Page 91 of Nails

“You think he knows who was behind it?”Duke asked.

“Maybe,” she said.“Or maybe he just wants to smooth things over after a paying customer attacked one of his girls.Either way, I have to go.”

Nails stepped closer, his jaw tightening.“You’re not going alone.”

Her brows shot up.“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.If he wants to talk, that’s fine, but I’m not letting you go in there alone.”

She cut him off.“You’re not letting me?”she said, keeping her voice low.”

“This isn’t a debate, Riley,” he said, voice low but edged.“It is obvious that someone is trying to hurt you.I’m not risking—”

Her temper flared.“You’re not risking?This is my job, Nails.Do you think I want to go back to that place?Hell, no.But I was brought here to help find and bring a young girl home, because that is my job.”

His jaw worked, but he didn’t answer immediately.

“That’s what I thought,” she said, her voice sharp.“You know, maybe I should have stuck to that promise that I made to your Commander.”

A tense silence settled over the kitchen.

Nails’ eyes darkened, but he didn’t step back.“That doesn’t change the fact that it’s dangerous.”

“I’m in law enforcement.I’m around danger all the time,” she shot back.

The air between them was heavy with unspoken things—fear, frustration, something deeper neither of them was ready to touch right now.

Riley broke the standoff first.She pushed her chair back, the scrape of wood on concrete loud in the quiet room.“I’ll be back,” she said simply, and turned toward the door.

Nobody stopped her as she grabbed her jacket and keys.She didn’t look back when she opened the door and then shut it behind her.

She needed space before she said something she would regret.

She pulled her phone out and typed a message back to Adam.

Riley:Hi.Sure, I’ll see you in an hour.

Nails stared at Riley’s back as she stormed out.The door clicked shut behind her, and the sound hit Nails like a gut punch.

He stayed where he was, staring at the empty space she’d just walked through, his hands curled into fists at his sides.The argument replayed in his head, every sharp word, every flare of heat in her eyes before she turned and left.

Damn it.

He knew the second the words came out of his mouth that he had crossed a line.Not because he didn’t mean them, because he did.But because he’d let the way he felt about her override the way he should have handled it.

She wasn’t some rookie.She wasn’t helpless.Riley was more than capable, and he knew it.But that didn’t stop the gnawing twist in his chest every time she walked into that club, every time he pictured her alone with Adam or surrounded by people who could hurt her.

The protective instinct ran bone-deep.And the more time he spent with her, the harder it was to rein it in.

“You really stepped in it there, brother.”

He turned toward the voice.Bear leaned against the counter, coffee mug in hand, his expression caught between amusement and sympathy.

“No kidding,” Nails muttered.

Joker spoke up from the table.“Look, I get it.Hell, I’ve been there.When Clover tells me that she’s heading out for an assignment with Tink to God knows where, it drives me fucking insane.But if I had tried to tell her she couldn’t go?Yeah, let’s just say I would have been sleeping on the couch for a month.”

“That’s because you can’t tell women like them what to do,” Aussie added from the couch.“They’ve got their own skill set, their own fight.You try to wrap them in bubble wrap, and all you’re doing is pissing them off.”