For half a second, his face changes. Pain cracks through his anger. I wish I didn’t see it because it makes me want to forgive him on the spot. But I’ve taken enough hits tonight.
I step back before anyone sees me fall apart. “I’m going inside. Not because you told me to. Because I refuse to stand out here and breathe air full of bullshit.”
I turn away, walk up those porch steps without a hint of hesitation, and close the door behind me before the tears slip free. My heart is racing and my hands hurt from clenching them so tight.
TWENTY-FIVE
BLADE
I watch her walk away.The door shuts in my face like I earned it. And I did. I fucking did.
Every brother around me is dead silent. They don’t have to say it. I feel the judgment like a spotlight. Riot looks like he wants to hand me a shovel so I can keep digging my own grave. Rev looks like he’d drag me inside and make me apologize if he wasn’t respecting the chain of command. Mason is giving me that steady stare that says fix it or I’ll fix you. And me? I’m just standing here like a jackass who shot his own foot.
I drag a hand over my face. “Fuck. I went too far.”
Riot claps me on the shoulder. “No argument here, brother.”
I shoot him a look that would usually shut him up. Today he just raises both brows like I deserve the attitude. He’s not wrong. I take a second to breathe. Not that it helps. My pulse is still climbing the walls. I can’t get the image out of my head: Bri shaking, scared, holding herself together by sheer stubborn force. And I made it worse. I damn near shoved her fear right into her throat.
I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. She looked at me like I’m the danger. And hell if that doesn’t cut deep. I want nothing more than to go inside, wrap my hands around her waist, and keep her right there where the world can’t touch her. Pull her into me until she stops shaking. Tell her she is everything and that I am terrified of losing her. But wanting her won’t save her. And every time I think I have a grip on this shit, fear knocks it right out of my hands again.
I glare down the street where that SUV disappeared. “They are coming at her because of me,” I say, voice low. “They are testing me. They think she’s my weakness.”
“She is not weak,” Rev cuts in. Hard. Defending her without hesitation.
“I know,” I snap back, too fast, too sharp. “I know she is strong. But this life doesn’t give a shit about being strong. It takes whatever breaks you most and aims for that.”
Ghost leans against his bike. “So talk to her like she is a partner instead of a liability.”
I ignore him. I look at the door she just walked through. My throat tightens. “If those bastards try again, if anything happens to her…” I shake my head. “I’d burn down this whole town.”
Riot whistles low. “Then maybe start by not lighting your own house on fire.”
Everyone keeps offering advice like that. Reasonable. Smart. Balanced. Things I should do. But my heart is wired like a damn landmine. It hears danger and it explodes. “I need to find who did this,” I say. That is the only thing I trust myself to handle. “I need to get ahead of it before they try something worse.”
Mason steps toward me, voice low so only we hear. “You think protecting her means shutting her out. It doesn’t. That makes you unpredictable. And unpredictable gets people killed.”
I hate that he’s right. I hate that every time someone points out the problem, the culprit looks a whole lot like me.
“You want the truth?” Mason asks.
I nod once. Gritting my teeth.
“Your love won’t hurt her,” he says. “Your silence will. Your fear will.”
I look toward the house again. The curtains shift like someone inside is watching. Brooke probably. Maybe Bri. Maybe both. And God help me, the idea that she sees me as a monster makes me sick.
Riot kicks dirt at his boots. “You gonna fix it? Or just stand there and look scary?”
I want to fix it. I do. But right now, I am too wired. Too angry. Too scared. I step back from the porch like getting closer might make me say shit that can’t be undone.
“I don’t know how to do this,” I admit, and the words taste like humiliation on my tongue. Rev doesn’t blink before firing back, “You start by shutting up, then you listen,” like it’s the simplest thing in the world, even though it feels damn near impossible right now. I glance toward the house again and catch a glimpse of her moving past the window, and the tightness in my chest damn near steals my breath. All I want is to go to her, to hold her, to swaddle her in my arms and shield her from every threat waiting in the dark, but the harsh truth sits like lead in my gut: pulling her close might be the very thing that gets her killed.
Riot keeps muttering his commentary under his breath, half smartass, half concerned, while Rev just stares at me like he’s trying to decide whether to break my nose or shove me through the damn door himself. Mason stands there silent as a loaded gun, steady and unyielding, saying fix it without having to say a word. I know what I’m supposed to do, bark orders, track the SUV, get the brothers moving.
But instead I’m standing here like an idiot, staring at that front door like it’s a line I’m not sure I’m allowed to cross anymore. What if she doesn’t want me to? What if I already screwed this up so bad there’s no coming back?
“What are you waiting for?” Rev finally asks, low and sharp, not really a question but a shove in verbal form.
