When I pull into the school parking lot, Allison's already waiting, and the smile on her face when she sees me makes everything else fade away. She climbs into the truck, leans over to kiss me, and asks about my day like we're just a normal couple living a normal life.
And for right now, in this moment, we are.
The rest of it—the lies, the choices, the future—can wait.
Right now, I just want to take my woman home and pretend like the world isn't about to demand answers I'm not sure I'm ready to give.
Twenty
Lee
When Dime and Devil go back into the office, leaving Keegan and I to wait for Ransom, I take a minute to talk to him. It's not something I typically do because I'm afraid I'll blow my cover. But it's been a while since I've been able to talk to Keegan with no one around, and what can I say? I miss it.
I glance back, making sure that they aren't looking at us.
"How's school going?" I ask Keegan.
"It's going. Just trying to keep it all together, ya know? Football, working, school, and Mia."
"Mia huh?" I grin over at him. "Heard about that."
"I'm sure you did." He rolls his eyes. "How are things going with you?"
"Can't complain." I shove my hands into the pockets of my jeans and rock back on my heels.
He looks at the office, takes a deep breath, and then pushes forward with what he wants to say. "You think they know we're related?"
"I think they have no fucking idea," I admit, hoping that I'm telling the truth. "Not many know that my grandfather and your grandmother are brother and sister. Probably helped that my grandpa moved to Calvert City before I was born, and my parents followed."
Keegan nods. "Either way, keep safe. You're a lot deeper into this than I am."
Ransom pulls up at that moment and gives me a chin hitch as Keegan hops into the passenger seat.
After I lean in and let the guys know that Keegan is gone and I'm leaving, I head out to my bike and head on home.
The ride to my apartment doesn't take long. It's a small place on the edge of town, nothing fancy, but it serves its purpose. When you're working as a prospect for a motorcycle club while also being deep undercover for the DEA, you don't need much. Just a place to sleep, a place to change clothes, and a place to remember who you really are.
I park my bike in the lot and head upstairs, unlocking the door to my one-bedroom apartment. The place is sparse. A couch, a TV, a bed, a small kitchen table. There are no pictures on the walls, no personal touches that might give away too much about my real life. Because Lee Hankerson, prospect for Saint's Outlaws MC, doesn't have much of a past. He's just a kid trying to earn his patch.
But Lee Brooks Strather, DEA agent? That's a different story.
I strip out of my work clothes and hop in the shower, letting the hot water wash away the grease and grime from the garage. As I stand there, I think about the conversation I had with Keegan. We've been careful, so careful, about not letting anyone know we're related. Second cousins isn't a close relationship, but it's close enough that if the wrong people found out, it could blow both our covers.
Keegan's working for his dad, feeding information back to Chief Harrison about what's happening at the garage. He doesn't know the full extent of the operation, doesn't know about Devil and Dime being undercover, doesn't know that his second cousin is DEA, just that I'm in law enforcement.
And that's exactly how it needs to stay.
I get out of the shower and dry off, then pull on a pair of jeans and a button-down shirt. The Charger is waiting for me in the parking garage beneath the building, tucked away where none of the club members will see it. It's a beautiful machine, a black 2020 Dodge Charger that I bought with my own money back when I thought I was going to have a normal life.
That was before the DEA recruited me straight out of college. Before I spent two years training to go deep undercover. Before I became Lee, the prospect who would do anything to earn his patch.
The drive to Calvert City takes about forty-five minutes. It's a quiet drive, giving me time to decompress, to shift from being Lee the prospect to being Lee, the grandson. My grandfather's house is on a tree-lined street in a nice neighborhood, the kind of place where people wave to their neighbors and kids play in the front yards.
It's so different from the world I've been living in for the past six months that it almost feels surreal.
I pull into the driveway and kill the engine. The porch light is on, and I can see movement through the front window. Grandpa's expecting me.
I knock twice and then let myself in. "Grandpa?"
