Page 103 of Reckless

“The one on the left-hand side that annoys the hell out of me,” he says quietly.

I nod. “That’s when I knew.”

“Knew what?”

“They weren’t guessing anymore.”

The room feels unbearably still. “They’d been close enough to photograph your bike, at the clubhouse. They threatened you, Ghost… threatened to break you.”

Ghost’s gaze drops briefly to the table before lifting again.

I keep talking because stopping suddenly feels impossible. “After that…” I rub my palms against my jeans, trying to warm fingers that suddenly feel frozen. “Everything became a threat.” I draw a slow breath. “They found Piper.” The words hang between us. “They knew she’d just started at the studio. They knew about the state contract before she’d even finished unpacking boxes in my apartment.”

Ghost closes his eyes for the briefest second, and when they open again, they’re darker somehow.

“They said the committee could kill the contract on a technicality.” He says nothing. “I kept telling myself I could f-fix it.” My voice cracks. “That if I slowed the inquiry down, bought myself a little time, maybe they’d lose interest.”

“So that’s why you put it on hold?”

I nod. “I told everyone we needed another review. More evidence. More corroboration.” I shake my head. “I kept dressing it up as process because admitting what I was actually doing felt too much like surrender.”

Silence settles between us again, and this time it feels heavier.

“I wasn’t scared for me anymore.” The words leave before I have the chance to stop them. “I was scared for Piper, for you…” I meet his eyes. “And then they sent another message.”

Ghost goes completely still. “What did it say?”

I can still see it.

Every word.

Every punctuation mark.

“It didn’t have your name.” I feel my chest tighten all over again. “It didn’t need to.” My voice drops to almost nothing. “It said…” I close my eyes for a second. “ ‘The biker keeps looking in places he doesn’t belong. Tell him to stop before somebody decides motorcycles are easier to replace than people.’ ”

The apartment falls silent.

Not the comfortable silence I’ve come to know with Ghost.

The other kind.

The silence that follows presses against my ribs until every breath starts feeling like something I have to remember to do. “I knew exactly what would happen if I told you.” The words barely make it out. I lift my eyes to his, the tears burning hot enough that blinking only makes them worse. “You would’ve gone looking for them.”

His jaw shifts.

Not with anger, with certainty.

“Hell, yeah, I would have.” The answer comes so quickly it almost steals my next breath.

I let out something that almost becomes a laugh before it catches. “Exactly my point, Ghost!” I shake my head, wrapping my arms around myself because suddenly I don’t know what else to do with them. “You would’ve stopped sleeping.”

One corner of his mouth threatens to move. “Probably.”

“You would’ve buried yourself behind those screens until you found them.”

“I would’ve.”

“You would’ve put yourself between me and every damn threat they made.”