Page 88 of Ghost

Cupping her cheeks in my hands, I lean down to kiss her. I take whatever scraps of good the universe thinks I’m owed, and I worship at the altar. Luna’s fingers dig into my shirt, and I absorb all she has to give.

She breathes life into these cold, empty bones. And when she breaks the kiss, resting back on her heels, we’re both breathing like we’re running out of air.

“I missed you so much.” A tear rolls down her cheek.

I wipe it away with my thumb. “I missed you more. All I want right now is a shower, a burger, and to crawl into bed with you and show you just how much I’ve missed you these past three days. But I need to help deal with this shit. And it pisses me off that I’m finally home, and there are still things coming between us.”

“Me too.” She frowns. “But I understand.”

Patch walks up beside us, and I look over at him.

“Does she need to go to the hospital?”

He shakes his head. “Her head’s gonna hurt like hell for at least a day, but she doesn’t have a concussion. I’ll report it to Monroe so he can make sure it’s added to the list of grievances.”

“Good.” I glance up as Wren starts throwing up over the railing. “Go deal with that. I’ve got Luna.”

He nods, starting up the steps of the porch as Luna curls against me. Across the yard, Legacy is handing Beato Margaret while he yells something at an ATF agent. Margaret pats his arm, saying something that calms him down, but the tension doesn’t release from his shoulders as he watches Margaret get his daughter into the car.

With Bea gone, Legacy heads in my direction.

“Try not to get locked up, brother,” I tell him when he stops in front of me. “If for no other reason than that little girl.”

“They stormed her fucking room.”

“And we’ll make them pay for that.”

Luna looks up at me. I’m sure she knows the bad shit I do for the club, but hopefully, she understands.

Legacy nods, and her gaze moves between us.

“I’ll give you a minute,” Luna says. “I’m going to check on the girls. Find me when you’re done.”

Lifting on her toes, she kisses me and walks away. I watch her go, appreciating that she’s understanding when none of this can be easy on her.

“How’d they even get in?” I turn back to Legacy. “They can’t just storm this place without a warrant.”

“Said they were operating on a tip.”

I laugh, but there’s no amusement in it. “Yeah, and I know where it came from. Just got out of the fucking meeting.”

Legacy dips his hands in his pockets, nodding his understanding. “Please tell me you’ve got some good news from your trip.”

I pull my phone out of my back pocket and shoot a text off to Legacy. “Better than good. We found the account we’ve been looking for. Drain it.”

“Steel’s sure? It’s gonna start a war.”

I look around at the agents still crawling around the property and at Tempe carrying Austin toward Steel with that little boy wrapped around her. “We’re already in one, brother.”

And right now, war sounds good.

28

Luna

When I wake upin the middle of the night, I’m curled against Ghost’s side, so I know he came to bed at some point. But by morning, the room is empty again. My arm stretches to his side of the bed, and the sheets are cold, telling me he must have climbed out of bed a while ago.

After the ATF cleared out, Steel held church, and all the guys disappeared for a while. Anyone not in that room worked on cleaning up the mess the ATF left behind. Every so often, Ghost would pop out to check on me.