Page 110 of Lost Lyrebird

“What?”

“Nothing.That’s not the important part.The point is that things between the HOCs and the 13Ds are falling apart sooner than we thought.So you should be ready for that.Goose and Veno Chavez are ready to kill each other.”

“So, nothing’s changed.”

She chuckles darkly.“Nope.”

A sharp bang hits the door from the other side.I clench my fist and pound back three times.A tirade of curses fly as Kat screams at me.Lily is silent on the other end of the line as if she’s listening to every word.

Lily grumbles, “For either of us, apparently.”

I give a humorless laugh.“Touché.”

When Kat doesn’t let up, I contemplate opening the door so I can take her by the arm and kick her the fuck out of my bedroom, but burning that bridge will leave me stuck with the loose pussy around the club until I can work my way back into her good graces.I need her to get my mind off Lily until she comes home.Kat fills the void better than anyone else.So, I’ll put up with her being a bitch until I don’t have to anymore.

“Something else you should know,” she says.“This puts Edge at risk, too.That truce—even if it was duct tape on a bullet hole—was keeping him alive inside.You got someone you trust enough to send in with him?’Cause if you don’t, he’s not gonna last long.”

I don’t answer right away—not because I’m debating whether to help my old friend.I am.I will.But the logistics… they’re a bitch.I’d need someone I trust, someone willing to get locked in and ride hell with Edge, and then somehow get out clean when the job’s done.Legally, preferably.But I’ve never been picky.

“I’ll figure it out,” I say finally.“Might take some time.But I’ll make it happen.”

Lily starts talking about her night at Hodge’s.Her voice is in my ear, soft and steady, but I’m not hearing the words.Not really.Not over the fuckingcinema of carnagerunning behind my eyes.I see her—dressed like sin, dipped in moonlight, surrounded by men sniffing around her like starving carnivores hunting meat.I’m clenching my jaw so tight my molars might crack.The images filling my mind have hot fury building behind my ribcage.

I see dead men.Not metaphorically—literally.I’m standing over them, blade slick, breath heaving from the effort it took to carve them up.I don’t fantasize about it.Iplanit.I trace pressure points in my mind like a sculptor running hands over marble, picture the way flesh splits when metal kisses it.I think about the gasping.The twitching.The last, panicked breath.

I’ve been court-ordered through a circus of headshrinks—quacks in cheap suits who scribble notes like they’ve got me pegged.They love their labels.Impulse control issues.Anger management.Antisocial Personality Disorder with borderline sociopathic tendencies.

Cute.

They only know the shit I got caught for.Not the stuff Igot away with.

What they don’t get is—Idomanage it.Every fucking day.I leash it.Choke it down.Keep it coiled like a rattler under my skin.But when Idolet it out?I make sure it’s on people who have no damn right to breathe in the first place.

A few minutes into the call, I hear my bedroom door creak open.I step out of the bathroom and spot Kat, fully dressed and fuming, standing at the threshold between my room and the hallway.She’s carrying a bag, a few of her things.This isn’t just her giving me space.This is her saying goodbye.Again.

I lift a finger and mouth the word, “Wait.”

She flips me the bird, then slams the door on her way out.

Son of a fucking bitch.

I grip the doorframe and slam my forehead against the wood.Once.Twice.Three times.Why is it the second one fucking thing goes right, the rest of my life decides to fall apart?

Lily’s still talking, her voice a lifeline and a torment all at once.I collapse onto the edge of my bed, light up a smoke, and try to breathe the rage back into its cage.But when she gets to the part about the Thirteen Devils—guns drawn, Veno calling herAngellike he’s branding her with it, and threatening to see her again, all while Goose stands beside her—I fist a hand in my hair andyankuntil my scalp burns.

It feels like someone buried a ten-inch serrated blade in my gut, and with every word she says, it twists deeper.

I knew she was walking into a shitstorm.I knew Veno would rear his head eventually.But I thought I’d be there when he did.Or when she finishes the jobs with the HOCs and finally delivers the payback he’s had coming.

Sending her there… it’s all in the name of saving my club and giving her the justice and closure she was owed.She’s more capable than anyone I know.She knows the life, the area, and can blend in like a chameleon for whatever job is required of her.She can slip through cracks most men don’t even see.

But it’s killing me every day knowing I could lose her tohim, to Goose.Her bird man.

Now, not only is he stirring up shit with the 13Ds and speeding up the timeline of events, he’s putting a bright-red bullseye on her—making her presence known to the scum who branded her, ran her like a mule, tried to crush her before she even turned eighteen.They could come for her now before she’s ready.Before she gets toendit on her terms.

She should have a chance to face down Veno and put him to ground for what he did to her, but I hoped to be by her side when that day came.

I need her more than her bird man does.I need the peace she brings to my mind.I’d be dead without her, either from pulling the trigger myself, or because I’d gone off the rails.