8
ROWAN
I can see the panic attack happening before it even starts. Everly is anxious as hell, and I can’t blame her. We just dropped a lot of information on her.
I lock eyes with Grayson, and he dips his head in acknowledgement. That’s one thing that’s nice about being so close to my brother, we can have a conversation without ever speaking a word to each other.
“Come with me, darlin’,” I murmur softly to Everly before standing and offering her my hand.
She looks up at me with worried eyes but takes my hand anyway.
I gently pull her from the couch and guide her through the clubhouse to my suite.
We have suites, basically apartments, for all our club officers.
At one point, it was just a bedroom for everyone, but we remodeled everything a while back and that was one of our requests.
The second story of the clubhouse is a long hallway full of our suites.
The officers don’t have to stay here, in fact, most of them don’t every day, but it’s a luxury that we’re afforded, especially when we have to be close by.
All our suites are identical, except for the president’s suite.
It’s the nicest of all of them, but not all too different from ours.
I lead Everly up the stairs and down the hallway to my suite. She’s silent as I punch in the code and open the door for her, and while I lead her into my living room and over to my couch.
The room is dark from the blackout curtains I have closed, so I pull them open, and light illuminates the room.
Lightly stained hard wood floors cover the space, a cream and black rug sits under the tan leather couch that Everly is sitting on, and a black recliner sits next to it, both pointed at the mounted television on my wall.
There is a coffee table that’s mixed with black metal and lightly stained wood where my remotes sit, along with my coffee cup from this morning.
I have a small kitchen with wood cabinets and black counter tops, two bedrooms and one bathroom. It’s plenty of room for Everly to stay here with me. Not that she knows that yet.
“Can I get you some water or orange juice?” I ask. She looks a little pale, like all of this is too much for her.
“A little water please,” she replies softly.
I walk into the kitchen and grab a water bottle from the fridge before walking back over to her, twisting off the cap and handing it to her. She drinks it greedily and I watch the way her throat works, feeling my dick twitch to life. Down boy. Now is not the time.
I sit beside her on the couch and wait for her to finish.
“Are you okay?”
She turns to face me. “I really don’t know,” she admits. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
I sigh. “You don’t need to do anything; you just let us handle it. In the meantime, you can stay here. I have an extra bedroom, and no one can get into the clubhouse unless they go through our gate or into my suite without the code. You’ll both be safe here,” I assure her.
She furrows her brow. “Why are you doing this for me?”
I reach out and rub the crease between her brows.
“Because I want to. I think that I was put there that night for a reason, and I’m not going to stop protecting you now.
” She visibly swallows, her eyes wide. “You can stay here with me for as long as we need to keep you safe. However long that takes.”