Page 36 of Havoc

I lie down on the blanket beside her. The last splashes of orange and red start to fade as the blues of night fill the sky above us.

“I told Ghost bits and pieces because he asked about my connection to them. But the rest…” She sighs, but it doesn’t seem to ease the tension. “About a year after you shipped out, something happened.”

My gut turns to lead with that admission, and I wish I didn’t expect those words from her. That I hadn’t already started assuming the Iron Sinners played a role in her disappearing on me when my club found her in that basement.

It was easier to hate her, so that’s what I did. But deep down, I knew she wouldn’t have gone quiet on me like that without a reason.

It didn’t make sense, but I was too far away to dig into it, so I let it go.

I let it go.

Fuck.

“Remember my photography program?” she asks, pulling me back to the present.

I clear my throat. “Yeah.”

“I was up late one night putting together a project when the house alarm went off. I thought it was a mistake because it stopped after only a second. But then…” She grips the bridge of her nose between her thumb and index finger, closing her eyes. “My father ran into my room and told me to hide, but it was too late. And there were too many of them.”

“Iron Sinners?”

She nods, dropping her hand. “They took us back to their clubhouse. That was the first time I saw it.”

“That doesn’t make any fucking sense.” I wipe my palm over my face. “You had no ties to the club. Why would they just show up—”

“I had you.”

I turn to look at her, but she refuses to do the same. “No one knew about you. Not my club. Not my enemies. I made sure of it. And if they did, and that’s the reason they came for you, the first thing they would have done is gloat about it to the Twisted Kings.”

“Maybe they did, and your club just didn’t tell you. You weren’t there anymore.”

I don’t like that answer any better.

“It doesn’t really matter.” Aimee sighs. “The Iron Sinners took us, and once Titan figured out my dad was a lawyer, he decided that was more important than anything else he was planning. They locked him away andforced him to help with God only knows what, and they kept me as leverage to make sure he cooperated.”

“How long, Aimee?” I don’t know if I’m ready for the answer, but I need it.

All this time, I thought the love of my life had walked away from us, and now that I know the Iron Sinners took her—that they’re the reason she stopped responding to me—I’m itching to burn this city to the ground so they pay.

“Eleven months.” Her answer is nearly a whisper. “But it felt like longer. That place,”—she shakes her head—“it’s not like your clubhouse. Titan isn’t like Steel.”

She wipes beneath her lashes, refusing to let so much as a tear fall before she blinks them away. And I’m thankful she had so much fight in her because most girls who spend time with the Iron Sinners don’t leave as whole as she still seems to be.

“Titan—”

“I don’t want to talk about being there. Or what happened. Or any of it. So please don’t ask me whatever it is you’re going to say because I’m tired enough that I might actually answer you, Levi.”

“Understood.” That single word burns my throat, but I mean it.

Even if it’s going to eat me up inside.

“I’m going to have a talk with Steel.” I swallow hard. “I’ll find out if the Iron Sinners came to the club after you were taken. If we’re the reason they did it.”

“It doesn’t even matter anymore.”

“Of course it fucking matters.” My voice is louder than I intend, swallowed by an empty desert.

But I’m tearing apart.