Page 7

Kyle

D ragon and his men had a building set aside for guests at the back of their compound, separate from the main clubhouse. It was private, quiet and the ideal place to think.

After my one-on-one with Store, I’d joined the rest of the Ghosts and the newly formed Valiant MC, settling into the familiar rhythm of strategy and conversation.

Hunter had been throughhell. The mission that ended his career in the Marines had nearly broken him, but he was here now and healing. It was still surreal seeing him as adad, though. The man who had spent years running from his own demons had somehow found his way back to Piper, and now, he had a family.

I wasn’t surprised that he’d gone after her, though. We’d had plenty of deep and meaningful talks about Piper over the years, so when he got her back, it had just felt inevitable. Like something written in stone long before either of them had ever realized it.

But right now, the hell he was going through waiting for Bo to call with an update on Piper’s location wasbrutal—and it was written all over his men’s faces who were all feeling it for him.

We wouldget her back. There was absolutely no question about that.

After a couple of drinks and going over possible strategies, I felt the weight of everything pressing down on me. The shit Store had spat at me still clung to my skin like filth I couldn’t wash off. Normally, I’d deal with it by beating the shit out of one of the guys or taking my rifle apart piece by piece until my hands stopped shaking.

But tonight, I neededsomething else. Something that wouldn’t leave blood on my knuckles or keep my mind tangled in the past. I made my way to the room I’d been given, shrugging off the tension as best as I could. I didn’t doubt that in the next few days, I’d get to work my stress out the way I always did—with a mission, with my rifle, with controlled violence.

Right now, though, I needed a moment where I could justswitch off.

I had barely stepped into the shower, letting the hot water pour over me, when a warm body pressed up behind mine. I didn’t flinch. I’d heard him come in minutes earlier, and I’d known he’d follow.

His arms wrapped around me, his head burying itself in the crook of my neck, his breath warm against my wet skin.

“You okay, baby?” Jagger’s voice was low, soothing, like he knew the answer already.

Something inside me that had been wound too tight for too long loosened just a little, and I let my body sink back into his.

The way his arms tightened around me in response told me hefeltthe shift—that he appreciated the way I had allowed it.

I sighed, my head resting against his shoulder. “Yes and no.” I hesitated, trying to find the right words, but it wasn’t easy. Sharing wasn’t something that came naturally to me. “She was the reasonso muchhappened, Jagger. Now, where do I focus that shit?”

Store wasout of the picture. And seeing her defeated should have given me satisfaction. To be fair, itdid, in a way. But there was nowhere for the emotions I had carried forso longto go. No direction for the anger, no enemy left standing to focus them on.

I still hadPreacher, but eventhatwas now a tangled mess. For years, I had hated him for abandoning me when Ineededhim. For years, I had resented the way my mother had taken it all out onme. Foryears, I had lived with the image of walking into that room, the walls splattered with blood, the gun still clutched in her lifeless hand.

That kind of pain never leaves you.

Jagger exhaled against my skin. “I heard what she said about Preacher.”

A sharp spike of tension went through me. Part of me was relieved—because I didn’t have to repeat it. On the other hand, it made medefensive. Would he expect me to forgive Preacher now?

“How do you feel?”

I shrugged, becausefuckif I knew how to answer that. I felteverything, I feltnothing. It was all too much and not enough at the same time.

Jagger tried a different approach. “Were you close to your mom?”

A bitter snort left me before I could stop it. “No. She was abitch.”

I had told him pieces of it before. But noteverything. Maybe if heknew, he would understand why I could nevertrustPreacher again.

Jagger didn’t push. Instead, he reached for the shampoo, poured some into his hands, and started lathering it into my hair. The simple act was grounding, it was a quietoffering. I tipped my head back, letting him work his fingers through my hair, the pressure of his hands helping to steady the storm inside me.

“How much do you know about my parents’ relationship?”

Jagger paused, just for a second. Then, he continued his careful movements.

“It wasn’t a good one,” he said carefully. “She played theclichémove—got pregnant and tried to use it to control him.”

He was diplomatic in his choice of words, but the truth was there. I nodded, stepping under the spray to wash the suds away, giving myself time tothink. After a beat, I leaned back again, waiting for him to do a second round of shampoo. After so manytripsto hot, sandy countries, one wash was never enough, and Jagger knew that by now.

“From as far back as I can remember, my parents fought,” I said finally. “Screaming, slamming doors, and drama… There was a constantwar.” I took a breath. “When I was five, I came home and found my momwasted. Slurring, rambling about how I’d never find a man who would be faithful. How menliedabout everything.”

Jagger’s jaw clenched, but his face stayed blank. He knew the kind ofdamagethat could do to a little girl. So didshe, that was why she’d done it.

“She used to rant about how she hadsacrificedeverything for Preacher, and how he didn’t give ashitabout either of us.” I hesitated. “She said the reason I was named Kyle was because he was so fuckingdisappointedthat I wasn’t a son, he gave me a boy’s name anyway.”

That part had alwaysstuck, and today, Store hadthrown it in my face, almostverbatim.

Was that what he toldeveryone?

Jagger rinsed his own hair with one hand, but the other stayed firmly wrapped around my waist.

“Youknowhe named you after his grandfather, right?”

I shrugged. Maybe, maybe not.

Reaching for the shower gel, I poured some into my hands. “It only got worse. I dideverythingto get Preacher’s attention, but he was hardly home. And when hewashome, he’d lock himself away from us after the obligatory screaming match with my mom.” My hands slowed as I rubbed the soap over my skin. “If I really think about it…” I swallowed. “Ididspend a lot of time with him. But themoremy mom said, the more those memories started tofade. So, I kept trying. I kept needinghim to see me.”

I looked down, watching the soap slide off my skin, watching thepasttry to drain away with it, but some stains never washed off. When Preacher became President of the Knights MC, everything got worse. The rare moments of attention he’d given me before dwindled into almost nothing. I’d show up at the compound, eager, hopeful—desperate—only to be met with distracted glances and half-hearted words. Five minutes of his time, maybe ten on a good day, before something or someone would pull him away.

Mom had told me not to bother and that I was wasting my time. But I’d still tried. Becauseif I just did something right, if Ijust made him see me, he’d stop brushing me aside.

Jagger took the shower gel from my hands, his fingers brushing over mine as he turned me so that my back was to him. His touch was firm yet careful as he ran his hands over my shoulders, massaging the tension that had been embedded there for years.

“Do you think you got his attention?” he asked, his voice low.

Jesus. This man hadmagic hands.

I let my head fall forward slightly, letting him work on the knots that had settled deep into my muscles.

“I got Red to teach me how to ride a motorcycle when I was fourteen,” I said, shaking my head as a laugh escaped me. “I was such apain in the assabout it, but he finally caved. When I rode it in front of Preacher for the first time, he actuallysmiled.” The memory hit me like a punch to the gut. “He told me I could only ride it on the compound, and then he said, ‘One day, you’ll make a fine biker.’”

That day, I’d feltproud, and like Ihada purpose. Like I hadsomethingof him to hold on to. That feeling had fueled me. After that, I’d made it my mission to learn everything the guys did. By sixteen, I could shoot like a pro, ride my bike with my eyes shut, and my knife skills werescary. I made sure I wasone of them, not just some girl hovering on the sidelines.

Jagger chuckled, his breath warm against my shoulder. “That you did.”

I laughed softly, but it faded quickly.

His voice turned more serious. “Sounds like things between you and your da—Preacher were good then. When did it change?”

The shift in my body must have told him everything, because his hands slowed slightly. I didn’t want to say it, but the memories came anyway. By seventeen, I was spending most of my time at the compound—anywherebut home because my mother had been unraveling.

The screaming had turned to fists, the slaps became kicks, and by then, she wasn’t holding back. Black eyes, stitches in my mouth, chunks of hair ripped from my scalp. The worst was the baseball bat.

I swallowed.

“She used to hit me, but I told you about the baseball bat, right?” I felt Jagger nod against my back.

Ishouldstop talking, but something inside me neededthis. Only a handful of people knew what had happened next.

I turned in his arms, wrapping myself around him, pressing my face to his chest, feeling the steady rise and fall of his breath.

And then I went for it.

“After the baseball bat, I startedplanninga way out. The things she told me about my dad, about thethingshe did—the women, the illegal shit, thewarehouse full of girls—it was all too much. She made sure I knew that I wasn’t enough, that I should never have been born. That I was the biggestmistakeshe’d ever made.”

Jagger’s arms tightened, his lips moving against my hair, murmuring something I couldn’t quite make out.

I took a steady breath.

“One afternoon, I pulled up to the compound and she wasthere, running out, screaming, weaving around, drunk out of her fucking mind.” I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling the memory wrap around me like a vice. “I took her home and got her into bed. The whole time, she wasspittingat me, clawing my arms. I gave up, went downstairs, sat on the couch—just sat there, wondering how my life hadgotten this bad.” The words slowed, thickened. “I was counting down the days until I couldleavewhen I heard the bang.”

A gunshot. I’d heard so many since then. Butthat one? That was the one I could stillfeel.

Jagger’s grip on me tightened. “You werein the housewhen it happened?”

I nodded against his chest. “I walked upstairs. Stood in front of the bedroom door for a while before I walked in.”

Blood. So much blood. The walls, and the sheets were covered with it. The gun still clutched in her lifeless hand.

And the letter beside her, with my name scrawled on the envelope.

“I knew what she was going to say in the letter she was clutching when I found her,” I whispered. “But knowing she used herlast minutes aliveto write it gave the words extra weight.”

Jagger pulled back slightly, gripping my shoulders, his eyes locked onto mine. “She wrote you a letterjust before she killed herself?”

I nodded and shrugged. “Yeah.”

His jaw clenched. “Holy fuck, baby.”

I barely had time to react before he pulled metightagainst him, his entire body shaking slightly. But he didn’t know the worst of it, he didn’t know what the lettersaid. Didn’t know that my mother had used her dying breath to rip my heart out.

That she had told meeverythingabout Preacher. How she had walked in on himthat day, screwing Store. How he hadbeggedher to have a kid with him when they first met—only to abandon her the moment I was born because I was a girl. Because I wasn’t thesonhe had wanted.

How on thevery dayshe put that gun to her head, he had told her to leave and to takemewith her. Every word had carved into me like a blade, and I hadrun.

I’d finished reading the letter that day, turned and packed a bag. Once I had what I needed, I’d driven to the only person IknewI could trust—Uncle Duke. He was Preacher’s brother, but he had always beenmine. He had alwayscalled, alwaysvisited, alwayscared. He was the only one who had ever made me feelsafe.

Jagger reached past me, turning off the water, his movements careful, deliberate. Then he took a towel and started drying me off, his touch gentle in a way I didn’t know how to handle.

Normally, when I talked about this shit, I feltraw. Exposed. But now? It felt…therapeutic. Like heunderstood, and maybe hedid.

I looked up at him, met his gaze, and what I saw there made my chestache. Jagger leaned down, pressing his forehead to mine, his eyes closing briefly.

When he opened them again, his voice was low. Certain. “You matter.” His fingers tilted my chin up slightly, his thumb brushing over my jaw. “Youmatter,” he repeated, like he needed me to hear it.Believeit. Then, quieter—softer—he whispered, “And I couldn’t be prouder to have you asmine.”

JAGGER

Listening to her story—trulylistening—was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. Knowing what she had gone through, and how much she had suffered. Knowing that while she was baring her soul to me, I was still keeping afuckingsecret from her. It was eating me alive.

I wanted to tell her everything.Neededto. But what I knew was only a fraction of the truth. Therealsecret, the one that could either break her or finally set her free, was buried deep with Preacher, andonly hecould tell her. Still, maybe I could give hersomething. Some small piece of the truth that would make ithurtless.

I was just about to speak, but she beat me to it.

“I don’t want to talk anymore,” she whispered, pressing up against me in her towel.

Her body was warm, damp from the shower, but it was the look in her eyes thatguttedme.

Raw. Needy. Vulnerable.

I saw the storm inside her—the emotions she couldn’t voice but wasdesperatelytrying to show me.

Her hands reached up, fingers skimming over the towel at my waist, untying it with slow, deliberate movements. The fabric dropped away, and then her hands were on me, tracing my stomach, her nails dragging lightly across my abs, setting off a chain reaction of heat in my veins.

Then she leaned in, her lips ghosting over my chest, nipping, licking—driving meinsane.

She stopped just as our lips barely touched. “You make mefeel,” she whispered against my mouth. “I feelsafe.”

Ifeltthat. Her words weren’t just words, they were aconfession. A final wall being lowered.

And fuck— fuck —I didn’t deserve it.

The guilt nearly crushed me, but everything else? Everything else wasreal, and this wasn’tmytruth to tell, regardless of how much I wanted to. Would she even believe me if I tried?

I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her flush against me, letting my grip show her just how deep my own truth ran.

“You aresafewith me,” I promised, holding her gaze so she couldseehow much I meant it. Her lips parted, her breath shaky. “And you makemefeel too,” I added. “This,” I gestured between us, “issomething different. Youknowthat. This isus.”

I had no better word for it.

But‘us’—that word had weight. It hadmeaning. It was unlike anything I had everfeltbefore, a pull I had no name for, but it was getting stronger every damn second.

And fuck if I knew what itwas, but I knew one thing for sure— I wasn’t going toloseit.

Her eyes darkened, her pupils blown wide with heat. Then she closed the last bit of space between us, her hands sliding into my hair as her lips crashed into mine.

I pulled hercloser, even though there was no space left between us, desperate to feelmore. My tongue swept into her mouth, claiming, demanding, takingeverythingshe was willing to give me. My hand moved up her side, finding the twisted knot keeping her towel closed, and with a sharp tug, I yanked it free. The towel dropped to the floor, and Igroanedas her bare skin pressed against mine.

Kyle’s hands raked down my back, her body grinding against me, her stomach rubbing against my cock, and my controlsnapped. Grabbing behind her thighs, I lifted her effortlessly, wrapping her legs around my waist. The heat of her pussy against my cock wasfucking heaven, her wetness spreading as she rocked against me.

She gasped as I took two steps forward, pressing her back against the cool wall. I barely managed to pull my mouth from hers, needing more—needing all of her. I trailed kisses down her throat, my tongue flicking against the sensitive skin there. Then lower.

Lifting her slightly, I latched onto one of her breasts, rolling my tongue over the peak before sucking it into my mouth. Kyle moaned, her back arching, pressing herself further into me. I groaned against her nipple, sucking harder, my teeth scraping lightly before I flicked my tongue again.

She gasped my name, her hips moving in slow, desperate circles against me.

“Jagger,” she panted through her moans. “Please.” Iknewwhat she was asking for, her body was telling meeverything, and I was just as desperate. “Fuck me.”

My restraint shattered. Gripping my cock, I positioned myself against her entrance, lowering herslowly. The moment the tip pushed inside, webothgasped. She was so tight, and so fuckingwet.

I clenched my jaw, every muscle in my body straining to keep from losing it right then and there.

“Fuckinghell,” I groaned against her neck. Ihadto take this slow, or I wasn’t going to last.

But Kyle had other ideas. With the strength of her thighs, she lifted herself—then slammed back down, taking all of me in one smooth, perfect motion.

“Kyle!” I shouted at the same time she screamed my name.

My hands tightened on her ass, gripping her as Ithrust upinto her, slamming her back against the wall with each movement. Her moans, the way she gasped my name, the way her pussy gripped me—itbrokeme.

Harder.

Faster.

I needed her in my mouth.

Her breasts bounced with every thrust, and I caught a nipple between my lips, sucking it deep, rolling my tongue over it while Ipoundedinto her. Shecried out, her walls fluttering around me.

She was close. I moved my hand between us, pressing my thumb against her clit, rubbing tight, fast circles. Her body tensed, every muscle going rigid, as her breath caught. Ifeltit the moment she let go. Kyle shattered, her pussy clamping down around me so tight that Isaw stars.

“Jagger!” she screamed, her nails digging into my shoulders.

Her orgasm hit me like afucking freight train, and Ilost it. With one last, deep thrust, I came so fucking hard I saw white, every nerve in my body igniting. I barely registered the spots dancing in front of my vision, barely processed the way my bodyshookwith the force of it.

All I knew washer. The feel of her wrapped around me. The way she moaned my name. The way sheowned mein a way no one ever had.

Kyle shuddered against me, her body melting into mine. Using the last bit of strength I had, I carried us both to the bed, keeping her wrapped around me. I laid us down, her on top of me, still connected, still breathing as one. Her body was boneless, her head resting against my chest.

“I’m not ready to lose you,” she murmured, sounding half-asleep.

I pressed a kiss to her hair. “I’m not ready to leave you.”

She rubbed her nose against my chest, getting comfortable. Seconds later, she was out, like someone had flicked a switch. In the few nights that we’d spent together, she’d never fallen asleep this easily.

But tonight wasdifferent. We had turned a corner. But there was stillonething standing between us, and I knew that I couldn’t keep it from her much longer.

Tomorrow was going to be abigday. Once Bo sent over the final piece of intel we needed, we’d be setting the plan into motion.

Piper would be coming home. And after that, Preacher would finally tell Kyle the truth. As much as I wanted that to happen for her, that part had me on edge. I didn’t know how she’d react—if she’dexplodeor shut down completely. But one thing was for damn sure: it waslong overdue. She had spenttoo many yearsdrowning in a lie, chasing ghosts, hating a man who had never given her the full story.

But once it was out, once she knew everything, that was when I’dreallyget to focus on the next step.

The thing was, I hadneverbeen in a real relationship before. I had no clue what “the next step” evenwas, but I’d figure it out because Iwantedall of the steps with Kyle. Every fucking one of them.

I wanted to learn what made her laughwhen she wasn’t guarded. I wanted to know what her favorite song was and if she’d let me catch her singing off-key in the car. I wanted to see the way her face lit up when she let herself behappy—not just content, not just in control, butcarefree. I wanted to learn every curve of her body, not just in moments of heat but in the softness of waking up beside her. I wanted to learn how tobewith her in ways that weren’t just sex, war, and chaos.

Because Kyle wasn’t just another woman in my life, she was the first one who hadever mattered. And that changed everything.