My jaw tightens and I set the bottle down. There’s no fucking way I’m sitting here pretending I don’t see her.And there’s definitely no way I’m letting anyone else think they get a shot.
I don’t move right away. I watch as she leans an elbow on the bar, body angled toward her friend, laughing like she doesn’t have a care in the world. Like she didn’t spend the last two days living in my head. The wig is good. I’ll give her that. Dark, blunt cut brushing her shoulders. Different makeup, heavier around the eyes. She looks… dangerous. And she knows it.
The guy beside her clocks her instantly. Says something in her ear. Too close. My jaw tightens, heat sparking low and sharp in my gut.
Diesel follows my line of sight and lets out a low whistle. “Damn.”
Ghost glances over, then back at me. His brows knit together. “You alright?”
“No,” I say flatly.
Riot squints. “You know her?”
I don’t answer. I’m already on my feet. I don’t rush. I don’t shove. I cut through the crowd with the kind of calm that makes people move without realizing why. By the time I reach the bar,the guy is still talking, smiling like he’s winning. Savannah’s friend notices me first. Her eyes flick up, widen just a fraction.
Savannah turns. The second our eyes meet, everything stills. Recognition hits her like a punch. I see it in the way her breath catches. The way her mouth parts just slightly before she schools her expression back into something neutral. Innocent. Too innocent. My Firecracker.
I stop right behind the guy at her side and rest my forearm on the bar, crowding his space without touching him. “She’s taken,” I say.
The guy turns, takes one look at me, and immediately rethinks his life choices. “I was just, ”
“Yeah,” I cut in. “I know.”
He backs off fast, hands up, already scanning for a new target.
Savannah stares at me like she can’t decide whether to bolt or laugh. “You following me now?” she asks, voice light but eyes sharp.
I lean in just enough that only she can hear me. “You show up in my club in a wig, and I’m the one with explaining to do?”
Her lips twitch. “It was her idea.”
I glance at her friend, who lifts her hands in surrender. “I said it was a bad idea.”
Savannah rolls her eyes. “You absolutely did not.”
I straighten, eyes dropping briefly to take her in properly. The skirt. The boots. The way she’s standing like she knows exactly what she’s doing to me. “Texting me all day like you’re busy,” I say quietly. “This is busy?”
She shrugs, unapologetically. “I told you I was fine.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“Are you mad that I came?”
I grip her chin and tilt her face up until she has no choice but to look at me. “Hell no, I’m not mad you came. I was just surprised when you walked in.” My thumb brushes along her jaw. “Even more surprised you were in disguise.”
She bites the inside of her cheek, that tell she does when she’s trying not to smile. “Lena suggested I check you out in your natural habitat,” she says. “She made a pretty convincing argument. I couldn’t say no.”
I huff a quiet laugh. “And?” I ask. “Did I pass the test?”
She shakes her head, smiling to herself like she knows something I don’t. “This wasn’t a test, Lucky.”
I study her face, the way she’s still smiling like she didn’t just knock something loose in my chest.
“Then what was it?” I ask.
She shrugs, small and unbothered, but her hands stay on me. One at my chest, fingers spread like she’s anchoring herself. The other hooks casually at my belt loop. “Curiosity,” she says. “Context.”
I bark a quiet laugh. “Context.”
