“She’s not going to like that,” Trudi called back.
“I don’t give a fuck what she likes. Just do as I fucking order and keep her in there until I can figure out what the hell is going on,” he shouted into his walkie. He sounded like a first-class ass, but he didn’t give a shit.
He didn’t wave at her. He didn’t even slow down—he couldn’t. But in that split second before he stepped off the porch, he caught himself thinking one thing that he shouldn’t—she had changed something in him. And when he looked back at her again, if he looked back at all—it wouldn’t be as the man she’d met that night in the snow when she first arrived at the clubhouse. It would be the one he’d spent years trying to bury, because he’d protect her at all costs. He was the gorgon who turned men to stone.
Kimi
The sound of engines woke her. It wasn’t the soft rumble of bikes warming up, but the kind of deep, shaking roar that meant every man in the yard had mobilized for something serious. She worried that it was something that had to do with her, and the thought of any of them getting hurt scared the hell out of her. She needed to get to Gorgon and tell him everything that she hadn’t yet told him because if he was riding out to meet Cole, it might not end well for him or her guys, and that gutted her.
Kimi sat up fast, her heartbeat spiking before her mind could catch up with the rest of her. The bed was cold beside her, and she assumed that Gorgon had been gone for some time. For a moment, she thought maybe she’d just dreamed of him, dreamed of the quiet after the storm, dreamed of the steadiness of his breath beside hers. But his scent clung to the sheets and to her skin. The scent of him—smoke, leather, frost, still filled her room and her senses.
She swung her legs off the bed and crossed to the window. The morning was white and endless, snow shaking from the trees when the wind passed through them. But the yard wasn’t still. She saw men grabbing rifles, pulling on gloves, slammingtruck doors as they jumped in. A few of them even were on snowmobiles.
She knew that she wasn’t wrong about trouble finding them because she saw it in the distance. A black SUV sat beyond the fence line, with its engine idling. It was Cole—she just knew it. He was using the newly fallen snow to come for her, hoping that Gorgon and his guys wouldn’t be able to move fast enough, but he was wrong. Judging from the fury in the yard below, they were well equipped to handle him.
She didn’t need anyone to tell her what was going on. The fear hit low and sharp in her gut, like it never really left, almost as if it was just waiting for her to let her guard down. And she had done just that with Gorgon. She gripped the windowsill until her knuckles ached, breathing too fast as she watched the men scurrying around the yard.
When her eyes landed on Gorgon, she froze. He moved like the storm itself—voice raised as he shouted orders, calm and deliberate. His men scattered to their positions around him, taking cues in silence. The wind tugged at his cut, the white skull on the back ghosted by the blowing snow.
He didn’t look scared. He didn’t even look angry. He was just—focused, and that was what made her throat close. Because she remembered that look all too well. It was the one Cole used to wear right before he was going to hurt someone. Most of the time, it was her that he was planning on hurting. But with Gorgon, there was no heat or ego in it. Just absolute, steel-cold certainty. He was about to do something irreversible, and she couldn’t let him do it. Stopping him might be like trying to stop a speeding train, but she had to try before he did something that he’d regret.
She shoved her coat on and ran barefoot down the hallway. Trudi’s voice echoed from the main room. It was half curse andhalf warning—but Kimi didn’t stop. She slammed through the front doors, the cold hitting like a fist, as Trudi ran after her.
“You need to stay here,” she shouted at Kimi. She didn’t bother to turn around or obey Trudi’s orders. She needed to get to Gorgon.
“Gorgon!” she shouted from the porch. His head snapped toward her, his eyes cutting through wind and distance like they’d known she’d come.
“I couldn’t stop her,” Trudi shouted to him in way of explanation.
“Kimi, get back inside,” he called, calm and commanding.
“Like hell I will,” she shot back, chest heaving. “You said you’d keep me alive. That doesn’t mean starting a war over me.”
His jaw flexed as he motioned to one of the men to hold position. He walked back across the yard, and she almost wanted to change her mind and run back into the clubhouse. With every step that he took towards her, the angrier he seemed to get. He stomped up onto the porch and towered over her. “You think this isn’t war already?” he growled. The SUV’s engine revved, snarling defiance into the quiet. For a moment, nothing moved. Then the driver’s door cracked open, and Cole stepped out.
The same dark smugness was behind his eyes, and he wore the same self-satisfied cruelty behind the smirk—like the kind that built its power on people who learned to cower in his presence. A bruise still marked his throat from the last time they’d met, when Gorgon’s voice alone had turned him away.
He looked up at her, recognition twisting his mouth. “Guess I didn’t lose you after all. You’ve been right here waiting for me, haven’t you, baby?”
Before she could speak again, Gorgon’s voice rumbled low beside her. “Careful how you talk while you’re breathing my air,” he growled at Cole from across the yard.
Cole chuckled, stepping forward a little as though pressing his luck. His hands were visible, which was deliberate, but his movement was coiled and snake-like. He was trying to look patient, but she could tell it was just an act. “Relax, Prez. I just want a chat.” The men shifted around them as their rifles were raised and pointed directly at Cole.
Gorgon didn’t even blink. “You trespassed again. That was your first mistake.”
Cole’s grin widened. “And the second?”
“Thinking you would ever leave here standing on your own,” Gorgon growled. The wind cut between them, feral and still. Kimi’s pulse thudded so loud she could barely hear anything but her own thoughts.
Cole’s eyes found her again. “You really hiding behind these guys now? You think you can outrun me after what you took?”
She swallowed, forcing her voice to work. “No, this ends now because I’m ending it. I’m ending you, Cole.”
That seemed to surprise him just enough that his mask slipped a fraction of an inch out of place. “You think that you can end me? Don’t make me laugh, sweetheart. You don’t even know what you stole.”
“I know enough,” she said. To keep him from noticing that her hands were shaking, she shoved them into her pockets. “And so does he.” She nodded to Gorgon, hoping that he wouldn’t give away that she was lying.
Gorgon stepped forward a pace, just enough that the light from the garage caught his eyes. “You came here last time thinking you had the power. Turns out you were just lucky that I was in a good mood and let you go. You might not be that lucky this time.”
