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24

ATOM

L ater that afternoon, I sit on the small porch, drinking an ice-cold beer, and check my phone.

Butcher: The bar’s gonna be closed for at least a week. But she can go back to her apartment. No structural damage. Don’t know if I want her to.

I feel the same. Here, there’s a sacred kind of peace. No one ever has reason to come out here. Beyond putting her on a plane and sending her to Nowheresville Arizona, there is nowhere safer for her than right here.

Me: Did you find anything out?

Butcher: Nothing apart from the obvious. Confirmation of accelerant. Charmer and Haynes were murdered. Nothing that helps us.

The Bratva chose to make her the example. It’s a clear message.

Me: They knew the message it would deliver. If the daughter of the local motorcycle club president isn’t safe from us, then you won’t be either.

They kill two birds with one stone: terrorize the town and get one over on the club. It’s actually a brilliant strategy.

Butcher: Pissed we don’t know shit. There’s got to be a reason.

Me: Can’t be a coincidence that there was an extortion request, then a fire and two murders when she refused to pay. They’re sending a clever lesson to you, the club, and the town. Maybe that’s as simple as it gets.

I look into the house, where I can see Ember at work on her laptop. She’s been making phone calls and dealing with the insurance company since we got back from the river. Her voice shook as she spoke to Jada and then the other staff.

But she found her confidence as her calls progressed. Sheriff Radcliffe, the fucker that he is, got both barrels. I heard her tear a strip off him, suggesting Main Street has some version of video security and that he should already have collected it so he could learn more about the perpetrators.

Butcher: Well, someone knows something. They’re always one fucking step ahead of us. I’m gonna lose my shit. How’s Em doing?

It’s been bothering me too. How did they know where we’d be? How did they know we wouldn’t be in town to defend it?

Me: Last heard, she was rallying that town committee she and Quinn are on, trying to organize the businesses to band together.

Butcher: That’s my girl. I’ll catch you later.

“I need to go back,” Ember says, stepping out of the house. “I’m feeling useless trying to fix this from all the way out here.”

“It’s not safe.” I stand and slip my phone into the back pocket of my jeans.

She shakes her head, then looks up at the sky. “What else are they going to do to me? They can’t burn my bar down twice.”

I reach for her, and she steps into my arms. “If burning down your bar were the worst they could do, I’d agree with you. But they could kill you, Em. These people don’t mess around. And they are one step ahead of us, right now.”

“Then I need a different plan. Somewhere else to sleep. Whatever it takes. But my people are in town, and I shouldn’t need Jada sending me photos of the inside of the bar. I feel like a coward. That’s not how leaders lead. Surely you can understand that.”

I press a kiss onto the crown of her head. “I wish I didn’t, but I do. Still, it’s not safe.”

My phone rings and I pull it from my pocket. “It’s Wraith. Give me a second.”

When I answer, I ask, “What’s up?”

“You alone?” Wraith asks.

I step toward the direction of the river, away from Ember. “I am now.”

“You doing okay? You took in a lot of smoke yesterday.”

The river is moving slowly, the level low. The river rocks have absorbed so much of the sun’s heat, there is a haze over them. “I’m fine. Just trying to figure out how they could know we were going to ride out last night and leave the town vulnerable. It doesn’t make sense.”

“Fuck,” Wraith mutters. “I’ll double-check all the new prospects we have…make sure nothing is amiss. I mean, it could just be a freaky coincidence.”

“Times like this, I wish we had someone like Vex in New Jersey. We should add it to the list of recruits we’re looking for. I want to check bank statements of everyone, see if someone is getting paid. I hate to go down conspiracy theory traps, but I can’t believe this is an accident.”

“Hate to think it might be someone closer to us than a new prospect. But let’s keep this between us, yeah? Just in case.”

Something comes to me. “We changed our plans at the eleventh hour. Target A for target B.” I speak in code, hoping Wraith catches my meaning. “You think that’s how they knew we planned to be away from town, but didn’t know where? How they knew the bar would be vulnerable without us around?”

“I mean, possibly. Is Ember okay?”

When I turn around, I see that Ember is in the process of loading up Lemmy with her saddlebags. “Fuck. Gotta go. She’s intent on heading back to the bar, like, right now.”

“She’s safer where she is.”

“Yeah, well, tell her that.”

Wraith chuckles. “She gets that willful streak from Butcher. You should keep her there.”

“Yeah, because Butcher would love me tying his daughter to a chair to keep her here.”

“Good luck.” With that, Wraith hangs up.

There’s determination in her stride as she returns to the house to grab something.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Don’t ask questions you know the answer to, Hudson.”

My first thought is I want to spank her ass for being a brat.

“I know you’re stressed, sweetheart, but don’t snap at me.”

She places her hands on her hips. “I already told you; I want to go back. And what I was doing was loading up my horse so I could do that.”

For some reason, I’m entertained. I love the flash of fire in her eyes. “I know where you think you’re going. What I don’t know is what you’re going to do when you get there. You don’t have a plan. At least here, you can stay with me. When you get back, where are you going to stay? My guess is your apartment will need a deep clean to get rid of the smell of smoke. You know your father is going to insist you stay with him. Wraith will hate the idea as much as I do. There, you’ll make other wild suggestions. A motel. Quinn’s. Jada’s. It’ll be a nightmare to secure. But you’ll eventually get your way because you always do.”

Her eyes go wide. “What the hell do you mean by that?”

I tug a hand through my hair. “I don’t want to fight with you, and we’re dancing dangerously close to one. You’re going back without a plan and will expect everyone to jump when you decide what it is.”

“I don’t expect anyone to jump. It’s all of you who insist on protecting me. I don’t want to stay with my father. I want to go back to my bar and see the damage and make plans to meet with the insurance adjustor, and Sheriff Radcliffe, and make sure my staff are okay. Then, I want to walk upstairs to my place, if I can, and salvage anything that isn’t smoke-damaged. If there is time, I’ll make the arrangements for it to be industrially cleaned and repaired. Where I sleep after that is of no consequence.”

I step right into her space. “Well, it’s of consequence to me. I only just got you, and I fucking hate the idea that someone could have taken you from me. I’m not prepared to give them the chance to do that again.”

I’m not sure where all those words come from. They sort of free flowed from me as if they bypassed the part of my brain where it decides if something should be said out loud or not.

Ember steps so close to me that our bodies touch, and shocks the hell out of me by throwing her arms tightly around my waist. “You’re worried about me?”

The question throws me off guard. “Of course I am, Em.”

When she looks up at me, the lines of frustration are gone from her face. “No. Like, you were really worried about me.”

“Never been more scared than when I realized the smoke was coming out of Whiskey Fever.”

“Now I understand.”

I kiss her lips, sensing that the storm that was brewing between us has passed. “Understand what?”

She shrugs. “You’re not questioning my judgement or my right to do what I want. You’re just scared for me and want to protect me.”

“Of course. Why else—wait—is that what you thought?”

“You made me sound flighty, irresponsible, uncaring of the impact my decisions had on others. But you get a bit of a pass because you were scared for me.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Don’t patronize me.”

She smiles, and I swear to God, it’s more beautiful than the view. “I wouldn’t dare. I want to go back, Hudson. If you want to sit down and make a plan with me first, one you feel comfortable knowing all the angles to, then let’s do that. But I am going back today and would prefer to make the ride in the light.”

Maybe I should have started with that. “I’m sorry. Mouth got ahead of my brain. I’m scared shitless you’re gonna get hurt. And so, I want to do this as safely as possible while recognizing you’re too much like Lemmy to ever be corralled.”

“I love that your analogy involved my horse.”

“You two were cut from the same cloth. I used to ride him when you were away, and he never responded to me the way he responds to you.”

Ember shields her eyes from the sun as she looks up at me. “He didn’t?”

“He needed the kind of ride you used to give him. When I ride him, he always wants to go off down routes that are gonna hurt him and doesn’t like being reined in.”

Ember chuckles at that.

“What?” I ask.

She bites down on her lip to stop from laughing. “I mean, if you extrapolate the earlier part of our conversation, I think what you’re saying is when you try to control my horse, he doesn’t do what you want. Whereby, when I ride him and give him the freedom to make the majority of the decisions, we both have the best ride of our lives. And when you try to control me, I don’t do what you?—”

“Okay,” I say, wrapping her tightly in my arms. “I get it. Let’s make your plan so we can get underway before I decide to spank your ass for being a know-it-all.”