Page 37 of Fallen Flame

“No.”

“But?”

“But...” I reached for the front door. “...I know it’ll be a good time.”

Lark’s grin spread from ear to ear. “Now I’m excited.”

Something told me that was exactly what I should’ve been worried about.

Chapter Eight

Lark

The Social Club was complete chaos.

The good kind of chaos.

The front doors were locked, the sign was flipped to closed, and every person inside belonged to the Fallen Lords or was connected to them somehow. Music blasted through the speakers while people shouted over one another, drinks sloshed over the sides of cups, and cornhole bags flew through the air like weapons.

Ever bent over laughing as my last bag bounced off the edge of the board and landed uselessly on the floor.

“That should’ve counted,” I insisted.

“It barely even touched the board.”

“It thought about touching the board.”

Ever straightened and wiped beneath her eyes. “That isn’t how cornhole works.”

“That sounds like a flaw in the rules.”

She shook her head while Jude called her name from across the room. He stood near the giant beer pong setup with Cole and Calla, but his eyes were fixed only on Ever.

She lifted her hand to let him know she saw him. “I’m going to find out what he wants.”

“He wants you,” I pointed out. “That seems pretty obvious.”

Ever rolled her eyes, but her smile widened as she walked toward him.

I picked up the last two cornhole bags and dropped them onto the board before looking around the Social Club.

The axe-throwing lanes took up the back section of the building, separated from the rest of the room by heavy dividers and metal fencing. The giant beer pong setup dominated the opposite side, with oversized buckets arranged on the floor and enough space between them for people to throw volleyball-sized balls.

Everywhere I looked, someone was laughing, arguing, competing, or drinking—sometimes all four at once.

I knew everyone here. Maybe not deeply, but enough that none of them felt like strangers. I worked with Ever. I’d spent plenty of time around Jude. Most of the club had been in and out of the Dairy Bar more times than I could count.

I shouldn’t have felt awkward, but the Fallen Lords weren’t just friends who hung out together.

They were a family. A big, loud, foul-mouthed family who argued like they wanted to kill each other and would probably bury a body together ten minutes later.

I didn’t belong to anything like that. I never had.

My dad died before I was born, so I only knew him through a handful of pictures and the stories my mom told me. Then my mom died the day after I turned eighteen, as though life had waited until I was technically an adult before yanking the last piece of family I had away from me.

I’d been on my own ever since.

I had friends. I was good at making those. I could walk into a room full of strangers and find someone to talk to before I even had my coat off.