I glance down and recognize the cover immediately.
My eyebrows lift. “You marked it.” There’s a million stickies sticking out of the side.
Charli grins, wicked and unapologetic. “Red stickies are the spicy scenes. Blue ones are the emotional damage that makes you want to put your head back and warrior cry for your fellow female. You’re welcome.”
I snort. “Good to know. I’ll skip the blue ones.”
A familiar arm slides around my waist from behind, and fills me with a welcomed heat and home all at once.
“Liar,” Cipher murmurs into my ear. “You love the blue ones. I’ve seen you cry over a book three times this week alone.”
I lean back into him, breathing him in. Leather. Coffee. Snow. Something uniquely him that I’ll never have words for. “I love when you read them out loud like you’re not emotionally wrecked and raging mad for your fellow heroines.”
He huffs a laugh when I snort my denial and then presses a kiss into my hair. He passes me a cup of coffee and a small plate with a slice of cake that looks dangerously good. “Fuel. You’ve been running on adrenaline and stubbornness for far too long. Besides, when this group gets going, you’re gonna need the extra energy to keep up.”
I watch him walk across the room to speak with his brothers. I see the way he listens now instead of standing apart from them when he was only a prospect. As if he feels my eyes on him, he turns and sends me a heated gaze full of possessive need.
He exchanges soft smiles and a few head nods with the men he’s bled with. They are his family as much as I am. Knowing neither of us are alone in the world is a comfort I didn't know I needed until now. We’ve both come a long way. The biggest lesson being you don’t have to sacrifice happiness to be your true self.
I didn’t know love could look like this.
Cipher holds a hand out in my direction, and I join him. He leans closer, voice low and private. “Third red sticky. I wanna try that one tonight.”
I flip the book open, find the marker, and glance up at him through my lashes. “Only if you’re the one in handcuffs this time.”
His green eyes darken instantly. “Deal.”
Heat coils low in my belly, familiar and welcome and safe.
Later, after we’ve shared cake and spent more than an hour discussing the latest book club pick, Cipher pulls me aside. Tucked into the back room of the bookstore where the noise is a low hum, Cipher pulls out his tablet and shows me lines of information scrolling across the screen.
“I’ve got programs running in the background,” he says quietly. “Anything that matches or even closely resembles her signal gets flagged. It won’t be long before we find the chemist. We’ve plugged in all the numbers off Grudge’s cell phone. Someone somewhere will mess up and use the wrong cell phone that will tell us their location. We’re looking for anything that isn’t their usual location.”
I nod, hope tightening my throat.
“And the antidote? Have you been able to do anything with it?”
“Reaper has the antidote formula with his contacts.”
I nod. “And my bosses are looping in our science teams. It’s slow, but it’s moving.”
Cipher taps Beast on the shoulder as we step out of the backroom and he passes us in the hallway. “Hey, brother. Keep us posted if anything pops up, will ya? We’re gonna take off to my place.”
Beast nods once, serious. “Always.”
When we step out into the cold, snow is falling harder now, thick and quiet, blanketing the alley in white. Cipher pulls me close, his coat warm around my shoulders, his heartbeat steady beneath my cheek.
“I didn’t know you had this many connections,” I murmur.
He smiles, soft and proud. “We’re more than gearheads and beer-guzzling bikers.”
I glance at him. “Huh. Ya know, speaking of I haven’t seen you on your bike.”
“Not safe in the snow.”
“Touché.”
I grin, tugging his hand. “But I do know whatissafe to ride in a freak New Orleans snowstorm.”
