Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Layna chokes, eyes wide. “That doesn’t mean she’s club. She’s not claimed.”
Bear’s grip tightens, his voice low and deadly. “She’s club. She’s mine—my family. If Livy says you’re out, you’re fucking out.”
“Bear.” Livy steps forward, her hand on his arm. “Bear, it’s fine.”
He looks at her, eyes still burning. “You want me to kick her ass out?”
Livy shakes her head. “No. You need to calm down. I’m fine. I trust Blade. He’d tell me if he didn’t want me.”
I slide my arm around her waist, pulling her close, and press a kiss to her temple. “I was just about to tell Layna that I’ve already got the only woman I’ll ever need.”
Livy looks up at me, eyes soft but questioning, a little hurt glinting underneath. She still gives me a small, tight smile. “Let her go, Bear. I’m fine. You don’t need to defend me.”
Bear exhales and drops his hand. “Get,” he growls at Layna.
Layna glares at Livy as she backs away. “Watch yourself, Layna,” I warn her. She flips her hair and disappears into the crowd.
Ayita steps up beside Bear, rubbing her temple. “I have a headache,” she mutters. “I think I need to go home.”
Bear nods. “Yeah, I’m ready to go too.” He looks at Livy. “Sorry about that, Livy. It won’t happen again.”
“It’s nothing,” she says softly. “Honest.”
I touch her arm. “You want to talk to Hangman for a bit, or are you ready to go?”
She hesitates, then shakes her head. “I really want to go. I know we haven’t been here long, though. If you want to stay—”
“Hey.” I tip her chin up. “I’m with you—right by your side.”
Her eyes soften. “Okay. If you’re sure.”
“I’m positive,” I tell her, meaning every word. “I’m going home and loving on my woman.”
“Hey, Bear!”
We all look up and see Ranger standing off to the side. “What’s up?” Bear asks, sounding damn tired.
“I got something I need to talk to you about. It’s important,” Ranger responds.
“Ayi, you head on home. I’ll come after I finish with Ranger.”
“Whatever,” she mutters, clearly not happy.
Olivia shares a concerned look with me, but I shrug. They have to work it out and they will eventually, I’m sure. We say our goodbyes. I wrap my arm around Olivia, guiding her out of the firelight toward the car. Every step, I can feel the tension bleeding off her, the night air cooling her nerves. I open her door, help her in, then walk around to my side, jaw tight, hands on the wheel. As I start the engine, I pray that tonight didn’t fuck everything up.
20 BLADE
The engine hums low as we pull out of the Saints’ compound. The glow from the bonfires fades in the side mirrors, swallowed by the dark stretch of Tennessee backroad. Olivia’s quiet beside me, her hands folded in her lap. The leather of her new cut creaks softly when she shifts. I can smell the smoke from the fires in her hair, mixed with that faint vanilla scent that’s somehow always her. It should calm me, but it doesn’t. It just makes my chest tighter.
“Hey,” I say finally, my voice low, careful. “You okay?”
She nods, staring out the window. “Yeah.”
That one word feels like a lie, but I don’t push. I can tell she’s turning everything over in her head—the fight, Layna’s hands on me, Bear losing his temper, and the way everyone looked at her afterwards.
“I’m sorry about what happened back there,” I say after a beat. “Layna shouldn’t have come near us.”
Olivia exhales, slow. “It’s fine.”
“It’s not.”
She looks at me then, eyes sharp but tired. “It’s really not your fault that some woman doesn’t know how to take no for an answer.”
I almost laugh, because she says it so calmly, like she’s just stating a fact. But the tightness in her voice gives her away. She’s hurt. And I don’t blame her. “She’s nothing to me,” I tell her. “That’s over—been over since I met you.”
“I know.” She turns back to the window, voice quieter. “It’s not that.”
“Then what is it?”
She hesitates, her reflection faint in the glass. “You just… looked angry. Not just at her. At something else.”
She’s not wrong. I didn’t like that my brother got to claim Olivia when calling Layna down. It should have been me and once again, my fucking hands were tied.
I grip the wheel tighter, knuckles whitening. “It’s been a long day,” I say finally. “Too much noise. Too many eyes.”
“Yeah,” she murmurs. “It was… a lot.”
We fall into silence again. The only sound is the soft rush of the tires on asphalt and the occasional hum of a passing truck. Her fingers start tracing the edge of the patch on her cut—the one that reads Protected by Bear and the Saints Outlaws.
“Can I ask you something?” she says quietly.
“Always.”
She looks down at her hands, then up at me. “What exactly are you to them? I mean, I know Bear’s your friend. Ayita too. But everyone treats you like you’re more than just a friend.”