Page 31

I’m tearing through the woods when I hear it. Sophie’s scream. Faint but fuck me if I don’t know Sophie’s voice like I know my own goddamn heartbeat.

“South line!” I bark into the wind, yanking my handlebars hard and ripping down the trail like the devil’s snapping at my heels.

Trees blur past. If she’s hurt…if someone touched her…

I see her in the clearing.

She’s on the damn ground, kicking like hell at some bastard cloaked in shadows. Not the creature. A man.

Doesn’t matter.

I see her eyes, wide with fear, but still burning with that fire I fell for.

She’s fighting. Always fighting. I launch off my bike before it’s even stopped moving.

But then he’s gone. Taking a frightened Sophie in my arms, I try like hell to make sure she’s okay, but something, someone takes her right from my arms.

The fuck?

But I’m on him like a duck on a Junebug. Slam into him, knocking Sophie free. We crash hard, fists flying and dirt flying harder. He’s wearing camo. Smells like sulfur and death. Ain’t one of ours. Ain’t from the Sinners.

He throws a punch. I duck, come up swinging. My knuckles crack against his jaw and he drops like a sack of shit.

Sophie’s on her feet behind me. Blood on her shirt but thank Christ it ain’t hers.

Rage surges through me, black and blinding.

I grind my boot into his chest and lean in. “Who sent you?”

He grins, blood on his teeth. “Hell’s got room for all of you.”

Wrong answer.

Bullet and Derby hit the clearing, guns drawn, looking ready to end this prick. Oaks rolls up right behind them, cockin’ his gun.

“Take him,” I bark. “Put him in the hole. I want him alive. For now.”

Then I turn to her.

Sophie’s pale, trembling, but on her feet. Strong. Always too damn brave for her own good.

I cup her face, fingers checking for wounds I can’t even see. My voice lowers. “You gonna be okay?”

She nods, barely. “I had to see. I didn’t wanna be protected anymore.”

My chest aches like someone split it open with a crowbar. “You ever scare me like that again, I swear to God…”

I don’t finish it. Can’t.

Because behind those pretty green eyes, I see what she won’t say.

This land’s hiding something foul. And whatever it is, she plans to hunt it down.

She’ll put herself in danger if it means saving Paradise Falls.

Now it’s really war.

We got the bastard chained to a chair in the old root cellar behind the barn, what the locals used for keeping bourbon cool and secrets colder. Bullet’s pacing, Oaks leans against the wall, arms crossed. The air down here smells like mildew and old sins, most of them mine.

The man stares up at me, chin bloodied, nose crooked. He’s young, too damn young to be mixed up in something this dark. But I know that face. The two different colored eyes give it away.

“You’re Elijah,” I say, voice flat. “Reverend Crowley’s nephew.”

His lip curls. “Didn’t come to fight. Just supposed to scare you. Shake the branches.”

“You think tearing up Sophie’s colt and attacking her counts as a prank?” Bullet growls.

“I didn’t kill the horse,” Elijah snaps. “It wasn’t me. Something else did that. I swear on the Book.”

I crouch down, get in his face. “Then you better start talking. Real slow.”

He swallows. “The Reverend... he said the Lord wanted you to make things right. That you’d been marked. That if you don’t marry Becki, make her an honest woman, Paradise Falls will burn.”

My blood runs cold.

“You the same fella planting threatening letters around the property?”

He nods and looks away like is’ the worst of it.

“You tell Ezekiel,” I growl. “He can take his holy threats and shove ’em down his throat. I ain’t marrying no one to save my soul. Especially not Becki.”

I storm out of the cellar, rage coiled tight in my chest.

Later, I find Sophie alone in the tack room, curled on a bale of hay, staring out the window like she’s watching specters ride through the dusk.

She’s wiping her hands with a horse rag like the blood will stick if she doesn’t.

Her shoulders are squared, but her eyes are glassy. She’s still shaking, but only inside.

I shut the door behind me, slow.

She doesn’t look at me. “You don’t have to say it.”

But I do.

“I can’t keep putting you in danger,” I tell her, throat raw. “I signed up to protect you, Soph. And I’ve failed. Twice now. You almost died today.”

“You saved me.”

“Yeah, but what about next time? What about when it’s not just some scared church boy? The Reverend ain’t my only enemy. Once your farm’s safe, once the Derby’s over…what then?”

She finally looks at me. Eyes bright, unblinking. “You’re really gonna walk away?”

“I have to. You’re not safe with me.”

She stands like she sat on a pin. “You think I care about safe? You think I want tame?”

I shake my head. “You want to stay with me? You’d have to go through hell. Be marked. Carry weapons. Ride with men who’ve killed. Lie to the law. Bleed for this club. For me.”

“I do half that already,” she spits.

“You ready to kill for me, Sophie?”

Her chin lifts. “No. I’m not a killer.” She wipes her face with the back of her hand. “But I’d damn sure fight for you.”

“You ready to lose this farm for me?”

“You wouldn’t ask for that, would you?”

“No. Well, too bad,” I say. “Because you might lose everything getting mixed up with me.”

“Leave me, like you left me before.”

“Sophie, I didn’t leave you. James was listening. The cops came. They told me you called them. I believed that all these years.”

She crosses her arms. “I thought you stood me up. I didn’t know you were arrest.”

“You don’t know the half of it, then. Just like you don’t realize I can’t be the reason you’re in danger.”

“Well, then you’re fired. You don’t have to protect me anymore.”

“No. You’re fired.” I reach in my cut and pull out the charm bracelet she gave me for luck.

Takin’ it, she blinks. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. You’re free of me. I’m still protecting you, but we’re done. That ain’t up for debate.”

Her fists ball at her sides, fire blazing behind her green eyes. “You’re such an arrogant prick.”

“Yeah,” I mutter, voice low. “But I’d burn down the world to keep you breathing.”