Page 27

The sheets are still twisted around Sophie’s legs when I slip outta bed, dragging on my jeans without bothering to find a shirt.

Her bare skin’s still warm from where we tangled up, her breath soft and slow like she finally felt safe.

I press a kiss to her shoulder before I leave, but it ain’t just habit I wanna start, it’s a god damn promise, one I don’t know how to keep but damn sure want to try.

I head downstairs, needing a smoke and a minute to clear my goddamn head.

My chest’s still tight, but not from the sex.

That was more than a fuck. It felt like coming home after being lost for too damn long.

I’ve had more women than I can count, but none of ‘em ever reached inside and gripped my soul like Sophie just did.

The porch light flickers as I crack the door. That’s the first red flag. The second’s the way the air smells. I know that scent. Vanilla and vengeance.

Becki’s already standing there.

A mistake from a past, I should’ve buried deeper. She used to ride behind me through the winding roads like she was born for the backseat, but even then, I knew she wanted more than the wind and my hands on her thighs.

Arms crossed, now short hair whipping around like she brought the wind with her. Her eyes cut through me, clocking the bare chest, the red marks on my neck, the scent of Sophie’s sex still clinging to my skin.

“So it’s true,” she says, voice full of venom. “You finally crawled into her bed. Let me guess, silk sheets, four posters. Missionary. As vanilla as my perfume.”

“Fuckin’ bullseye.” I step out. “Got spies on me?”

She huffs. “Word spreads fast when the Prez can’t be found after the big fight.”

“Becki,” I sigh, dragging a hand through my hair. “Don’t do this.”

She barks out a laugh, but it ain’t got an ounce of humor. “Don’t what? Don’t remind you that I’ve been here? That I’ve stood beside you, in your bed, on the back of your bike, covered in your blood and your come? And now you throw me away for a spoiled horse princess?”

“That wasn’t love,” I bite back, sharper than I should, but it’s the truth. “We’re not exclusive.”

She flinches like I slapped her. “Maybe not love, but it was more than this. More than her. ”

I shake my head, step closer. “No, Becki. It wasn’t. You’re a club bunny, have been since we split. You knew the deal. No promises. No future. We had fun, but it ended the second you started pretending it meant more.”

Her eyes glint, rage brewing behind the heartbreak. “You really think that little rich girl’s gonna ride with you when shit gets bloody? When someone puts a bullet in your shoulder again? She’s not built for this world, Legend.”

“That’s not for you to decide.” I dropped my voice to a low, dangerous level.

“You think she’s the one? Wait till she finds out what we buried behind the chapel, Legend. You think she’ll still kiss you with that dirt on your hands?”

“Becki, don’t you dare.”

She trembles, then sneers. “She’s gonna leave you. Just like your momma. Just like all the rest.”

Before I can say another word, Oaks rounds the corner, catching the tail end of that emotional sucker punch. He doesn’t say much, just takes it in like he always does.

“Becki,” he says evenly. “Go cool off before you regret more than you already should.”

She stares between us, burning holes into my chest. But finally, she spins on her heel and disappears into the dark like smoke.

Oaks watches her go, then looks at me. “You good?”

“Fuck if I know,” I mutter, dragging a hand down my face.

He grunts. “She’s in love with you, brother. And women like that? They don’t walk away clean.”

“I know,” I say quietly. And I do. I just hoped it wouldn’t get this messy.

I lean on the porch rail, staring into the dark. The fight outside’s quiet for now, but inside? It’s a warzone. One woman’s gone. Another’s waiting upstairs. And I’m starting to wonder if I’m the one who’s poison.

“What you gonna do about Brittany and Bethany?” I ask, changin’ the subject to Oaks’ love life. No reason I should seem like the only one by the balls.

“Fuck, thought about takin’ Brittany up on her offer tonight.”

“That ain’t you man,” I say. It’s the truth. Oaks is steady. He’s married. Unhappy or not.

“Can’t leave Bethany, and you know why,” he says through his teeth.

“I know. The club owes you one, too. You piss her off, and we’ll all pay.”

“It’s almost like the girl was sent to test me…”

“Now, that’s something to think on another day.”

“You sayin’ a young, hot thing like her couldn’t want me on her own?”

“Oaks you’re older than me, she’s twenty. She probably wanted the first guy the locked eyes with when she walked into The Lockup. Lottie shouldn’t have brought her. Fuck… Oaks, we ran the Sinners out of Hell. I’ve gotta get back to celebrating man.”

We bump fists.

But Oaks stops me. “I’m goin’ over there.”

“Where?”

“To Britnany’s.”

“It’s three in the mornin’… look. Fuck, I don’t want to know. I don’t give a god damn. Just make sure Bethany doesn’t catch wind. Ya here. That’s an order.”

When I make it back upstairs, Sophie’s awake, wrapped in the blanket, eyes searching my face like she already knows.

“That was her,” she says.

I nod. “Yeah.”

She looks down, then away. “So, you bikers all cheat? I’m the other woman now.”

I kneel beside the bed, take her hand in mine, and make her hear me. “No. You’re the only one that’s ever mattered. She was a mistake I didn’t end soon enough. That’s on me.”

She nods, but her gaze’s distant. Like she’s pulling away in that quiet way women do right before everything falls apart.

I slide in beside her, wrap my arm around her like I’m trying to hold the world together.

But the silence ain’t peaceful anymore.

It’s the kind that sets off every alarm in your bones. Her fingers curl tighter in the blanket. She’s trying not to cry, I can tell. That quiet strength, the way her lip quivers when she’s pretending it’s fine, that’s when I know she’s breaking.

And for the first time in a while, I’m scared. Not of death. Not of war. But of losing a woman I thought I’d never have.