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“I say I like the way my bestie thinks.”

Brinley grinned a wild grin and took my hand as she basically dragged me back down the hall. “There she is. My favorite coconspirator.”

“Um, newsflash, Brinley. Now you’re mine.” I knocked my hip into hers then made a beeline to the mini bar we had set up on a cart just outside of the hall.

I grabbed the champagne bottle and refilled our flutes. Fizz bubbled to the top.

She lifted hers. “To Elena finding every dream she’s had right here.”

I clinked mine to hers. “Hell. Freaking. Yes.”

FORTY-ONE

TREVAN

Unease crawled my spine. Razor-sharp claws digging into my flesh. So deep it almost verged on pain.

I peeked back at the spot at the end of the hall where Elena and Brinley had disappeared ten minutes ago.

Felt like I was going to go out of my goddamned mind in that short amount of time.

Unable to stand even a second of her being out of my sight.

I stabbed my fingers in my hair, trying to give my all to acting like I was listening to Brody holding court like the over-the-top assnugget that he was, dude playing it up for the rest of the Crows gathered around us, but fuck, it was hard to do.

“So, I was just sitting on a barstool at Keg & Creek Tavern, minding my own business, and this chick I’d never seen before just waltzed right up to me, spun my stool around, and dropped to her knees. Said she’d heard the hottest biker around hung out there and she came specifically to find me. Had my fly undone and my cock in her mouth in two seconds flat.”

Silas had just sauntered up, and he grunted at his younger brother as he took a sip of his whiskey. “She must have been lost.”

“That or there were too many lights flashing and she was disoriented. Didn’t know who she was strutting up to.” Dereck, Brinley’s brother, joked over his beer.

“Poor thing,” Regan drawled out with a clap to Brody’s shoulder. “Bet when she finally got a good look at you, she went running and screaming out the door.”

“Are you fuckin’ kidding me? Have you seen me?” Brody lifted his arms out to the sides, a beer bottle dangling from the fingers of one hand. “I don’t even need my bike to make me look good, unlike the rest of you wankers. I could go douche-boy prep, and the girls would still be buzzing around me like flies, and I was doused in honey.”

“More like covered in shit,” Phoenix rumbled.

A bare chuckle skated out of me, and Silas outright laughed.

Brody gasped like he was offended. “Oh, dear Phoenix. I smell like the nectar of the gods. Might have been how the girl sniffed me out. Or maybe it was just when she walked through the door, I had a golden light gleaming over me like a halo.”

“Sounds to me you had a near-death experience, and you were hallucinating,” Phoenix grunted.

“Thought I’d died and gone to heaven, that’s for sure.”

Lucky for him, when I was in fuckin’ hell.

Utter torment.

Memories of yesterday evening spun through my mind on repeat.

The scent of Elena still on my fingers.

Then tonight, getting to see her in her element. Shining all her light and beauty and joy over this place. Her dream finally coming to fruition.

It stole my fucking breath.

Well, that and the goddamned dress she was wearing.