Page 16 of Thunder's Reckoning

“Like I said, I’m Zeke,” I offered. “Club calls me Thunder. Folks use both. Don’t matter, I answer to either.”

Her mouth twitched—almost a smile as she pointed to the kids. “Malik, Zara, and I’m Sable,” she murmured.

Sable.

Hell, it fit her too well. Strong. Dangerous in the right light. Beautiful no matter the light.

I gave her one last look, somethin’ twistin’ in my chest I couldn’t put a name to. “You need anythin’,” I said, “I’m downstairs. Just tell the guard at the door to come get me.”

Then I left her there.

But she stayed with me.

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE DOOR CLICKEDshut behind him, and the house went still.

I stood there for a moment, not moving, arms wrapped tight around myself even though the air inside was warm. My pulse hadn’t slowed since the truck stopped on that blacktop. It still thudded against my ribs, sharp little reminders that I’d let a stranger bring me here.

Not just any stranger.

A biker. Big. Muscled. Silver hair that caught the light like steel, light blue eyes so pale they looked like they could cut cleanthrough me if I stared too long, a build that filled every inch of space he stood in.

I’d seen men like him before, in Gabrial’s circles. Men who took what they wanted and didn’t care who they had to break to get it. Only… he hadn’t taken. He’d just given.

I couldn’t decide if that made him safer or more dangerous.

I didn’t trust him. I couldn’t. But the truth sat heavy in my chest —I had trusted him, at least enough to climb into his truck. Maybe that wasn’t trust at all. Maybe it was just… no other choice. When the road behind you is worse than the one in front, you take the road in front, no matter who’s driving.

We’d been driving for two days straight, snatching rest in parking lots, every mile putting distance between us and him. My body ached from it, from the way my hands had locked around the wheel, from sleeping in the same clothes, from never letting my mind slip far from the rearview mirror.

Malik was standing by the window, his small shoulders pulled back like he thought he could block the view if anyone came up the drive. He was only ten, but the way he kept glancing out into the trees told me he was thinking the same thing I was, what if Gabrial finds us?

I didn’t have to imagine what would happen. I’d lived it. I’d seen it.

Zara was already curled on the couch with her bear, eyelids drooping. Malik didn’t sit. Didn’t relax. His eyes kept scanning , the window, the door, the corners of the room, like we were still out there on the side of the road.

I crossed to him and touched his shoulder. “It’s okay,” I said quietly, even though I knew the words were a lie we both needed. “We’re safe for now.”

For now.

That was as much as I could promise him.

When I turned, my gaze caught the door again. I thought of him standing there — Thunder, he’d called himself, like the warning before a storm. But he’d also told me his real name.Zeke.

I liked the sound of it better. Less dangerous, more human. A name I could picture saying without the weight of a whole club behind it. A name that didn’t belong to the man who’d brought me here, but to the one who’d looked at me for a moment like I wasn’t just another problem to deal with.

I decided then I’d call him Zeke.

I sank down onto the edge of the couch and let my head tip back against the wall. My muscles ached from holding tension for too long. My mind was already spinning through possibilities, where he’d really brought us, whether we’d hear the rumble of Gabrial’s car before the door broke in, how far I could get with two children if I had to run again.

My body, traitorous thing, wasn’t spinning at all. It was remembering the way his voice had dipped when he told me I’d be safe here. The way his eyes had softened for half a second when he looked at me, like he was seeing more than just a broken woman he’d picked up off the highway.

I didn’t know what kind of man he really was. But right now, in this thin sliver of peace, I could almost believe he might keep his word.

Almost.

CHAPTER NINE