Wrecker shrugged.“We keep looking for the friends, and I reach out to Northbound.Could be a chance that dumbass was talking out of his ass.”
“And what if he was telling the truth?”I asked.
Wrecker tucked the handkerchief back into his pocket.“We handle it.”
We mounted up not long after.
I rode back to the clubhouse with a cigarette between my fingers and my mind on one thing.
Star.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Cole
The clubhouse was loud when I walked in.
Not rowdy.Not celebratory.Just… alive.Voices overlapping.A TV going somewhere.Chairs scraping.Life continuing like nothing monumental had just happened.
And then I saw her.
Star stood near the center of the room, arms folded loosely, eyes lifting the second I stepped inside like she felt me before she saw me.Everything else blurred out.The noise.The people.The walls.
There was only her.
I crossed the room in long strides, caught her hand, and turned without a word, pulling her toward the hallway.
“Cole—” she started.
I didn’t slow down.
“Hey.”Mac’s voice cut in sharp but controlled.
I stopped and turned back toward her, Star still holding onto my hand like she was afraid if she let go I’d disappear again.
“Are you okay?”Mac asked.
I nodded once.“Yeah.”
Her eyes searched my face, then flicked to Star, then back to me.“Is…?”
I glanced at the camera in the corner, its red light steady and unblinking.“Everything is fine,” I said evenly.
That was all I was giving her with cameras on.
Mac held my gaze for a long beat.Then she nodded.She understood more than she let on.“Okay,” she said quietly.
I didn’t waste another second.
I turned and pulled Star down the hallway, past closed doors and familiar walls, until we reached my room.I shut the door behind us and locked it.
The second it clicked shut, Star launched herself at me.
I caught her automatically, lifting her off the floor as she wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her face into my shoulder.
“I was so worried,” she whispered.
“I’m good, babe,” I promised, my voice low as I held her tight.
