They’re getting one.
I sneak into the back door just as Looney, Nitro, Chux, and Stunt step out into the common area, all of them wearing the same tight expressions.
Chux folds his arms.“You ready?”
“No,” I say honestly.“Show me anyway.”
Looney hands me a sealed evidence bag.
Inside is a scrap of cardboard, torn, waterlogged, mud-streaked, but the writing on it is unmistakable.
A thick black X slashed over a crudely drawn raven.The numbers etched on the bottom corner are known to me.My old unit when I was in the military.
My chest flames.
“The raven,” I growl.“Bratok’s mark.And my unit number.”
Nitro nods grimly.“Pinned to what was left of the truck’s grill.Hidden under brush.Someone wanted it found eventually.”
My jaw flexes until it aches.
“This ain’t Bratok,” Stunt says quietly, stepping forward.“He’s dead.”
“Yeah,” I snap.“But someone sure as hell wants to finish what he started.”
Chux looks at me, eyes sharp.“This wasn’t about Kelly.”
My blood goes ice cold.
“What?”I bark.
“It was about you,” Chux says, voice low and heavy.“They hit her truck because she’s tied to you.Because she’s familiar.Because they saw you with her.”
A slow, suffocating sickness spreads through my stomach.
“She was targeted,” Nitro confirms.“Because you were near.Because you matter to the club.Because you matter to them.”
“She didn’t do anything,” I snarl.
“They don’t care,” Chux fires back.“This isn’t about her.It’s about who she belongs to.”
“She doesn’t belong,” I choke on the words.She isn’t mine.Even when I wanted her to be.Not now.Not anymore.Not yet.
Chux lifts his chin.“They thought she was.”
Silence slams down.
The wind howls through the trees as if the whole world is bracing for what comes next.
I breathe hard, fists clenching, nails biting into my palms.
“They hurt her to get to me,” I say quietly.
Chux nods.“Yeah.”
“They made her forget,” I add, voice breaking.“They took her from me twice.”
“No,” Stunt says suddenly, his voice surprisingly gentle.“They tried.They didn’t succeed.”
