Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 37846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
“Get in line,” Axle murmured as he passed, deadpan, and the three of us almost smiled—dark, thin, the kind you share with men who’ve bled with you and might again by dinnertime.
Kane’s voice followed me to the door. “Nitro.”
I looked back.
He didn’t stand or change his expression. “Keep her close. And if anything smells like Skull, you bring it in-house before you blow it in the field.”
I nodded. We both knew he wasn’t talking about explosives.
The women were sitting with coffee cups on the table, and a plate of something sweet half eaten lay between them. Jana sat cross-legged, her hands wrapped around a mug as if it could anchor her. The second I shadowed the doorway, she looked up, her green orbs searching my face.
“You’re good.”
Her shoulders lowered a full inch.
Savannah smiled, and Ashlynn lifted her cup in a toast. “Welcome to the circus.”
Jana’s mouth tipped at one corner. “Thanks for not making me juggle.”
“We only let Nitro play with fire,” Savannah said, her tone as dry as the desert. “Union rules.”
That pulled a short, honest laugh out of Jana—small but real. Music to my ears.
I touched her shoulder. When she slid her hand into mine and stood, I gave the women a nod, then guided mine to the front door.
On the porch, the heat hit like a welcome punch. Bikes winked in the sun as we walked to my truck. I helped her up, then jogged around to the driver’s side and got in.
As we drove out of the compound, I mentally drew a circle around us that I dared the whole world to cross. If the Broken Skulls so much as breathed in our direction, I’d answer with something louder than breath. And if anyone in our orbit tried to make Jana pay for a patch she never wore, they’d find out fast why my brothers didn’t argue with me when I said I’d handle it.
Jana had chosen us. And I’d choose her—over and over, without blinking. The kind of choice you built a future on. One created by refusing to let the past write your next lap.
I’d erase anyone who tried to rewrite hers.
With interest.
11
JANA
Iwoke in Torin’s arms, his scent surrounding me—leather and something musky that was all him. He was stretched out in my bed like he’d always belonged there, with his hands splayed across my belly. Beams of the early morning sun filtered through the gauzy curtains, casting delicate patterns across the four-poster bed that barely fit the two of us. The humid air carried the faint scent of azaleas from the open window, but his nearness overwhelmed everything else, his warmth igniting a restless heat deep inside me.
For a long moment, I just lay there, staring at the ceiling and trying to process the weight pressing against my chest.
I had told him about my family. Something I’d sworn I’d keep locked inside me forever. But the betrayals from my father and brother had spilled out of me like I’d been waiting all these years for him to hear it.
Torin hadn’t flinched. He’d listened and made me believe that maybe my past didn’t define me. Even though the Broken Skulls were worse than I knew and basically at war with the Redline Kings, he still hadn’t judged me.
I rolled onto my side, careful not to wake him, and studied the man who had undone me in ways no one else ever had. His face was softer in sleep, though the faint scruff on his jaw and the line of his mouth still hinted at danger. His lashes were ridiculously long for someone so ruthless. A tattoo peeked above the edge of the sheet, dark ink curling over muscle I’d mapped with my hands and lips only hours ago.
He was the kind of man I’d sworn to stay away from, but I’d somehow come to think of him as mine.
The thought hit hard enough that I sucked in a shaky breath. I couldn’t afford to believe a man like Torin Addis could be my safe harbor when my entire life had taught me otherwise.
But when he shifted in his sleep, arm tightening around me like he wasn’t letting go, I sank back into the curve of his body before I could stop myself.
Torin stirred when I shifted against him, his lashes lifting slowly to reveal dark eyes that seemed to see right through me. His voice was rough with sleep, and the rasp sent heat curling low in my belly. “You keep starin’ at me like that, baby, I’m gonna start thinkin’ you need me again.”
“Maybe I do.” My breath caught when his hand smoothed over my hip, dragging me closer until my chest pressed to his. “Torin.”
My whisper carried more need than I wanted him to hear.
His mouth curved in that crooked smile I was coming to appreciate, but nothing was mocking in the way his fingers traced the line of my spine. “Don’t worry. I got you.”