“He’s gonna make the mistake of coming back, and keeping Kimi close is the only way to protect her from him.”
Buck gave a grim smile. “And then? What happens when he comes back?”
Gorgon looked up at the horizon darkening under a heavy sky. “Then we remind him what happens when you cross King's territory carrying sins you can’t pay for.”
“I’ll take first watch,” Buck said.
“No, you go get some sleep. I’m wide awake anyway. I’ll take first watch,” Gorgon insisted. He left out the part about not being able to sleep for more than an hour or two a night for the past week. He told himself that he was just restless, but maybe he knew that she was coming even then.
Buck slapped him on the shoulder. “I’ll be back out at two to relieve you, boss.” He nodded his thanks and watched his second in command disappear into the clubhouse.
Gorgon stood alone beside the garage, looking toward the trees. The air was too still and too quiet. It was the kind of quiet that always meant something was coming. Behind him, the hum of laughter and warmth spilled through the walls. Inside, there was safety. He knew that it was only temporary, but real—for now.
He touched the cigarette behind his ear, but didn’t light it—just kept it there. The storm was circling closer. He felt it in his bones, in the land, in her name still echoing in his mind like smoke caught in winter air. Some names are shields. Someare storms. He pulled his cut tighter across his shoulders and whispered, “Then let the storm come.”
Kimi
It was sometime past two in the morning when Kimi woke, that thin gray hour when night and morning can’t decide who owns the sky.
At first, she didn’t know what had pulled her from sleep. The world was quiet—the kind of quiet that lives deep in the bones of a building. She blinked at the dim light spilling in from the hall, the worn dresser, her jacket hanging over the chair, the faint hum of the radiator.
She rolled over, trying to get comfortable, when she ran into what felt like a brick wall. The solid presence beside her was warm, heavy, and breathing slowly. The jolt of terror that ran through her froze her limbs. She lay in the bed, not sure if she should move or if she even could move. She worried that running from Cole had just been a dream and that she had woken up lying next to him—but that couldn’t be. There was no way that she could have made up Gorgon or his entire club.
She found herself frozen to the spot, listening to the stranger’s frantic breathing rhythm next to her. It didn’t sound like Cole’s jagged breath or snores that kept her up most nights. No, this was steady, deep, and somewhat familiar.
Her heart thudded in her chest as she turned her head, and the dim light caught the edge of him—an arm draped across the blanket, hand loose, palm up. Leather still clung to his scent along with smoke, frost, and something she’d started to associate with safety, which only made her pulse hammer harder. Gorgon.
For a moment, she thought she was dreaming. It would fit, wouldn’t it? Her nightmares were always trying to twist into something she wanted to believe, but then, it would all be snatched away from her before she woke up. But his breath brushed the back of her neck, real and unyielding, and the low rumble in his chest when he exhaled was proof enough to know that he wasn’t a dream. He was asleep. Completely, utterly,deeplyasleep.
She waited for her anger or panic, but what came first was stillness. He looked wrecked. The kind of exhaustion that only came from nights spent standing guard through too many storms. His cut was hung over the end of her bed, and his shirt was clinging to him unevenly, his hair damp at the temples from melted snow. He’d stumbled into her room and dropped wherever gravity let him.
He probably thought he’d made it to his own bed. “Jesus, Gorgon,” she whispered. “You don’t even knock anymore?” He didn’t answer. Just made a low sound, a murmur that brushed her skin.
And though she should have shoved him away, should have cursed and demanded he leave, her body betrayed her. It had been too long since warmth didn’t mean a threat. Too long since she’d felt safe enough to close her eyes beside another breathing soul.
So she didn’t move. Not right away. When she shifted slightly, his hand slipped across the blanket—landing at her waist, gentle even in his unconscious state. Instinct made hertense, but his touch was carefully absentminded like a man anchoring himself in his sleep.
And before she realized it, she’d curled toward him. Her back pressed against the heat of his chest, her knees bending in reflex. Not because she wanted to, but because her body remembered what it was like to be cold. The rest of the night vanished in pieces. Heartbeats, warmth, and the weight of silence settled over them both, and for the first time in a long time, she slept.
The crash of morning came with light cutting through the blinds and the deep stillness of someone else’s breath against her shoulder. Awareness hit her hard as she snapped upright, hair spilling into her face, heart thundering. His arm slid off her waist, and Gorgon stirred, his lashes flicking open in the weak daylight.
For a moment, he looked like a man trying to figure out which world he’d woken in. Then his eyes found hers, and the realization settled between them like a spark dropped on dry ground. Kimi couldn’t decide if she wanted to throw something at him or laugh at how startled he looked.
“Stop looking at me like that,” her voice cracked. “You’re in mybed, Gorgon.”
He blinked, still groggy, expression blank for one long beat. Then his brows knitted. “No, I—this is—” He stopped stammering, frowned as he looked around the room, and cursed under his breath. “Hell.”
She shoved his shoulder, more reflex than intent. “You think?”
He sat up slowly, dragging a hand over his face. “Buck said he’d take the watch. I thought this was my room.” Another curse erupted from his chest. “Guess I walked into the wrong room.”
“You guess?” Kimi snapped.
“I didn’t realize it until—” He looked at the bed, at her disheveled blanket, at where their legs were still tangled under it—and went still.
Her pulse felt as though it had tripled. “Oh, no. Don’t you dare make that face.”
“What face?” he said quietly, but there was the faintest hint of that maddening half-smile that made her want to hit him or kiss him, she couldn’t tell which.
