I stopped.
His eyes held mine. Calm. Clear. “I’m not drama,” he repeated. “But we have enemies. That part is real. And they’ll use whatever they can to push buttons.”
My throat tightened. “Including my shop.”
“Yes.”
“That’s not fair.”
“No,” he agreed. “It’s not.”
I let out a slow breath, trying to pull my heart rate back down. “So what happens now?”
Asher didn’t hesitate. “Nothing happens to you.”
The way he said it, flat and certain, should’ve sounded like a promise too big to make. Instead, it felt like a fact he’d already accepted as his responsibility.
“Cookie and Blaze are keeping an eye on the shop,” he continued. “They boarded it up last night. We’ll find someone to replace it. They’ll stay around until we figure out what Chrome’s trying to do.”
I blinked. “They stayed all night?”
He nodded once. “Yes.”
My chest tightened again, but this time it wasn’t fear. It was… something else. A strange mix of disbelief and gratitude. I’d spent the last few years of my life handling everything alone because no one else showed up consistently enough to rely on.
And now I had people who did.
Even if they were bikers with patches and nicknames that sounded like they belonged in a cartoon.
I pressed my palm to my face briefly, overwhelmed in a way I couldn’t name.
Asher’s hand slid to my jaw, gentle. “Hey.”
I lowered my hand.
His gaze stayed steady. “Nothing else is going to hurt you.”
I stared at him. “You can’t promise that.”
“I can promise I’ll do everything in my power to make sure it doesn’t,” he corrected.
That was more believable, and somehow, more intimate.
I swallowed hard. “Okay.”
He held me for another beat, then loosened his arms slightly, like he was giving me a choice instead of taking one.
I didn’t move away.
Instead, I rested my cheek against his chest again, listening to the steady beat of his heart.
The quiet was comforting… until my brain circled back again, practical as ever.
“We have to go to the shop,” I said suddenly.
Asher hummed. “We do.”
“I need to see the damage,” I added. “I need to—”
