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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

I WAS HALFWAY down the hall the next morning, heading for my coffee, when I heard the commotion.

Spinner’s voice, rough and hurried, cut through the clubhouse. “I’m goin’ after her.”

I rounded the corner and found him in the common room, yanking on his jacket, his movements jerky, fueled by adrenaline and the regret I saw coming last night. Chain and Thunder stood nearby, watching him like they weren’t sure whether to stop him or let him go.

“What the hell’s goin’ on?” I asked, my gut already telling me the answer.

Spinner barely spared me a glance as he grabbed his keys off the table. “Lucy took off.”

My stomach tightened. “What do you mean she took off?”

“She’s gone, man. Took off durin’ the night.” His jaw flexed, and his hands clenched into fists. “Didn’t take her car. Just walked out.”

Shit.

I scrubbed a hand down my face, exhaling through my nose. I didn’t know Lucy well, but I knew enough to know she was hurting. And hurting people did stupid shit.

“She got a phone?” I asked.

Spinner shook his head. “If she does, I don’t know about it.”

I swore under my breath. This was bad. Lucy didn’t have her car, no phone, no backup.

“She say anythin’ before she left?”

Spinner’s laugh was bitter. “Only last night when she said she was done. With me, with this place. I fucked up, man.” He ran a hand through his hair, then looked at me with something close to desperation. “I have to find her.”

I nodded. I didn’t blame him for that.

But now I had another problem.

Zeynep.

She needed Lucy. Clung to her in a way she didn’t with anyone else. And if she found out Lucy was gone? That she left without a word? That she was in danger?

It would gut her.

I could already picture the way her face would fall, the way she’d pull into herself like she did when things got too heavy in her head. And she was just starting to find her footing here. Just starting to heal.

I didn’t want to take that from her.

But keeping it from her felt just as wrong.

“Fuck,” I muttered, pushing my hands onto my hips.

Spinner caught the shift in me, his brows drawing together. “You gonna tell Zeynep?”

I hesitated. “I don’t know.”

His nostrils flared. “She deserves to know. And she might know where she’d go.”

“I know that,” I snapped, more at myself than at him. “But I also know she’s been through enough. She’s got enough ghosts in her head without addin’ another.”

Spinner sighed and shook his head. “Lucy wouldn’t want her worryin’.”

“And she will, so just let me tell her in my own way.”

I glanced down the hall toward Zeynep’s room, that weight settling deep in my chest.

This wasn’t just about what was right. It was about what would set her back while she was healing.

And I wasn’t sure I was willing to be the one to do that.