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Aura gasped dramatically, pressing a hand to her chest. “A pineapple hater? In my presence? We need to fix this travesty immediately.”

Chase’s lips twitched toward a smile. “Not happening.”

“Half and half,” Amelia suggested, the tension in her shoulders visibly easing as she watched the exchange. “Pineapple for Aura, none for Chase.”

“A diplomat,” Aura said, grinning at Amelia. “I like you already.”

“Just order several,” I said. I knew damn well those boys could eat and would if given the chance. At the garage, the guys were always having to tease Chase into eating more. Even when we could see how badly he wanted the food, he always held himself back.

I watched as Aura moved around the duplex, while chatting easily with everyone.

She asked Levi about his computer setup, listening intently as he launched into an explanation filled with technical terms I couldn’t follow.

She got Chase talking about engines, drawing him out with questions about what he’d learned at the garage.

The transformation in both boys was subtle but unmistakable -- they were relaxing, engaging.

Aura had that effect on people. Maybe because she’d been broken once too, had survived her own hell before finding her way to us.

There was an authenticity to her that cut through bullshit and facades.

The same way she’d called me “Dad” within a week of my taking her in, refusing to be intimidated by my gruff exterior.

“You’re stuck with me now,” she’d declared. “Might as well get used to it.”

“So what do you do around here?” Amelia asked Aura as they folded clothes into a drawer.

“I work at the garage part-time and help out at the tattoo shop sometimes too,” Aura replied. “And I’m finishing my degree in social work online. When I’m not driving this old man crazy.” She jerked her thumb toward me.

“Full-time job, that,” I said dryly.

Aura stuck her tongue out at me, the small stud in it catching the light. “Like you’d know what to do without me.”

The truth in her teasing hit deeper than she knew. Before Aura, my life had been the club, the garage, and the empty spaces between. She’d filled those spaces with noise and light and relentless optimism. I’d saved her life once, but she’d saved something in me too.

“Let’s eat at my place,” I said, watching Chase help Aura reach a high shelf. “More room. Same pizza. Seven o’clock.”

“Perfect!” Aura exclaimed. “That gives us time to finish unpacking.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her they’d only brought one bag each. They weren’t exactly moving in.

She looked at Levi. “Think you could help me set up a better security system for my laptop? Someone keeps hacking in and changing my desktop background to pictures of cats.”

Levi’s eyes narrowed. “That’s pretty easy to prevent.”

“My hero,” Aura said, linking her arm through his and guiding him toward his room, chattering about firewall protocols the whole way.

Amelia moved beside me, her voice low enough that only I could hear. “She’s wonderful.”

I nodded, pride swelling in my chest. “She’s something, all right.”

“You’ve raised her well.”

“She raised herself,” I corrected. “I just gave her space to do it.”

Amelia studied me for a moment, those brown eyes seeing more than I wanted her to. “I doubt it was that simple.”

It hadn’t been. Nothing about saving a traumatized sixteen-year-old girl from human traffickers was simple. Nothing about helping her heal, watching her nightmares, teaching her to trust again had been easy. But I wasn’t about to say all that with her kids within earshot.

“Seven o’clock,” I repeated instead, touching the brim of an invisible hat before turning to leave.

As I walked out to the truck, I heard Aura’s laughter floating through the open windows of the duplex.

The sound always hit me square in the chest, a reminder of how close we’d come to never hearing it at all.

Some people were worth saving, worth protecting.

Aura was one. Amelia and her boys were too.

* * *

My living room had never felt small until I watched Amelia and her boys file in behind Aura.

Suddenly, the space I’d occupied alone for years, and later with Aura, seemed cramped, the worn leather furniture and scattered motorcycle memorabilia marking it as unmistakably mine.

I’d shoved some laundry into my bedroom and cleared beer bottles from the coffee table but hadn’t thought to do much else.

It wasn’t like I’d been planning a dinner party when I’d woken up yesterday.

Now I had two teenagers, their mother, and my daughter crowding around while Aura carried in pizza boxes, her voice filling the silence with cheerful chatter that bounced off the walls.

“Plates are in the kitchen,” I said, gesturing vaguely toward the adjoining room. “Drinks in the fridge.”

Chase stood awkwardly by the door. Levi had already gravitated toward my bookshelf, fingers trailing over spines with reverent curiosity.

“You can look at them,” I told him, noting his surprise. “Books are meant to be read.”

Levi pulled one out -- an old motorcycle repair manual. “Thanks,” he said quietly.

Amelia hovered between the kitchen and living room, as if unsure where to plant herself.

She wore jeans and a simple shirt, her brown hair loose around her shoulders instead of in the ponytail she’d worn earlier.

The casual look suited her, softened her edges in a way that made my chest tighten unexpectedly.

“I ordered five different pies,” Aura announced, setting the stack of boxes on the coffee table. “Because I have no idea what anyone likes except Dad, and he’ll eat anything that doesn’t eat him first. Well, and of course, Chase’s aversion to pineapple.”

“Not true,” I grunted, moving to help her. “I draw the line at that anchovy disaster you brought home last month.”

“Philistine,” she teased, bumping her hip against mine as she passed.

The sudden rumble of a motorcycle outside made everyone tense except Aura and me.

I recognized the engine -- my son’s Harley, customized with the same pipes I’d had on my first bike.

The heavy tread of boots on my porch was followed by the door swinging open without a knock.

Sam strode in, his massive frame filling the doorway, dark eyes sweeping the assembled group with surprise.

“The fuck is this, Dad? Intervention?” He grinned to soften the blunt words, but his gaze lingered on Amelia and her boys with undisguised curiosity.

His cut bore the same Dixie Reapers patch as mine, though his was newer, the leather not yet weathered by decades of sun and rain.

He’d patched in not too long ago and now went by Ghost.

“Pizza night,” I said, as if I regularly invited strangers over for dinner. “Amelia and her sons, Chase and Levi. They’re staying in one of the duplexes.” I gestured to my son. “This is Sam, but outside the walls, he goes by Ghost.”

Understanding flickered across Sam’s face. He and Aura exchanged a look I couldn’t quite interpret before he stepped fully into the room, shutting the door behind him.

“Nice to meet you,” he said, his voice deliberately casual as he grabbed a slice directly from the box. “Heard we might have visitors. Didn’t expect dinner with Dad.” He took a massive bite, cheese stretching from the pizza to his mouth.

Aura rolled her eyes. “Use a plate, you animal.”

“What for? Just means more dishes,” Sam replied through his mouthful.

“And this is why you’re still single,” Aura shot back, handing plates to Amelia and the boys.

The easy banter between them broke some of the tension.

Chase accepted his plate with a mumbled thanks, selecting a slice of meat-lovers pizza.

Levi chose plain cheese, perching on the edge of the couch like he might need to bolt at any moment.

Amelia took supreme, her movements graceful as she navigated the unfamiliar space.

“What are we watching?” Sam asked, dropping onto the floor and leaning back against the couch.

“Something with explosions,” I suggested. “ Die Hard ?”

“The boys probably want something more current,” Amelia said, looking to Chase and Levi.

“ Die Hard ’s classic,” Chase replied with a shrug. “I’m good with that.”

I raised an eyebrow, surprised by his taste. Maybe the kid wasn’t so bad after all.

We arranged ourselves in the living room as I found the DVD -- one of the few physical copies I still kept around.

Aura curled into one end of the couch, Sam sprawled on the floor beside her, while Amelia perched at the opposite end of the couch, maintaining a careful distance from everyone.

The boys settled on the floor with their plates, Chase positioned so he could see both the TV and his mother, ever vigilant.

I took my recliner, the worn leather creaking a familiar welcome beneath my weight.

The movie provided a buffer against conversation, filling the silence with gunfire and one-liners that had Chase smirking occasionally.

I found myself watching the others more than the screen -- Aura mouthing along to her favorite lines, Sam absently spinning his rings as he watched, Levi’s analytical expression as he dissected the plot, Amelia’s occasional sideways glances in my direction when she thought I wasn’t looking.

For a brief moment, the scene almost felt… normal. Like we weren’t a random collection of broken people thrown together by circumstance and danger. Like this was just a regular family movie night instead of a fragile truce built on pizza and Bruce Willis.

“So, Levi,” Sam said during a quieter scene, “Aura tells me you’re good with computers.”

Levi nodded, pushing his glasses up his nose. “I like coding.”

“You ever think about cyber security? Club could use someone with those skills.”

“Sam,” I warned, not wanting him recruiting the kid for club business.

He held up his hands. “Just saying. Kid’s got talent, or so I’ve heard.”

Levi looked intrigued, but Chase shot Sam a suspicious glare. Always the protector. Always on guard. I knew that stance all too well -- had adopted it myself with Aura when she’d first come to live with me, watching for threats around every corner.

The conversation drifted back to the movie as plates emptied and bodies relaxed deeper into furniture.

Even Amelia seemed less tense, a small smile playing at her lips during the funnier scenes.

I caught myself staring more than once, drawn to the way the tension had eased from her shoulders, how her eyes crinkled slightly at the corners when she smiled.

“Anyone want more pizza?” Aura asked during a lull in the action.

Murmurs of satisfaction and decline circled the room. Chase set his empty plate on the coffee table, then turned those penetrating green eyes directly on me. His jaw tightened, and something in his expression set alarm bells ringing in my head.

“So are you going to claim my mom as your old lady for real?” he asked, his voice slicing through the room’s comfort like a blade.

Exactly what I’d been wondering too. Her request had blindsided me, and I still wasn’t able to wrap my head around it. Did I want to claim her and the boys? Start a family? Hell, I already had one, but this was different.

The sudden silence was deafening. Aura’s eyes widened to saucers, her mouth forming a perfect “O” of shock. Sam muttered “oh shit” under his breath, setting down his beer with exaggerated care. Levi froze mid-bite, a slice of pizza suspended halfway to his mouth.

Amelia paled, her gaze dropping to her lap, where her fingers twisted together in a white-knuckled grip. “Chase,” she said softly, a warning and a plea wrapped in a single word.

The kid didn’t back down, gaze still locked on mine. “I want to know what’s happening. You brought us here for protection, but I need to understand the terms.”

Terms. Like his mother was a contract to be negotiated. Like she was a transaction. The implication sent a flare of anger through me before I caught the undercurrent in his tone -- fear, protectiveness, a desperate need to make sense of the chaos his life had become.

My jaw tightened as I set down my own plate.

The room felt suddenly airless, all eyes on me, waiting for my response.

How the hell had a simple pizza night devolved so quickly?

But I knew the answer. Nothing about this situation was simple.

Nothing about Amelia’s desperate offer or my conflicted response could be wrapped up neatly like a Hollywood ending.

“Amelia,” I said, my voice rougher than I’d intended. “Think we should talk. Outside.”

She nodded, rising from the couch with forced composure. Her chin lifted slightly, pride straightening her spine despite the embarrassment staining her cheeks. Without a word, she followed me through the kitchen toward the back door.

Behind us, I heard Aura’s stunned voice: “What the actual fuck did I miss?”

The screen door swung shut behind us, cutting off Sam’s low response.

The night air was cool against my face as we stepped onto the back porch.

The compound spread out before us, security lights illuminating patches of ground while leaving others in shadow.

Somewhere in the distance, a motorcycle engine revved.

I turned to face Amelia, knowing whatever I said next would change things between us. Knowing her sons were probably pressed against the windows, watching. Knowing my own kids were likely doing the same.

The time for avoiding had passed. Now, we needed to talk.