Page 65 of Blood & Throttle

My gaze snaps back to Taz and Sin.

Taz isn’t the type to warm up to anyone. Hell, half the crew’s still on her shit list. But with Sin? It was different from the start. No growling, no hesitation, just quiet approval, like she saw something in her the rest of the world didn’t deserve to.

And now?

The way she shifts closer, pressing her head into Sin’s thigh like it’s where she belongs? Yeah. I know that posture. That still, alert silence.

Taz has made up her mind.

She’d die for her and protect her with the same brutal loyalty she’s always given me. That’s how I know if anyone so much as breathes wrong in Sin’s direction, they won’t just have to go through me.

They’ll have to survive Taz first.

Good fucking luck.

I drop down on the edge of a busted slab beside Luca, cracking open my ration pack. The protein bar’s a chalky excuse for food, and the jerky’s so dry I could snap it in half with my pinky. Doesn’t matter. I’ve eaten worse. Lived through worse.

Luca eyes me from the side, mouth half-full with whatever ration bar he’s devouring. “You catch that look?”

I don’t need to ask who he means. We’ve all seen it. Jace’s eyes haven’t left Sin since we rolled in.

“Yeah,” I mutter. “I see him.”

Luca chews slower, brows rising. “He makes a move—”

“He won’t.”

Luca grunts. “But if he does?”

I tear a chunk of jerky with my teeth, staring across the lot, letting the silence stretch before answering.

“If he does, he won’t walk away from it.”

“She’s crew now,” Luca says, like he’s reading my fucking mind. “That means something.”

I don’t answer, just gnaw on the jerky and watch Jace like I’m mentally mapping the angles it’ll take to end him clean.

Luca goes on, quieter. “You know we’ve got her back, right? All of us. She’s one of us now. Ghost’s already running her name through the grid, Doc’s stashing painkillers just in case she needs ‘em, and Bishop’s adding extra armor to your rear frame.” He shrugs. “Shit, even Taz claimed her. So that’s that.”

I nod once, slow. That’s all he gets. All he needs.

We don’t do long speeches. We do loyalty.

And he’s not wrong. This crew? We’re more than a pit crew. We’re a unit. A broken, patched-together mess of fucked-up survivors who’d throw fists and fire for one another.

Sin? She’s part of that now.

Luca finishes his protein bar, wiping his hands on his pants. “We’ll go to bat for her, Riot. Any of us. Jace, Kane’s fuckers, some other jackass thinking he can put her on a leash, they’ll answer to all of us.”

I look over at him. “You getting soft on me?”

He grins. “Nah. Just stating facts.” He leans back, his voicea little lighter, like he’s trying not to sound too invested. “Also… you’re not exactly subtle, you know.”

I lift a brow. “What the fuck does that mean?”

He grins wider. “C’mon, man. The tension between you two? Shit’s thicker than the oil leaking from Ghost’s rig. You think we haven’t noticed?”

I grunt, tossing the empty wrapper into the fire barrel nearby.