She looked up at him again, seeming to search for something, but what it was he couldn’t name. “Why does that sound like a threat?”
“Because it is one,” he growled. They stood in silence, the sound of slowly ticking metal filling the space between them.
Finally, Gorgon said, “You’ve got something he wants. Something worth chasing you through the cold for. You gonna tell me what it is?”
Her breath hitched. Her gaze darted away, down to the floor. “Not yet.”
“Then you’d better do it soon,” he said quietly. “A secret’s only worth something if it stays that way.”
He turned back toward the door, but before leaving, he added, “Breakfast’s on the table. You should eat. After that, Trudi will find you some clothes that fit. Until further notice, you don’t leave this property.”
“And if I don’t obey?” she almost whispered.
He paused in the doorway, his profile cut against the light. “Then you’ll learn that no one ever really leaves this place until it lets them go. And that usually happens when I say so.” Outside, the sun finally crept up over the trees, pale and cold. Gorgon lit another cigarette and watched the smoke drift into the bright air. He could feel a change in the wind—the kind that didn’t ask permission to do so.
Kimi had brought something dangerous to his doorstep, that much he knew. But she’d also brought something else. Something that made the silence in his head a little less empty. He hated that most of all. Because storms he could handle. Secrets, though—secrets were another story altogether.
Kimi
Breakfast was loud. Hell, the whole clubhouse seemed to be loud all the time. Every scrape of fork against a plate, every laugh that broke out across the room, and every chair dragged across the scuffed wood floors felt amplified—like the whole place was testing her patience or her nerves, she wasn’t sure which.
Kimi sat at the end of the long table with a plate she hadn’t touched. Bacon, eggs, and toast. It looked good and smelled better. Her stomach, though, was a clenched fist. Across from her, a lanky man with tattoos crawling up his neck grinned over his coffee. “You always this quiet, sweetheart, or just figuring out if we’re going to eat you up?”
Trudi smacked him lightly on the shoulder with a dish towel. “Knock it off, Duffer. Not everyone wakes up wanting to listen to your voice.”
Duffer grinned wider, unbothered. “Just being social.”
“Try being silent,” Trudi scolded. Kimi couldn’t help the tiny smile that tugged at her lips. It was strange the way these people insulted each other with affection, laughter cutting through the heaviness like knives scraping against bone but never drawing blood. It was chaos, but it lived by a code.
She could see it in the way the men deferred to Gorgon for answers. The way even now, as he sat at the far end of the table, saying nothing, the room sort of gravitated around his quiet. He didn’t need to look at anyone to keep them in line. His presence alone did that. And she hated that she noticed how steady it made her feel.
After breakfast, Trudi shoved a pile of clothes into Kimi’s arms. “They’ll be big,” she said, “but warm. Better than that jacket you came in wearing.”
Kimi looked down at the bundle—black jeans, a flannel shirt, a thick Henley that smelled like motor oil and cedar smoke. “Who did you rob for these?”
Trudi smirked. “Don’t worry. They’re clean. Sort of.”
Kimi changed in the small washroom tucked behind the bar. She stared at herself in the cracked mirror. The clothes swallowed her up a little and made her look like a kid playing dress-up in someone else’s clothes. Maybe that was fitting.
She splashed cold water on her face, trying to wash away the exhaustion that clung to her. New clothes didn’t change the fact that she had no plan—only a secret sitting in the envelope hidden under the spare tire in her trunk. It was the envelope Cole had killed for once already.
When she came out of the bathroom, Gorgon was by the window, his arms folded, looking out toward the snow as if the horizon might confess something to him. He didn’t turn around when he spoke to her. “Clothes fit?”
“Good enough,” she said.
“Did you eat?” he asked.
“A bit,” she lied. She hadn’t taken a single bite of the delicious-looking breakfast that Trudi had made for her.
“Means no,” he said without missing a beat. Then he turned his head slightly. “Trudi, get her something to take outside.”
“Outside?” Kimi repeated.
He looked at her now, properly. “You’ve been cooped up long enough. Walk with me.”
She hesitated. “Last time you said that, I ended up with rules and threats.”
His mouth quirked just slightly as though he was just learning how to smile. “Then this time I’ll add coffee.” Trudi handed her a brown bag and a cup of coffee in a travel mug.
