Page 12 of Viking (Dixie Reapers MC #24)

I watched them turn back to their screens, father and son working in perfect synchronization, two parts of the same formidable machine.

Whatever Kris had been involved in, whatever had gotten him killed, Wire and Atlas would uncover it.

And when they did, I’d be ready to deal with anyone who threatened Karoline and Athena.

“I need to check on them,” I said, heading for the door. “Let me know as soon as you find anything else.”

Wire waved a hand without looking up. “We’ll find it. Just keep them close.”

As I left the tech room, the weight of responsibility settled more firmly on my shoulders. Karoline and Athena weren’t just my best friend’s family anymore. They were mine to protect. And I would do whatever it took to keep them safe.

* * *

I opened the front door to my house as quietly as possible, the weight of what I’d learned from Wire and Atlas sitting heavy in my chest. The house smelled different now -- a hint of something warm that made the place feel less like a crash pad and more like a home.

I heard soft murmuring from down the hall, Karoline’s gentle voice singing something low and sweet.

Without thinking, I found myself moving toward the sound, drawn like a compass needle finding north.

The door to Athena’s room was partially open. I paused in the hallway, watching as Karoline tucked the comforter around the little girl’s shoulders. Athena’s eyes were heavy-lidded, fighting sleep as children do, one small hand clutching her blue rabbit while the other held onto Karoline’s finger.

“Just a little nap,” Karoline was saying, her voice soft as she smoothed those copper curls back from Athena’s forehead. “I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

Something twisted in my chest at the tenderness between them. They’d only been in each other’s lives for a few days, yet the bond was already forming -- fragile but real. Athena’s eyes drifted closed, her grip on Karoline’s fingers slowly relaxing as sleep claimed her.

Karoline stayed a moment longer, watching the child sleep with an expression that mingled love and fear in equal measure.

When she turned to leave, she spotted me in the doorway and pressed a finger to her lips.

I nodded, stepping back to let her pass before she gently pulled the door nearly closed, leaving it open just a crack.

“She’s finally asleep,” Karoline whispered, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “It took forever. New place, new sounds.”

“Sorry if the compound noise bothers her,” I said, following her toward the kitchen. “The guys try to keep it down near my place, but…”

“It’s not that,” she said, moving to the coffee pot. “She’s just… hyper-vigilant, I guess. Doesn’t want to miss anything. The social worker said it might be a trauma response.”

I leaned against the counter, watching as she went through the motions of making coffee like she’d lived here for years instead of a single day. “From losing Kris?”

“Maybe. Or whatever happened before.” She glanced at me. “Did you find anything? With your computer friends?”

I chose my words carefully, weighing what to share and what to hold back. “Some. Your brother was good at covering his tracks, but Wire and his kid are better at uncovering them.”

The coffee machine gurgled, filling the silence between us. Karoline turned to face me, arms crossed over her chest in a posture that mirrored my own defensive stance.

“And?” she prompted.

“And it looks like Kris was involved in something complicated. Government work, classified operations. The kind of thing that creates enemies.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly. “You’re editing. Giving me the PG version.”

Damn, she was perceptive. Just like Kris had been. “I’m giving you what we know for sure,” I countered. “The rest is still coming together.”

“Lief,” she said, my real name sounding different in her mouth than when anyone else used it, “I need to know what we’re dealing with. All of it. I’m not some fragile thing that needs sheltering.”

The coffee machine beeped, but neither of us moved.

I studied her face -- the determination in those blue eyes, the stubborn set of her jaw that reminded me so much of Kris.

She wasn’t the little girl I remembered, looking up at me with hero worship.

She was a woman facing danger with more courage than many men I’d known.

“Your brother was running some kind of covert operation,” I said finally. “The kind that officially doesn’t exist. Something went wrong, and it looks like he might have uncovered information that made him a liability.”

Her face paled slightly, but her voice remained steady. “Information that would make them come after his family?”

“If they thought he might have shared it, yes.”

She turned away, busying herself with pouring the coffee into mugs. I watched the line of her shoulders, the tension held there and had to fight the urge to cross the distance between us, to offer physical comfort I had no right to give.

“Here,” she said, holding out a mug. “You look like you need it.”

Our fingers brushed as I took the coffee, the brief contact sending an unwelcome current through me. This was Kris’s sister, for Christ’s sake. She was grieving, vulnerable, in danger. The last thing she needed was me developing feelings that complicated an already impossible situation.

“Thanks,” I muttered, taking a deliberate step back.

“So what happens now?” she asked, leaning against the counter. “We just… hide out here? Hope they don’t find us?”

“We’re not hiding,” I corrected. “We’re strategizing. Wire and Atlas are digging deeper, trying to figure out exactly what Kris was involved in and who might be coming after you. Once we know that, we can take more specific action.”

She nodded, sipping her coffee. “And Athena? What about her future? She’s already lost so much, and now she’s living in a biker compound with strangers and danger and…” Her voice caught, and she took a steadying breath.

“Hey,” I said, setting my mug down. “One day at a time, remember? Right now, Athena is safe. She’s got you. And you’ve got us.”

“Us,” she repeated, her lips curving in a sad smile. “The Dixie Reapers. Not exactly what I imagined when I pictured raising a child.”

“We’re not so bad,” I said, attempting to lighten the mood. “Some of the guys even know how to use napkins now.”

That earned a small laugh, the sound hitting me somewhere deep. “I’m sure they’re lovely,” she said. “But this isn’t… normal. None of this is normal.”

“Normal’s overrated.”

She looked up at me, really looked, like she was seeing past the cut and the beard to the person beneath. “Were you and Kris still close? At the end?”

The question caught me off guard. “No,” I admitted. “Not like before.”

“But he still trusted you with us,” she said softly. “That says something, doesn’t it?”

I had no answer for that. The weight of Kris’s trust pressed down on me. And now, standing in my kitchen with his sister, I was fighting feelings that felt like another betrayal entirely.

She stepped closer, close enough that I had to grip the counter behind me to keep from reaching for her. “I’m scared, even if I don’t want to admit it.”

“I know you are.” And I did. But despite her fear, there was a resilience in her that I recognized -- the same steel that had been in Kris, hidden beneath charm and easy smiles.

From down the hall came a small cry, Athena’s voice thick with sleep and confusion. Karoline immediately moved away, heading toward the sound.

“We’ll finish this later,” she said over her shoulder. “But I mean it, Viking. No more filtered versions. I need the whole truth.”

As she disappeared down the hallway, I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.

The whole truth. If only I knew what that was.

And if I did know, would I have the courage to tell her everything -- including how watching her with Athena was making me feel things I had no business feeling?

How the thought of anything happening to either of them filled me with a fear I’d never known before?

Some truths were better left unspoken, at least for now. First, I needed to keep them safe. Everything else could wait.

* * *

The clubhouse was quiet at 2 AM, most of the brothers had passed out at tables, or back at their homes.

I’d left Karoline and Athena sleeping, checking the locks twice before slipping out into the night.

The message from Wire had been cryptic but urgent: Found something.

Need you here now . I moved through the darkened main room, past empty bottles and abandoned card games, toward the blue glow leaking from beneath the tech room door.

Whatever Wire and Atlas had discovered, it had them working through the night -- and that couldn’t be good news.

I pushed the door open without knocking.

Wire was hunched over his keyboard, glasses sliding down his nose, empty energy drink cans scattered around him.

Atlas sat at the adjacent terminal, his posture perfect despite the late hour, his eyes reflecting the data scrolling across his screen.

Both looked up when I entered, Wire with an almost manic energy, Atlas with his usual calm focus.

“You got something?” I asked, closing the door behind me.

Wire grinned, the expression incongruous with the gravity of the situation. “Oh, we got something all right. Tell him, kid.”

Atlas turned his monitor toward me. “I accessed a secure server containing classified mission parameters,” he said, his voice steady and matter-of-fact, as if breaking into government systems was as routine as checking email. “Operation Ghostwalk. Your friend was part of it.”

I moved closer, studying the screen filled with documents marked with various security classifications. “How the hell did you get into this?”

“They changed their encryption protocols last month,” Atlas explained. “But they didn’t update all their legacy systems. Created a vulnerability.”