Page 32 of Stitch & Steel

I pulled my phone from my pocket and fired off a text to Bullet.

Need two more hands up here. Bring tools. Reinforcements. Barbed wire. We’re fortifying everything.

Then I added:

Razor-wire perimeter. I’m not playing anymore.

.

I felt Bella’s gaze on me as I slipped the phone back in my pocket.

“You’re calling in backup?” she asked, voice still shaky, but stronger than I expected.

I nodded, jaw tight. “This place isn’t secure enough. Not for Gran. Not for you.”

Her brows drew together. “You’re not actually putting razor wire around my gran’s tomato plants, are you?”

I didn’t smile. Not even a little.

“Damn right I am. Or I will if I have to.”

She looked like she wanted to argue—but then her mouth shut again. Probably saw the fire in my eyes. The way I wasn’t messing around.

“I kissed you,” I said, stepping closer again, needing her tohearme now, “because I wanted to. Because Ineededto. But that doesn’t change what’s going on out here.”

“You think that guy’s coming back?”

“I think whoever hired him might be.”

Her eyes widened.

“Cartels,” I said quietly. “Rival MCs. Could’ve been anything—but it was a warning. One I heard loud and clear.”

She crossed her arms, a flicker of that fire returning to her expression. “You’re not putting me in a cage, Logan.”

I leaned in, brushing her damp hair off her face.

“Not a cage, darlin’. A fortress.”

Because now that I’d had a taste—just a taste—of what it felt like to kiss her, to hold her, toprotecther?

There was no turning back.

I was going to make this mountain the safest damn place in the Appalachian range.

And then I was going to make her mine.

Slowly.

Properly.

But fully.

And God help whoever tried to come between me and that.

Nine

BELLA