Kimi looked away. “That quiet never lasts.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Trudi said softly. “But sometimes it lasts long enough to remember who you are before the crazy starts again.” The two women stood in that fragile understanding for a moment—one a veteran of life and the other just trying to survive it.
Kimi finally asked, “How long have you known him?”
“Gorgon?” Trudi’s mouth curved like she was chewing on the right words to give her. “Long enough to know he was broken before he learned how to wear it like armor. Long enough to know that when he lets someone close, it costs him something.”
Kimi took another sip of coffee. “You’re warning me to stay away from him, but it won’t work.”
“I’m reminding you,” Trudi said. “Don’t confuse protection with devotion. He’ll burn down the world to keep someone alive—but he won’t promise he’ll still be standing when it’s over.” That was exactly what she was afraid of. Gorgon was hellbent on protecting her, but at what cost? She couldn’t allow him to risk his men or himself.
“Well, I'd better get back to the kitchen. Dinner isn’t going to make itself,” Trudi said. She left the room, leaving Kimi with her tray of food and silence. She didn’t know if Trudi intended to bring up her biggest fear, but she had. She couldn’t take back what had already happened between them—and she didn’t want to. She meant it when she said that she was his. The question now was, how she walked the tightrope between her freedom from Cole and keeping Gorgon and his men alive.
When Kimi finally stepped outside, the air bit at her cheeks. The sky was heavy with clouds—gray, endless, and threateningto snow again. She spotted Gorgon near the shop, crouched by a half-dismantled Harley. The smell of gas and cold metal hung around him. His leather cut lay draped across the bike seat, and his hands were stained dark with oil.
He looked up when she came closer—just one glance. It was a simple acknowledgment that rewired the air between them. “Thought you’d never come out from hiding in there,” he said.
“I wasn’t hiding,” she lied. “I was napping.” Both were true, not that she’d tell him that.
“Sure,” he grumbled, smirking up at her.
She glanced at the bike. “You fix things when you can’t fix people?”
His mouth ticked. “Engines don’t argue with me.”
Kimi knelt beside him before she knew why. “You need help?” He handed her a rag without looking at her, and she was sure that was his version of thank you. The quiet settled between them again. Normal people didn’t realize silence could feel like a brick wall, but she did. You could knock yourself out, beating against it, if you weren’t careful.
“Trudi told me about the SUV. About the tracks that head south, then east.” Kimi had stopped in the kitchen, on her way out to find Gorgon, to tell her about the latest news on Cole. She wasn’t sure if Trudi was trying to scare her off or warn her.
Gorgon wiped his hands clean, keeping his voice even. “Cole’s regrouping. He’s either gonna come back angry or smart. Either way, he won’t stop here. That kind of ego keeps going until something stops it for good.”
Kimi exhaled. “You mean you are going to stop him for good?” she said. He didn’t answer, but she still knew the truth. The small clatter of his wrench against the ground filled the space between them. “You aren’t afraid of him,” she said quietly.
“I’m not afraid of any man who thinks ownership means power.” Men like Cole are all bark and no bite. But he’s smart, and the first time I forget that, I will end up getting us all killed.
“Then what are you afraid of?” she asked.
He met her eyes, still as snow about to fall. “Losing what I can’t replace.” The answer hit her harder than she expected it to.
Her pulse stuttered. “You think I’m something you have to replace?”
He straightened slowly, towering over her now, the light catching the faint scar that cut through the stubble on his jaw. “No. I think you’re something I can’t replace any easier than I can explain.” That should’ve made her angry, but instead it made something deep inside her crack open.
She whispered, “You’re impossible.”
His voice dropped. “And you keep standing here talking to me.”
“Maybe I’m impossible too,” she admitted
He barked out his laugh. “You are,” he said. “That’s half the reason I can’t seem to leave you be.” The world narrowed to that sentence. To her heartbeat thudding against the cold air. When he stepped closer, she didn’t back away—not even when the leather of his jacket brushed her arm, or when the scent of smoke wrapped around her like a memory she didn’t mean to keep. They stood there, neither daring to touch the other, both wired with something that felt like the brink of violence and desire all at once.
Kimi broke first. “Trudi said you’d burn down the world to protect someone.”
Gorgon’s eyes didn’t leave hers. “Only if that person deserved saving.”
“And do I?” she asked, breath unsteady.
He hesitated, then reached up to brush his thumb against her lower lip, a featherlight stroke that should’ve been nothingbut felt like confession. “I’ll tell you when I figure that out.” Her breath caught. She could feel the storm rolling back in—the snow, the threat, the ache—and somehow, for the first time, she wasn’t afraid.
