Page 28 of Striker’s Rebel

Told me I could save my career if I gave them what they wanted. Say Grim acted alone. Say I disagreed with him. Give them enough distance to hang the whole mess around his neck.

I refused, and my career disappeared with the answer. Never regretted it.

You don’t sell out your brother to save your own skin.

The uniform eventually came off. The cut went on.

The rule stayed the same.

Grim is Prez now. Torch backs him as Vice Prez. I’m Enforcer. When trouble comes looking for the Damned Sinners, I’m usually what it finds waiting.

Striker comes from those years too.

It started in the Army, after enough operations for the men around me to figure out I wasn’t built for chaos. I didn’t rush a target because everybody else was running. I waited until I knew exactly where the opening was.

Then I took it. Fast, hard, and with no second pass if I could help it. Somewhere along the way, somebody started calling me Striker. Grim made damn sure it stuck.

By the time I wore a Damned Sinners cut, Braxton was mostly the name on my license.

My phone vibrates again.

Red Den?

Numbers are off. Pete’s paperwork is clean. Missing cases are somewhere in the route.

Need you back later.

Torch covering?

Yeah.

Then you’ll survive without me.

Barely.

I grin and shove the phone into my pocket.

A sound comes from behind June’s door and everything else in my head shuts down.

Bare footsteps.

The lock turns.

Then the door opens.

Fuck.

Her hair is a mess around her face, sleep still clinging to those baby-blue eyes. An oversized T-shirt reaches the tops of her thighs, leaving the rest of her legs bare.

Last night, I wanted the bartender with the smart mouth.

Then I wanted the woman fighting three men instead of giving them an inch.

This is worse.

Because seeing her soft and half-asleep puts something in my head that has no business being there yet.

Not just June in my bed. June after. Barefoot in my place, wearing my shirt, drinking my coffee, looking at me like waking up together is something we do.