She patted my hand.“Thank you, honey, but I have zero plans of finding a biker of my own.”
“If you’re sure.”I settled into the bed and laid back.“I think I might take a nap.”
“You just stayed awake for two hours, Star.That’s the longest time you’ve been awake since you got attacked.Rest, honey.”
I tried but my thoughts kept drifting to Cole.
To dark brown eyes.A gruff voice.A chair pulled too close to my bed.
And I wondered, just a little, why it was bugging me that he wasn’t here right now.
That thought lingered as sleep tugged at me again, gentler this time.
And when my eyes closed, I finally rested.
Chapter Four
Cole
The clubhouse smelled like burnt coffee and old wood.
I stepped inside and let the noise wash over me.Low voices.
Maniac glanced up from the table.“You look like hell.”
“Feel fine,” I said, and dropped my helmet on the bar.
Pipe snorted into his coffee.“That’s what guilt looks like.”
I ignored him and poured myself a cup.The coffee was too strong and already cold.I drank it anyway.
Dad stood near the back, with his arms crossed and eyes sharp.He’d been waiting for me.
“She awake?”he asked.
“Yeah,” I said.“More alert than yesterday.”Yesterday, Star had been awake more, and I knew today was going to be more of the same.She was getting better slowly but surely.
That earned a couple nods around the room.No one asked follow-ups.They knew better.
“Back room,” Dad said.“Footage is ready.”
The mood shifted immediately.
We moved down the hall into the office.Too small for the number of men crammed inside it.Wrecker leaned against the wall, arms crossed tight over his chest.Mason stood near the screen with a laptop open, jaw set.
“This is from the Dairy Bar,” Dad said, lifting the remote.“Rear camera.Arlo pulled it.”
“Across town,” Wrecker muttered.“That tracks.”
Dad hit play.
Grainy footage filled the screen.A quiet stretch of road.Dumpster.Flickering streetlight.Nothing special.
“Just wait,” Dad said.
A car passed.Then another.
Wrecker scoffed.“Is their truck in the fucking room with us?”
