There’s a flicker of something when I look at him. Pride maybe. Or the ghost of justification. The kind that settles in your chest when you’ve crossed a line and convinced yourself the world’s better for it.
“Malachi,” he greets, nodding in my direction. “Good fight?”
I drag a hand through my beard, making a mental note to trim it later. “Yeah. Knocked Beau out cold with a chokehold.”
Victor lets out a low whistle, shaking his head. “Damn. Arden, Leo, and I wanna come watch you one weekend. But we gotta wait. I need to be sure about Donovan’s whereabouts first.”
My jaw tightens at the name, muscles bunching beneath my skin, tension wound tight and ready to snap. Fucking Donovan. The man ruled this city as if he were a fucking tyrant before we drove him out. But now? He’s slithered back, hunting for something. Or someone. Victor’s goddaughter who happens to be Donovan’s stepdaughter.
A pulse kicks at my temple. Not from fear; Donovan doesn’t get that from me. But anticipation. Rage with nowhere to land yet. The kind that settles in the bones and waits for the order to crack.
The obsession that bastard has with her isn’t just sick, it’s dangerous. If he reallyisback in town, he won’t be for long.
“I’ve got guys keeping an eye out,” I tell him, voice low, firm. “If he’s here, we’ll find him.”
Victor nods, satisfied, then swings a leg over his bike. He throws up a casual wave before roaring off into the night. But my mind stays locked on Donovan and the wreckage he left behindyears ago. If I get to him first, I won’t just hand him over to Victor. I want answers. And I want them before I break him.
As I head inside, my mind lingers on the ride over from Candace’s place. The wind had screamed past us on the ride back, the roar deafening, the engine vibrating under me with the force of thunder. But even with all that noise, I kept catching something softer. A sound that didn’t belong to the road. Maybe it was nothing. Just a breath, a hum, a melody she wasn’t even aware of. As if her mind drifted somewhere else when the world got too loud, and music was the only way through it. The kind of sound people make when they’re barely holding it together, not with words, but with rhythm.
That hum—barely there, fragile as smoke—lodged itself in my chest, sharp and persistent, a damn splinter. I didn’t want to hear it. Didn’t want to notice. But it’s there now, echoing in the back of my skull, a memory I can’t place. She doesn’t even like me. Barely tolerates me. Still, she bet on me. That should’ve meant nothing. Should’ve been a fluke. But it felt tethered to something deeper.
I can’t stop thinking about the way she put money on me as if it was no big deal. She barely knows me, barely tolerates me, but she bet on me. Why? Out of desperation? Or something else? That thought sticks, a thorn under my skin, dragging up questions I don’t have answers to. I shouldn’t care. But I do. That pisses me off more than anything.
I’ve buried better feelings for less. Yet she’s still in my head, wearing that quiet defiance with the sharpness of a crown.
As soon as I push open the club doors, the noise hits me hard. Booming bass, rowdy laughter, and the sharp crack of pool balls colliding. A few whistles cut through the chaos as I step inside, and I shake my head, smirking.
Kyle’s already got a beer waiting for me at the bar. Good prospect. Knows to anticipate, not ask. “How’d the fight go?” he asks as I take a long swig.
“I won.” The words come easy, matter-of-fact, as if I hadn’t just spent the last hour beating a man bloody. No need to elaborate. Kyle, to his credit, knows better than to push.
James, however, doesn’t. “That was his way of getting you to talk,” he says, stepping up beside me, his tone edged with amusement.
I grunt, jaw ticking. Always testing me, that one. Not in a bad way. Just enough to remind me I’m not the only one who sees the rot coming before it spreads.
I cut him a look but don’t bother responding. James has been here since this charter was nothing more than an idea in Cornelius’ head. He was vice president when the old man ran things, the natural choice to take over after his death. But he turned it down. Said he didn’t want the weight of it.
Now, he serves as our Wise Man; the club’s conscience, the one who sees patterns in chaos and steadies us when the road turns. If Knox is the strategist and Nash is the blade, James is the compass.
I used to think I didn’t need a compass. Thought rage was enough. Then I buried Cornelius. Watched my bloodline disappear in the space of one night. And I started listening.
I take another drink, forcing down the memories that try to surface. The blood. The betrayal. How everything unraveled the night Cornelius died and my brother and sister disappeared. Like fate had decided to gut me all in one blow.
James doesn’t push. He never does. Instead, he settles into his usual role; the one everyone goes to when they need advice. The only one prospects don’t have to wait for permission to speak to.
Unlike the rest of us, he actually gives a damn about their feelings.
That used to bother me until I realized most of us wouldn’t have made it past the first year without him.
I take another long pull from my beer, letting the cold bitterness settle as my gaze drifts over the crowd. It lands on Darla.Fuck. Her grin is all teeth, sharp and predatory, and I regret looking her way immediately.Not tonight.
I turn back to James, shutting her out. “You know what Kyle wanted to talk to me about?” My fingers tap against the bar, signaling for another round. Without a word, Kyle takes my empty bottle and replaces it with a fresh one.
James exhales slowly, peeling at the label on his own bottle before finally answering. “Yep.” He reaches inside his cut and pulls out a handful of receipts, laying them in front of me as if he’s losing a bad hand of poker.
I frown, tension threading down the back of my neck. Something’s off. The air’s shifted. I can feel it in my gut. It’s the same feeling I get before a storm breaks loose.
I frown, picking them up and flipping through them. “What am I looking at?” Bar tabs. Stacks of them. None over fifty bucks, but together? It adds up.
