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He brushed his thumb slowly across my cheek, and then along my jaw. “You can tell me anything.”

I knew that. He had shown me that over and over, in a hundred different ways, most of them quiet. “I trust you, Knox. With me. With my life.” I made myself hold his gaze. “And with my heart.”

His eyes darkened and he sucked in a sharp breath.

“I love you.” The words came out steadier than I expected. “I don’t want to walk away from you, or this marriage, or this MC. I’m not here because I have to be anymore. I’m here because I want to be. Because of you.”

He said nothing for a long time.

I braced for that excruciating pause before someone lets you down. I searched for the careful look that came right before someone said something gentle but so final it still managed to gut you.

Knox’s gray eyes studied mine carefully, as if he was trying to see straight into my brain. “Ivy…” My name left his lips on a groan. “Are you sure?”

I smiled, nodding slowly even as tears streaked down my cheeks. “I’m sure. I wanted to tell you before, but I was scared that this was just an arrangement with benefits, and that you were just taking what was offered.” My words tumbled over one another so fast I couldn’t keep track of the conversation. “But after everything with Dani getting beat up and Rex, and you showing up? The life and death of it all just made it seem, I don’t know, pointless to be so fucking scared.”

His big hands cradled my face, and his forehead came down to rest against mine. “You were so fucking brave today,” he said softly.

I shook my head. “I wasn’t,” I insisted. “I should have warned Dani. She got hurt because I didn’t.”

“You were brave,” he insisted right back. “You didn’t go in half-cocked. You made a plan and you faced your demon. You did good, babe.”

His words dislodged something in my chest, not completely but enough that I managed a shaky smile. “Thank you, Knox.” I kissed him hungrily because that’s how I felt in that moment. Hungry for this man who saw my flaws and wasn’t turned off by them. He saw my bad parts and instead of running away, he seemed to like them, to find them charming or something. I kissed him hard until he growled, and fisted his hands in my hair, holding me in place while he took over the kiss. I loved when he got so riled up that he couldn’t help but take over.

It made me feel desired, which was something only Knox ever made me feel.

We kissed like horny teenagers for so long we grew breathless with it. The harsh sounds of our breaths were amplified in the air as his hands slid under my shirt and my hips ground against the growing evidence of his arousal. I ground harder against his cock, chasing the quick fire he stoked in me all too well.

Four sharp knocks shook the door and we both froze, but we didn’t move. “What?” Knox barked angrily.

The door opened slowly, revealing Rook and Warden, two figures that normally appeared imposing but today their shit-eating grins made them seem playful. They looked at his hands under my shirt and my swollen lips and flashed unapologetic smiles.

“Sorry to interrupt,” Rook said, not sounding sorry at all. “Meeting. Now.”

“Now?” Knox’s voice came out on a rough growl.

“Now,” Rook confirmed with one sharp nod.

Knox let out a low groan and pulled me in by the back of the neck, pressing a hard kiss to the top of my head. “I gotta go,” he whispered in my ear.

“I know.”

He pulled back. “We’ll finish this conversation. And the rest of it. Later.”

I heard the promise in every syllable. “Okay,” I said so softly I wasn’t sure the word had actually left my lips as I slid from his lap. With my heart in my eyes, I watched him follow Rook and Warden out the door, listening to their footsteps until they faded.

Once I was well and truly alone for the first time, I knew I had to deal with my messy emotions. I’d summoned a lifetime of bravery to go into that bar and save Dani, my soul sister. I faced down the psychopath who raised me. I taunted him and he retaliated, but I got back up and kept talking.

I faced him down and I walked away.

Rex would never hit me again. Would never taunt me. He would never, ever become the man I wanted him to be and finally, I was okay with that.

My hand went to my chest automatically as I thought about the other big thing I’d done today. I told Knox I loved him and I meant it. It felt brave.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Knox

Every patched brother was in the sanctuary when I walked in. Not just the guys I saw day in and day out doing MC business, but the ones we barely saw because they were always on the road moving product between chapters, managing business in other cities, and living more on the road than anywhere else. Every member with an Iron Vows patch was in this room. I frowned as I looked around the room and took in this sight. Brothers from across the decades had shown up. But why? “What the fuck is going on? Because this looks a lot like Church.”