Forty years old, and I still don’t know how to bury the one woman who can undo me.
A knock hits the door.“Enter.”
Steel steps in like he owns the place, which he does, in his own way.Shaved head.Scar pulling at his jaw.Eyes flat and ready.
“She’s settled, mostly,” he says.“Mama M’s got her cornered.”
That makes something in my chest loosen.Just a fraction.“Good.”
“She didn’t ask questions,” he adds.“Didn’t look scared.”
I huff a short, humorless breath.“She never is.She knows the score around here.”
Steel studies me carefully.“You want her watched?”
“Yes.”
“Protected?”
I hesitate.Just a beat.“Yes,” I say again.“But she doesn’t need to know it.”
Steel nods.“I’ll rotate men.Mix of patches and prospects.She’ll feel it otherwise.”
“Anyone from the Broken Vultures sniffing around?”
“Not yet,” he says.“But they’re closing in.”
“Yet,” I repeat.
Steel shifts.“There’s chatter on the south side.Spanish speakers asking about a woman matching her description.”
My blood goes cold.“When?”
“Last week.”That means she didn’t come here for comfort.She came here because she ran out of places to run.
I nod once.“Double the perimeter.Lock down the books.Anyone doing anything they shouldn’t gets handled.”
Steel’s mouth curves just barely.“With pleasure.”
As he turns to leave, I stop him.“Steel.”He looks back.“If anyone touches her...”
“I’ve got this,” he says.“They won’t.”
The door shuts behind him.I sit down harder than necessary and scrub a hand over my face as memories flood me.
Raven, years ago.Younger.Meaner in different ways.Laughing in my kitchen like she wasn’t afraid of the monster under my skin.She never flinched, not when I came home bloody, not when the club whispered my name like a curse.She flinched when she realized loving me would kill her.That was the night she ran.
Movement in the hallway pulls me back to the present.I step out of my office just in time to see Raven leaning against the bar, coffee in hand, Mama M scolding her about something.Raven listens, actually listens, head tilted and eyes soft.
She smiles.It’s small and sharp and real.And it fucking wrecks me.She always knew how to belong somewhere without putting in too much effort.
She’s thinner.Harder.There’s a bruise under her jaw I didn’t see earlier, it’s old, but not old enough.
My hands itch.
I stalk over before I can stop myself.“You hurt?”I tilt her chin up so I can better assess the damage.
She arches a brow, pulling her chin out of my grasp.“You opening a free clinic now, Savage?”
