Chapter 116
-Logan-
While Stella was reciting her email and password for Ledger, I watched Hailey.
She was a statue, with her hands clenched together in her lap. She was staring at the floor, but I could see the pulse raci the side of her neck.
She was pale. The day was catching up to her…. the adrenaline crash. I figured she was reliving it, hearing Stella talk abor Anatoly.
But there was something else. More than exhaustion. Every time Stella mentioned how he woke, how he knew things. Hailey’s jaw flexed a little. She was holding her breath.
I wrote it off as shared trauma. They were both in that house. They both heard his voice.
“Alright,” Ledger said, sitting back. “If the phone’s still powered on, and if he hasn’t ripped out the SIM card or somethin can start pinging it. It’ll take some time. And like I said in church, I won’t be able to give you a dot. best I can do is a gen area. A circle on a map. Could be a mile wide. And there’s no guarantee he even still has the phone on him.”
A circle. A hunting ground. It would be a start.
“Good,” Talon said. He looked at Stella. “Thank you, honey. You did good. Ask Laura or Scarlett to get you settled in a roc upstairs. Get some rest.”
Stella nodded, looking relieved to be dismissed. Hailey stood up with her, but I caught her eye and gave a slight shake of head. She froze, then sat back down slowly as Stella left the room.
The office was quiet again. The circle was drawing tighter, and I could feel the ghost of Anatoly’s breath on the back of my neck. He was out there. He was close.
And I was coming for him.
I took Hailey back upstairs. The silence between us had its own weight. She followed me into the apartment, and the door clicked shut behind us. Like sealing the entrance to a tomb.
I went straight to the window and shoved it open to let the fresh air in. I fished the pack of cigarettes from my cut, shook one out and held it out to her. An offering.
She shook her head, so I lit it for myself.
The first drag was a burning relief, the nicotine hitting my system like a familiar, toxic friend. I dragged the kitchen table over to the window with a grunt.
Hailey watched me from the middle of the room with her arms wrapped around herself. She didn’t say anything.
I went to the cupboard over the fridge and found the small, dusty sewing kit behind a stack of old takeout menus
Then I sat down at the table by the window, laid my cut out flat, and fumbled with the needle and thread. My hands were better suited to throttles and punches.
I got the thread through the needle’s eye on the third try, knotted it, and started pushing the needle through the leather on the front of my cut.
“Let me.”
1/3
Chapter 116
Her voice was quiet, but it almost made me jump. I didn’t hear her cross the room. I loved up and the was standing nem me with her hand out.
I looked from her face to my clumsy stitch, then back to her face. I handed her the needle.
She sat down and pulled the cut into her lap. Her fingers were better for this shit.
She pulled my stitch out and started over, like she’d done it before. I watched the needle pop in and out of the leather. Sh was focusing hard on it. Her brow was furrowed in concentration.
The intimacy of it was wild against the violence the patch stood for
She was halfway done when she spoke without looking up. “When did that happen?”
I took a drag off my cigarette, blowing the smoke out the window. “Bout an hour ago. Jake stepped down. Talon took the gavel.” Damn, it felt weird to say.
Her hands went still for a second. Just a heartbeat. Then she started sewing again, a fraction slower. I saw her swallow hard “Oh.”
That was it. Just… oh. Hanging there between us.
I expected questions. Concerns. A joke, even. But she just sewed, and the silence suddenly felt more loaded than before.
I finished the cigarette and crushed it out on the windowsill, flicking the butt out into the dark. The new title felt less like a honor and more like a harness. A way for my old man to keep me aimed in the right direction.
The hammer needed an anvil. Fine.
I’d be the hardest goddamn hammer that ever swung.
I looked at Hailey. My old lady. Bent over my cut, diligently sewing my new rank onto my skin. She was so focused, so determined to fix this one small thing. She had no idea what storm was coming.
The newly focused fury that was building inside me wasn’t just for Anatoly. It was for every threat. Every shadow I would burn down the whole world to a circle of ash if it kept her safe inside it.
She cut the thread with her teeth and smoothed the patch down. Then she held the cut up for me to see.
It was perfect. Solid. It looked like a machine had stitched it.
“Thanks, Ace,” I said.
She handed me the cut, and when her eyes met mine, I saw something in them. It wasn’t pride. It wasn’t relief. It was a flicker of fear.
She was looking at the Vice President of the Warriors MC. A man gearing up for a war of annihilation. I thought I understood. She was afraid for me. Afraid of the war.
I pulled the cut on, glancing down at the gleaming white patch and then back up to her. She was afraid of the bond, but she didn’t realize that she might be the one holding the trigger.
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
