned hungry.
The softness didn’t make it tame. Anna opened to me, fingers curling over my patch while I walked her backward to the bed. I removed her shirt slowly enough to relearn every inch instead of relying on memory. The curve of her waist was the same. A faint scar near her ribs was new.
“What happened?” I asked, touching beside it.
“Caught a broken cabinet handle at work.”
“Your life got vicious while I was gone.”
“You’ve got no idea.”
Her smile reached me with painful force.
I unhooked her bra and lowered my mouth to one breast. Anna arched into me while I circled the nipple with my tongue, then drew it between my lips. I gave the other the same attention until her hands gripped my shoulders and impatience changed her breathing.
“Riot.”
“I know.”
“You’re enjoying making me wait.”
“Damn right.”
I laid her back, removed her jeans and underwear and opened her knees. There was no rush this time. I’d wanted the chance to take my time with her through every night I pretended anger was enough.
I kissed the inside of her thigh.
“Tell me if you want something different.”
“I want your mouth.”
I gave it to her.
The first slow pass of my tongue made her hips lift. I held them lightly, letting her move while I relearned what made her shiver.
Anna threaded her fingers through my hair. “There. Don’t stop.”
I kept the pressure steady. No teasing, no command, just my mouth working her while her thighs tightened around my shoulders. I pushed one finger inside, then a second when her body relaxed enough to take it. She rolled against the rhythm and the bed shifted beneath us.
“I want to watch you come,” I said against her.
Her breath broke as I curled my fingers. I flattened my tongue over her clit and felt the first hard contraction around my hand. Anna gasped my name, hips rising into my mouth while the orgasm went through her. I stayed exactly where she wanted until her fingers loosened and her legs relaxed.
When I rose, her face held no defense.
“Come here,” she said.
I stripped off the rest of my clothes, Anna reached for me, and I settled between her legs with my weight braced on my forearms.
I entered her slowly.
The tight warmth took me in one controlled push. Anna wrapped her legs around my waist, keeping our bodies close, and I rested my forehead against hers when I was deep.
“I love you,” I said.
Her eyes shone. “I love you too.”
I moved. Long strokes, face close to hers, no speed beyond what built naturally. Anna held the back of my neck and met me with each roll of her hips. The intimacy stripped more control than rough sex ever had. She saw every reaction, every moment pleasure caught me, and I let her.
Her fingers traced the scar on my chin. “I missed you.”
“Missed you too.”
The cost behind the words was anything but simple.
I shifted one hand beneath her thigh, opening her farther. The next stroke went deeper. Anna cried out, then pulled me down for a kiss while I found the same angle again. Her body tightened gradually around mine.
“With me,” she whispered.
I slid one hand between us and touched her where my body met hers.
The combination took her quickly. Her back lifted from the bed, muscles drawing tight around my cock as I drove through the contractions.
I held on until she opened her eyes, then let my own release take me.
It came hard and deep, her name rough in my mouth, no anger left to disguise it.
Afterward, I pulled out, and Anna curled into my side. I drew the blanket over us and put my arm around her without wondering whether care would be mistaken for forgiveness.
This time, when I came back from the bathroom, Anna had already made room for me beneath the blanket. I slid in beside her and she put her hand over my ribs as if the place had never stopped belonging to her.
“Crow’s going to hate this,” she murmured.
“Crow can get in line.”
Her laugh shook against my chest. “You’re not starting a queue of men who disapprove of us.”
“Too late. Been one for years.”
She shifted closer until one thigh lay over mine. “I thought this room would feel like enemy territory.”
“Still does to half your club.”
“Good thing I’m not asking half my club to sleep here.”
I laughed against her hair. The sound felt strange in the room and then completely right.
A while later, with her tucked against my side, she said, “When we get Crow back, I need time with him.”
“Take it.”
“That wasn’t me asking to leave you.”
“I know the difference now.” I kissed the top of her head. “And if I forget, you can remind me without driving through another fortified gate.”
“No promises.”
My phone vibrated on the nightstand twenty minutes later. Anna lifted her head while I read the message.
Hale had confirmation. Crow was alive at the county maintenance depot.