My only hope was that Levi would know what to do since he understood the situation better than I did. Maybe he’d come up with a way to keep Sutton alive without letting her destroy anyone else.
My mind was still spinning when I parked and headed inside, going straight to Levi.
He was in his usual bay, working on a custom bike build. But when he saw my face, he straightened and wiped his hands on a rag. “Saylor? What’s wrong?”
“Can we talk somewhere private?” I asked.
“Of course.” He led me to an office, closed the door behind us, and leaned against the desk, giving me his full attention.
I told him everything without softening a single detail to try to make my twin look better.
His jaw clenched tight, fury rolling off him in waves. “Fucking hell.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“Not mad at you, baby.” He moved closer and pulled me into his arms. “I’m pissed because she tried to drag you deeper into her mess.”
I felt the tension in his body and knew he was doing his best to stay calm for me. “Meanwhile, I’m upset that she actually thinks I’d betray you.”
“You clearly got all the brains and beauty because anyone who’s spent five minutes with you would know how loyal you are.” His arms tightened around me. “We’ll figure it out. Keep you safe and find a way outta this so Sutton doesn’t get herself killed. She doesn’t deserve our help, but you do. And I’ve spenta fuck of a lot more than five minutes with you. Which is how I know how devastated you’d be if that happened. Gonna protect your heart too.”
The promise hit me right in the center of my chest. Tears pricked at my eyes as I hugged him tighter. Every time I thought I understood how deep his loyalty and protectiveness ran, he showed me it went even further.
This man would burn the world down for me, but he was also willing to wade into my complicated family mess because he knew it mattered to me.
12
CENTURY
Ipicked up my phone to call Kane, but my eyes stayed locked on Saylor, where she’d drifted toward the window overlooking The Pit’s parking lot. She stood with her arms wrapped around herself, staring through the glass, her brow furrowed like she was still trying to stack Sutton’s confession into something that made sense.
It wouldn’t.
Her twin had taken a bad decision, wrapped it in a worse one, and handed the consequences to my woman like that was a family tradition worth preserving. Saylor felt too much to dismiss her sister completely, but she’d still come straight to me and put the truth in my hands, and fuck if that didn’t make something heavy lock tighter in my chest.
As if she felt my stare, she turned her head. The smile she gave me was small, a little tired, and still carrying the shadow of everything she’d just told me, but the trust in her eyes hit like a wrench to the ribs. There was something softer and deeper there too that I was almost sure was love, and it made my hand tighten around the phone hard enough that the case creaked.
I wanted the smile she gave me when she forgot to worry. The Diesel Serpents had put that shadow in her eyes, Sutton had dragged it there, and I was going to wipe the whole problem off the map so completely that Saylor could breathe without waiting for her sister’s chaos to find her again.
I hit Kane’s number.
He answered on the third ring, and a baby whimpered in the background. Kane murmured something too soft for me to catch. The sound should’ve been strange coming from an MC prez who could stare down a roomful of armed men without blinking, but it wasn’t. Kane handled fatherhood the same way he did everything else—with absolute certainty.
“Sutton showed up.”
The baby fussed again, and Kane exhaled. “At The Pit?”
“No. School parking lot. Saylor came straight here after.”
The baby still made little restless sounds in the background, but Kane’s attention snapped fully to me in the way it always did when a line had been crossed. “She good?”
“She’s pissed, worried, and trying hard not to ask me to save a sister who keeps fucking her over.”
“Sounds like she’s smarter than Sutton.”
“Low bar, prez.”
A faint breath that might’ve been amusement came through the line. “Meet in Edge’s office. I’ll call the others and get there once Elianna decides my shoulder is an acceptable place to sleep.”
