Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Fiona
The Sons of Hell clubhouse was busier than usual for a weekday afternoon, the parking lot crowded with bikes and trucks that shouldn’t have been there at this hour.
I’d come by after my shift at the Creamery, still smelling faintly of vanilla and cream, hoping to catch Nash for a few minutes before heading home.
We’d been talking about taking Granny out for dinner that weekend, and I wanted to pin down an actual day before he found some excuse to bail.
The moment I walked through the heavy wooden door, dinner plans slipped to the back of my mind.
Something was wrong.
Banks stood at the bar talking to Enigma, his broad shoulders rigid while Enigma listened with an expression that made me wish I could hear what they were saying. Usually, the common room was filled with laughter, insults, and the kind of rough camaraderie I’d gotten used to around the club.
Today, conversations stayed low. Brothers sat in small groups, and several glanced toward the door when I entered without calling out the usual greeting. The tension reminded me of the air before a summer storm, when everything went strangely still even though the sky hadn’t opened yet.
I stayed near the doorway, one hand resting on the frame while I tried to decide whether I should find Nash or quietly leave.
The door opened behind me before I made up my mind.
I stepped aside to let two men enter.
The first looked to be in his fifties, with silver streaking the dark hair slicked away from a face that gave nothing away.
He wore a dark suit with an open-collared black shirt, but it wasn’t the expensive clothes that made me notice him.
It was the way everyone else did. Men shifted aside without being asked, leaving a path through the room as naturally as if they’d been expecting him.
The man beside him was younger and built like a wall, his face expressionless as his gaze moved across the clubhouse.
He didn’t wear a suit—just dress pants and a black button-down shirt—yet he positioned himself slightly behind the older man, close enough to intervene if anyone came near him.
Maybe bodyguard wasn’t the right word. Enforcer seemed closer, but I didn’t know if that word was used outside a motorcycle club.
Whatever he was, neither man belonged to the category of people I wanted to accidentally piss off.
Banks crossed the room to greet them. I’d seen him welcome presidents, club officers, and men who carried enough patches to tell me they mattered, but there was something more formal about the way he approached the older man.
Several brothers stood while they spoke, drifting closer without anyone calling them over.
I eased another step toward the door.
“Fiona.”
I turned and found Nash beside me, his attention already moving between me and the men in the center of the room.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.” I lowered my voice. “I was just... who are they?”
His jaw tightened slightly before his expression smoothed again. “Club business. You should probably head out.”
I’d known him long enough to recognize the answer for what it was. Not exactly none of your business, but close enough that asking again would get me nowhere.
“Right. I’ll see you later.”
Nash squeezed my shoulder as I turned toward the door, but before I reached it, the younger man’s gaze landed on me.
He didn’t move or say anything. His attention simply settled there, cold and direct enough that the back of my neck prickled.
Maybe I was imagining the threat because of everything else happening around me, but every instinct I had told me I didn’t want to stay around long enough to find out.
I pushed through the door onto the porch and sucked in a lungful of cool mountain air. The faint unease followed me outside, stubborn enough that I pulled my phone from my pocket before I even made it to the steps.
Me: Are you there?
I watched the screen, expecting the familiar three dots.
Nothing appeared.
The message showed delivered but unread.
Jasper could’ve been riding. He could’ve been in church. He could’ve been doing any one of a hundred things that didn’t involve staring at his phone waiting for me to text him. None of those possibilities stopped the disappointment from settling beneath the unease already there.
I was sliding the phone into my pocket when the sound of motorcycles rolled up the mountain.
Several of them.
I turned toward the road. The low rumble grew louder until four bikes appeared around the final curve, riding close together as they climbed toward the clubhouse. My hands closed around the porch railing before I even saw the riders clearly.
I knew one of those bikes.
I knew the man on it.
They rolled into the lot and parked almost in formation.
A woman with platinum hair pulled into a tight braid climbed off first, a prospect patch visible on her cut as she headed toward the clubhouse.
A younger man with sharp features moved beside her, while an older, weathered man followed close behind.
The three of them acknowledged me as they came up the steps, but none stopped.
I barely noticed.
Jasper had taken off his helmet.
For months, I’d seen him through pictures and video calls. I’d heard his voice late at night until keeping my eyes open became impossible. None of that prepared me for what happened when he looked across the parking lot and found me standing there.
His entire attention locked onto me as he climbed the porch steps slowly, and every conversation I’d imagined having with him disappeared.
“Is that how you say hello, Cher?”
His voice sounded different in person. Deeper somehow, although I knew that made no sense. Maybe it was simply the fact that there was no phone between us this time.
I didn’t answer.
I went straight into his arms.
Jasper caught me easily, one arm coming around my waist while the other hand cradled the back of my head. The first breath I took against his chest brought leather, the faint scent of smoke and the road, and something underneath both that belonged entirely to him.
Months of missing him condensed into one painful little ache beneath my ribs.
“There she is,” he murmured before pressing a kiss to my temple.
I closed my eyes and held on tighter. “You didn’t tell me you were coming.”
“Didn’t want to disappoint you if something changed.” His arms tightened briefly around me. “Plans have a way of falling apart.”
I knew exactly what he meant. We’d had enough conversations lately that began with soon and ended with another reason he couldn’t come. This time, he’d waited until he was already here.
I pulled back enough to see his face. “You’re here now.”
“I am.” His thumb brushed lightly along my jaw. “Missed you, Cher.”
“I missed you too.”
The words weren’t enough, but I wasn’t sure anything I said could’ve explained how different the last few weeks had felt without him.
For a moment, none of the tension inside the clubhouse mattered.
Neither did the strange men who’d arrived before him or whatever club business had brought so many people to Rosewood.
Then the rumble of another engine rolled into the parking lot.
Jasper’s attention shifted over my shoulder.
His hand dropped from my back as he stepped away to watch a dark SUV pull in, and the loss of his warmth felt more noticeable than it should’ve. I folded my arms loosely across myself and followed his gaze.
I recognized Morgan as soon as the door opened.
A large man climbed out after her and moved around the vehicle to help another woman down. The woman was blonde and elegant even in jeans and boots, but I barely had time to wonder who she was before Jasper headed toward Morgan.
“Morgan!” he called, genuine pleasure in his voice. “Girl, you get more beautiful every time I see you.”
Something small and unpleasant pinched beneath my ribs.
I hated it immediately.
Romeo flirted.
I knew that.
His road name wasn’t exactly a mystery, and he’d never pretended he’d lived like a monk before meeting me. Hearing about that version of him over the phone was one thing. Watching him turn that effortless charm on another beautiful woman was apparently different.
Morgan hurried toward him with a wide smile, raised her hand, and smacked him across the back of the head hard enough that I heard it from the porch.
“What the fuck was that for?” Jasper demanded, grabbing the back of his head as he stumbled dramatically away from her.
I covered my mouth, but the laugh escaped anyway.
“For telling King. And when I see Gator, he’ll get the same thing. If Devlyn hasn’t killed him yet.”
“Had to, babe.” Jasper’s grin made it clear remorse wasn’t anywhere in sight. “You know that.”
Babe.
The tiny pinch returned.
Ridiculous.
Morgan sighed. “I know. I guess all my secrets are out now.”
I might’ve continued arguing with myself over one harmless word if the large man from the SUV hadn’t looked toward the porch.
His attention landed on me with enough force that every other thought disappeared.
The blonde woman beside him followed his gaze, said something too quietly for me to hear, then touched his arm. He answered without looking away.
I knew who he was before anyone said his name.
King.
Jasper had mentioned his president often enough during our late-night calls, usually while calling him an arrogant asshole with an amount of affection that made it obvious he respected him. Nothing Jasper had said prepared me for the man standing in the parking lot.
King didn’t need to raise his voice or threaten anyone. Authority seemed built into the way he stood.
Then his attention moved from me to Jasper.
That was worse.
He said something to the woman beside him, and she answered. Whatever passed between them made King’s expression harden.
Jasper followed his gaze.
His eyes found me on the porch.
The easy smile disappeared.
A moment ago, I’d been wondering whether I had any right to be jealous of the way he greeted Morgan. Now I was wondering what King had seen when he looked from Jasper to me and why Jasper suddenly looked like a man who knew a conversation he didn’t want to have had just become unavoidable.
“Mimic and Indie are inside. O’Malley too,” Jasper said, gesturing toward the clubhouse.
Morgan turned and spotted me.
“Hi, Fiona.” The warmth in her smile made my earlier jealousy feel even more foolish.
“Hi, Morgan.”
King gave Jasper another pointed look before heading for the clubhouse. The blonde woman remained beside him, while Morgan followed them inside.
Then it was only Jasper and me again.
He stayed at the bottom of the steps with his hands in his pockets, watching me. I’d spent weeks imagining what I would do when he finally came back to Rosewood, yet now every sentence I’d rehearsed sounded either childish or far too revealing.
“I need to get home.”
Something shifted in his expression. “Already?”
“There’s a lot going on here, and Granny will be wondering where I am. She worries if I’m late.”
Everything I said was true. It also wasn’t the entire reason I wanted to leave.
Seeing Jasper again had been overwhelming enough before Morgan arrived and reminded me that the man I’d been building a relationship with through texts and calls had an entire life outside them. Then King had looked at us as if he’d discovered something he didn’t like.
I needed ten minutes without a clubhouse full of bikers to figure out why any of it bothered me this much.
Jasper glanced toward the door. “I have to go inside for church.”
“I know.” I couldn’t completely hide the disappointment from my voice.
“As soon as we’re done, I’ll come find you.”
“You don’t know how long it’ll take. It could be late.”
“Doesn’t matter.” He held my gaze. “I’ll find you, Cher. However long it takes.”
I studied him.
There were probably a hundred things waiting inside that clubhouse, and judging by King’s expression, at least one of them involved Jasper. Still, he said it as if finding me afterward had already been decided.
“Okay.”
His smile changed, losing the public charm until it felt like something meant only for me. “That one sounded better.”
I shook my head and headed toward my car before my face gave me away.
The knot that had formed when I saw him greet Morgan hadn’t disappeared completely. Neither had my curiosity about King or the men inside.
But none of it felt quite as important anymore.
Jasper was finally in Rosewood.
And when whatever waited behind that clubhouse door was finished with him, he’d promised to come find me.