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He kissed my temple. “Trust me.”

“I do,” I whispered. “I just don’t trustthem.”

He hummed in agreement and rubbed his hand up and down my back. “I know. Let’s get home.”

I nodded, then climbed onto his bike behind him and put the spare helmet on. I wrapped my arms tightly around his waist, savoring the secure feeling of the purring bike beneath me and Steph’s strong back against my chest. I felt safe as we pulled away from the police station, but I couldn’t stop the sinking feeling in my gut.

Whatever happened… I knew it wouldn’t go smoothly.

45

ACE

It was after dinner when Hawk finally returned to the clubhouse. Harley was at the house with Dylan and Cassidy, and I’d promised not to be gone too long. She deserved to know what had happened with her mom, but I needed to talk to Hawk about it in private first.

It was a relaxed night at the clubhouse, with a few members shooting pool and Tammy behind the bar. Hawk dropped into the stool next to me and let out a tired sigh.

“So what’d you find out?” I asked.

Hawk rubbed his temples. “Those guys were definitely paid off.”

“Paid off? What do you mean?”

“I mean, they didn’t tell me a damn thing,” Hawk said. “It’s obvious they sawsomething, but they wouldn’t say what. They only confirmed that Liz Founty was there, but they were cagey about everything else.”

Honestly, that was all the confirmation I needed. “So something happened.”

“Definitely. It looks like Forrest is using Liz to try to lure out Harley, probably on Sean’s advice.”

My dragon snarled and surged even closer to the surface. He hadn’t backed off at all, really, not since I pulled up to the police station and saw Forrest peering out of the window like the little creep he was. My mate was being targeted from all sides. Whenever we had one threat under control, a new one appeared. I felt like I was playing whack-a-mole, knocking out threats as they arose. RunningafterSean and Forrest, instead of striking them down.

My dragon was losing his patience with that.

He wanted me to protect my mate, no matter the cost. My dragon didn’t think about the future. My dragon thought about immediate dangers, immediate solutions. He wanted me to track down Sean and Forrest and tear them apart.

“Hey, stop that.” Tammy swatted my hand with a dish rag. “Didn’t you just get the bar refinished?”

“Shit.” I hadn’t realized my claws were out. I withdrew them, leaving eight deep marks in the shining wood. “Sorry, Tammy.”

“Don’t apologize to me, you paid for it,” she said. “That dragon’s getting pissed, huh?”

“Understatement,” Hawk said. “Mine is, too.”

I resisted the urge to bare my teeth in confirmation. Tammy slid me a beer, then went back to the other end of the bar to serve the guys drinking between rounds of pool.

If my dragon was this close to the surface, Sean’s had to be even worse. He was an alpha without a clan. He didn’t have dragons to keep him in check. He was getting more impulsive, following his dragon’s instincts, and not his human ones. Soon he’d be completely out of control.

Worse, he’d be feral.

“I’m sick of chasing after them,” I growled.

“Me too,” Hawk said. “But you know we can’t just attack, no matter how much we want.”

“It’d be the easier solution, though,” I said. My dragon agreed, snapping his jaws internally. “But if we went that route, we’d both end up in prison.”

“Yep. Especially if Forrest is working with Sean. Forget due process.”

“How deep do you think Forrest’s vendetta runs?” I asked. “I thought he just wanted to throw me back in prison, but could it be more than that?”