A dozen motorcycles topped the low hill on the east side of my garage and rumbled from asphalt to gravel, parking in a long line far away from the fire and mayhem.
Seven years. Damn it all to hell. I’d managed to avoid the Iron Vultures for seven long years.
And at the first sign of trouble, it wasn’t sirens and fire engines that came to my rescue but men with hard faces dressed in leather.
Hawk swung off his bike first.
He’d never bothered with a helmet, and his steel-blue eyes snapped to me the instant his boots touched down.
The hard angles of his face, the trimmed beard, and the slightly crooked nose were as familiar as my own face in the mirror.
“Diesel, I want eyes on the surrounding buildings. Colt, get us a perimeter. Anyone else inside?” He held my gaze with zero emotion in his expression.
Colt stood behind Hawk, his hazel eyes going wide when Cody wiggled free from my grasp and landed with a scrape of sneakers on gravel.
I placed a hand on Cody’s head, not meaning to be possessive but making it clear that they needed to keep their distance.
All the boyishness in Colt had faded since the last time I saw him.
Still lean and athletic but hardened in a way that rattled me.
Faint lines fanned out from his mouth, and he ran his hands through his already tousled hair as he stared at Cody.
The newly weathered tan of his skin faded to a sickly shade of gray.
“I didn’t call you.” The urge to scream at them tightened my throat. They did not belong here in this place I’d carved out for myself.
Diesel kept his head turned away, his broad back filling out the club jacket.
He’d never stepped foot in a gym but built his body by hard labor and violence.
I’d seen it firsthand.
Long, steady strides carried Diesel closer.
He continued to stare upward at the roofline, his right thumb rubbing the scars on his knuckles.
He paused at the raven tattooed behind his left thumb, then resumed the motion. “Didn’t have to call.” The quiet gravity in his voice pulled at me, drawing me in with his strength and steady presence.
Cody clung to my leg with both arms, his chin ducked and body shuddering. Waiting.
My heart broke as I realized the truth. Cody saw the jackets, the tattoos, and the hard faces, and he expected violence.
Not his fault.
The one time he’d ever encountered a member of a club, it had been a loud and violent experience that ended with me shoving my step-father through our trailer door when he tried to grab Cody.
I almost told him it was okay, that Hawk and the others were the good guys.
But that would not be true.
They’d been good enough to me, until their bylaws forced me out because I refused to be property.
Colt took a step toward us. Hawk stopped him with a hand against his chest. “Do the job first.”
A grimace twisted Colt’s mouth, but he trotted off to do Hawk’s bidding.
“You need to leave.” I didn’t even try to lift my hand and point. I shook too much for that to be effective, so I settled on keeping my voice steady and forcing down the sheer panic tightening every muscle into a coiled knot. “I didn’t ask for this, and I don’t owe you anything.” I would never owe them if I could help it.
