“Me too.”
Outside, the streets start to blur. The city’s charm feels different now, less haunted, more hollow. It’s as if the secrets have drained out of it, or maybe we’re just too tired to chase them anymore.
I glance at her again. “Can I ask you something?” She nods. “That night... the night you were taken. There was a woman involved, right?”
Amelia stiffens slightly, then nods again. “Yeah. She was in charge. Donovan gave the orders, but she was the one who carried the real threat. Always just behind them. Watching. Calculating. I don’t even know her name.”
“You said she had blonde hair and cold eyes?”
Amelia’s brows knit together, pulling through fog. “Yeah, she scared me more than Donovan. Her voice was cold. Sharp. She would’ve sliced you open without blinking.” She shudders, wrapping her arms around herself. “I hated her more than the men. They were animals. But she was... precise.”
I bite the inside of my cheek.
That pull in my gut tightens. The one that started the moment I saw him. Phoenix. His face, his voice. The way something about him felt familiar. I haven’t figured it out yet, but I will.
Amelia leans back into the seat, eyes fluttering shut. “Phoenix saved me. That’s what matters. Whatever that woman was, whatever she wanted, he got me out.”
I nod, even though she can’t see it. Phoenix.
I don’t know what he is to me yet. But I know what he isn’t, he isn’t a villain. There’s something in him I recognize in the deepest part of myself, something unspoken and raw. He may live in shadows, but I don’t think he’s made of them.
We pull up to the Airbnb, then the driver comes around to open our door. I help Amelia out, keeping a gentle hand on her back.
Malachi is already on the porch, arms crossed, waiting like a sentinel in the dark. The porch light flickers above him, casting shadows across his face that make him look carved from something ancient. A statue left behind by a war that never really ended.
I glance at Amelia before we step inside. “You’re safe now.”
She meets my gaze. “I know.”
But as I follow her up the steps, I can’t shake the feeling that this story, the one that started long before I ever met Malachi, is far from over.
And whatever thread is pulling me toward Phoenix? It’s only just begun to unravel.
Chapter 62
Candace
Three Years Later
TheenginesnarlsasMalachi swings one leg over the bike, the leather of his cut creasing at his shoulders as he turns back to look at me.
“Still good?” he asks, voice low and dangerous, a secret meant only for me.
The rumble wraps around my ribs, pulsing through me in a way I haven’t felt in years, something guttural and raw, alive beneath the night sky. I don’t answer right away. The black velvet dress clings to every inch of my skin. High slit, halter neck, deep back. Ruby said it looks like I’m going to dinner with death. I said perfect.
The air tastes of smoke and summer and something darker, anticipation maybe. Or memory. I step forward and hike the slit higher, hiking it even further as I lift one leg over the bike and settle behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist. The leather is warm against my palms, and the scent of him, cedar and something sharper, coils into my lungs, a slow drug sinking deep.
“Don’t ask me that again unless you want the truth,” I whisper near his ear, letting my lips brush his neck just to make him twitch. He does.
He huffs a laugh and revs the engine. His other hand slides down, fingers gripping the bare skin of my thigh, firm, claiming, a reminder of exactly who I belong to. I shift slightly, just enough for the slit in my dress to slide higher. His breath catches, and I feel the tension ripple through him. “Noted,” he murmurs, but there’s a darker edge to it now, one that coils heat low in my belly.
Just ahead of us, the black Hummer limo pulls away from the curb, taillights glowing in the dark. Inside it are Victor and Olivia with their tight-knit crew—Bec and Connor, Bailey and Julian, Ansley and Lincoln. Phoenix and McKenzie too, together now, after he bought her to save her, dressed in sin and walking into fire with their heads held high. The night feels cinematic, a story unfolding without a known ending, and maybe I don’t want to know.
That limo? It’s headed for the auction, but not like the ones before.
This one marks a shift. A reckoning. The Society is changing, because Phoenix is changing it from the inside out. Victor’s hosting tonight’s event here in Mississippi, making history as the first non-council member to run it. It’s also the last time an auction will be held at someone’s home. From here on out,they’ll operate out of permanent clubs, four of them for now, one in each corner of the country. Phoenix is taking the Southeast.
He also wants to expand, so he’s been working with Victor and Victor’s partner Connor to open a permanent location here and giving Amelia the keys to run it. Malachi hasn’t been too pleased with that, but that’s one of the reasons why tonight has to go smoothly. Because there’s no way in hell he’ll let Amelia do that if it doesn’t.
