She whispered to herself, “You don’t get to own me,” and Gorgon looked up at her window as though he had heard her declaration. She gasped and slipped behind the wall, letting the curtain fall back into place. Kimi hoped that he hadn’t seen her spying on him, but she was sure that he had.
The frost on the window blurred her reflection, and yet part of her still remembered standing outside on that porch when he said you’re mine now. He didn’t sound angry when he said it. In fact, he made it sound like he was going to protect her and keep her safe. Safe—the word tasted bitter on her tongue when she whispered it aloud.
She walked across the room and sat back on the bed, staring at the marks on her wrist. The bruise had turned darker, a sick kind of proof she didn’t want to carry. Cole would say things like, “You made me do it,” or “You shouldn’t have pushed me.” And for a long time, she believed him because believing it meant she still had some control over what happened next. But taking that envelope from him—the one that was now locked in the trunk of her car—had been something else. It had been the first choice she made for herself in months. It was an act of defiance, and it gave her the strength she didn’t know that she had to run. That’s what she did—she ran like hell, and now, she wasn’t sure if she had done the right thing. With Cole, she knew what she was getting, but with Gorgon and his club, she had no idea what she had gotten herself into.
She touched her wrist lightly, her pulse steady beneath it. “You won’t win this time,” she muttered under her breath, but she wasn’t sure if she was talking to Cole, or to the darkness outside, or to herself.
Downstairs, faint music started playing—an old rock song muffled through the walls. Voices rose, laughter spilling in waves. The world seemed to start moving again, but Kimi stayed in her room, pacing like a caged animal. She looked out thewindow again and watched Gorgon stub out his cigarette and stand, rolling his shoulders like a man who carried too much weight but refused to set it down. He turned toward the side of the building, where the shop lights burned through the cold.
She couldn’t hear what he said, but she saw how the others moved around him—efficiently and silently. He gave orders like most men simply breathed. And they listened and followed orders like good little soldiers.
Her grandmother once told her that some men didn’t command others—they only had to whisper. And the land listened, the trees listened, even the crows tilted their heads when those men spoke. She’d laughed at that as a girl, but now, she wasn’t so sure that her grandmother was wrong.
Hours passed, and at some point, fatigue dragged her down. She climbed into bed and dreamed—not the soft kind of dream that heals you but the jagged kind that reminds you of all the things you lost. She dreamt of Cole’s hands causing her pain that she hadn’t expected, and the sound of her own cry caught in her throat. She heard the motel room door slamming when he got mad at her for the littlest things, and how she’d cower in the corner of the room, scared of even her own shadow.
Then, she saw Gorgon’s eyes—dark, steady, and impossible to look away from. He wasn’t threatening her. Instead, he was standing between her and something she couldn’t name.
And when he turned to her, she felt the strange, raw truth of it—he already knew too much about her, and telling him more might just get him and his men killed.
Kimi woke just before dawn. The room was gray and cold again. The sound of a single engine outside cut through the stillness—a low, heavy rumble starting up. She went to the window and saw Gorgon there, pulling his cut over his shoulders, frost clinging to his hair. He swung a leg over his bike and sat there for a moment, looking up toward her window.
They locked eyes through the glass, but he didn’t smile at her. That worked for her because she didn’t smile back at him, either. But something in his gaze said you’re still here, and something in hers answered for now. He looked away, kicking the engine of his bike fully awake, the sound splitting the morning wide open. He rode off toward the tree line, and the snow swallowed him whole in seconds.
Kimi pressed her palm to the cold glass again as she watched him drive away. She knew what would come next. He’d hunt down Cole, and he’d find out what was in the envelope. He’d find out about her, about what she took from him. He’d find out about why men like Cole didn’t just stop going after what they believed belonged to them. He’d figure out that she was more trouble than she was worth, and then, he’d come back to the clubhouse to turn her loose. She’d be on her own again, and with nowhere to go, would probably end up dead somewhere along the highway. Maybe that would be for the best. She had made the choices that had led her into danger. Maybe it was time for her to pay for those bad decisions.
One thing she was sure of was that when Gorgon realized what she had dragged onto his land—she wasn’t sure if he’d still think she was worth saving. Her voice was barely a whisper in the quiet room. “I didn’t mean to bring the storm here,” she breathed, “but I think it found me anyway.”
The radiator in her room hissed again, steady and relentless. Kimi leaned her forehead against the cold window and watched the horizon swallow the dawn as the snow continued to fall. It was as relentless as life had been to her, and she was sure that sooner or later, it would pile up around her, and no amount of shoveling was going to get her out of this storm.
Gorgon
The snow stopped falling before sunrise, but the quiet it left behind was worse. The world seemed to hold its breath after a storm. It was the kind of stillness that made animals stay in their dens and men reach for their guns without thinking about why they were doing it.
Gorgon eased his bike to a stop on the overlook that cut across the tree line toward the highway. The sun hadn’t broken over the horizon yet, and the sky was just a gray wash of light bleeding through the darkness. His breath turned to steam in the air as he scanned the long ribbon of road below. There were no tire tracks, no headlights, and no sign of that asshole who had followed Kimi onto his land.
But he could feel him. Something in Gorgon’s gut told him that he was out there somewhere, circling like a wolf trying to pick up the scent of its prey. Men like Cole never let go of what they believed to be theirs. Pride made them linger and do dangerous, stupid things. Gorgon pulled off his glove long enough to brush the frozen ash from his cigarette tin, tapped one loose, and lit it. The first drag burned harshly in his lungs. It felt like punishment and comfort all in one.
He looked out over the land, and while it usually brought him peace, today, it filled him with dread. That was the thing about Manitoba—nothing out here stayed buried for long, no matter how deep the snow got. He knew that things might look peaceful and even pretty under the newly fallen powder, but underneath it all, something was waiting to rear its ugly head.
He’d sent Buck and Hulk to run patrols along the south fence to the highway. He told Duffer to check the old mill site where kids liked to dump stolen cars. He’d given them routine orders, but he’d seen the unease in their eyes. It was the same unease that he felt in his gut. The woman had rattled them, same as she’d rattled him, and he hated that was happening to his club, but he’d do it all again. There was something in her eyes that made him want to help her—no, need to help her. He didn’t like it any more than his men seemed to, but when his gut screamed at him to pay attention, he fucking did.
Back at the clubhouse, people would already be stirring. Coffee would be brewing, bikes would be firing up, and the smell of Trudi frying bacon would fill the clubhouse. But all Gorgon could think about was her face under those harsh floodlights, the mix of exhaustion and defiance twisting together like barbed wire.
He exhaled smoke through his nose, watching it curl into nothing and dissipate into the cold air. He should’ve turned her away. Hell, that was standard protocol, and no exceptions were usually made. Anyone bringing unknown heat onto Kings of Anarchy soil was a risk. But he hadn’t followed the rules for some reason that he couldn’t quite explain. He’d pulled her inside and watched as she drank his whiskey and slept under his roof. He hadn’t done that for anyone—ever. The question that was playing through his head was—why her?
Maybe it was because she had looked him in the eye and didn’t flinch. Or maybe it was that she had said her name likeshe knew what it meant—even if she didn’t realize that he did too. Kimi. Secret. His grandmother’s voice breathed through his memory again: Some names are shields, boy. And some are storms. He wasn’t sure yet which one she was, but he planned on finding out.
A truck engine echoed faintly from the highway. He tracked the sound until it faded toward the south, then turned his bike back toward the compound. He didn’t like being away from the place for too long—not when trouble knew where to find them now. He knew that sooner or later, trouble would get bored and come looking for Kimi again—he’d put money on it.
The ride back was short but felt longer—the snow crunching under his tires, the cold slicing through the leather coat he wore. The familiar silhouette of the clubhouse crept out from the trees like an old beast waking in the early morning after a big storm, and he couldn’t help but feel proud of what he and his brothers had built on the little piece of land that his grandmother had left him.
When he pulled through the gate, the fence crew waved him in. “All is quiet, Prez,” one of them called.
“Let’s hope it stays that way,” he mumbled under his breath. He parked his bike in front of the clubhouse and killed the engine. Inside, the main room smelled like burnt coffee and bacon, just as he had imagined it would. Buck stood near the wall of maps, studying something with a frown. He didn’t bother to say good morning, just passed Gorgon a mug.
“Nothing on the west camera since last night,” Buck said. “But Trudi said your guest didn’t sleep much. She heard her pacing most of the night.”
Gorgon’s hand tightened around the mug. “Did she eat?”
