“Aye. What’s your point, Ramsey?”
“My point is,” Ramsey paused, “Dev would never see a woman coming to take him down. Men never do.”
The black cloud of Dev had been hovering over my head for far too long. He’d taken my sense of security, curtailed my independence, killed my best friend, and wounded the love of my life.
I’d never be able to look over my shoulder as long as the Iron Horsemen president was breathing. He was wreaking havoc, destroying a city and tearing apart families, all in the name of violence, greed, and power.
Dev wanted the product Richie stole from him.
And he would have it.
Night had fallen. I listened to the sound of cicadas beating their wings in the otherwise quiet evening. I slapped at my skin, trying to kill a buzzing mosquito.
Looking up at the stars, I thought of Colt and the boys who were currently in a jail cell. I thought of the rough, thin blankets they had to sleep with and the men who might try to shank them in the night, or strangle them with their bare hands. It was a fight for life for them.
No one did well locked up, but I knew it was worse for Colt and his brothers. They rode on motorcycles so they could feel the wind on their cheeks, breathe in the fresh air as their bikes ate up miles of road and they believed in their souls that authority figures had no right to rule over sovereign men.
Lawless brothers penned in by laws.
The back door opened and my solitude was interrupted, but I didn’t mind. I hadn’t liked the direction of my thoughts, knowing any moment they’d slip from gentle musings to downright melancholic.
Knight pulled up a lawn chair and sat down beside me. I glanced at him, noting his exhaustion. Tension lined his mouth.
I silently handed him the bottle of Jack. He took it and drank.
“You don’t bother with cups?” he asked with a wry glint in his eyes.
“Just another dish to wash.”
He handed the bottle back to me. I’d never been the type of girl just to drink liquor straight from the bottle, but things changed.
I changed.
“He’s not going to be happy when he hears what’s about to go down—with you involved,” Knight said, his tone deceptively mild.
“Yeah, I don’t envy Gray being the one to tell him tomorrow.”
I’d wanted to visit Colt myself, but Gray and Torque quickly nixed the idea. Saying it would be worse for Colt, who didn’t want me to ever see him confined like a caged animal.
Oddly enough, I hadn’t pushed against the edict. My mind wandered through a weird state of limbo. It bounced around from past, to present, to future. To outcomes. To a time when we were all together, and this shit with Dev was a vision in the rearview mirror.
“I have no right,” he said softly, “to tell you what you can or can’t do. I have no right to tell you I wish you weren’t involved in any of this. I have no right to tell you that I think you should’ve taken Silas and run like hell of out Waco.”
I slowly turned my head to look at him. “But if you did have the right? Why would you tell me to run? This is my home. My family.” I paused. “My legacy.”
“This is also your life we’re talking about.” He leaned over and placed his elbows on his knees, his gaze dark, questioning.
“Say whatever you want to say,” I commanded. “Even if you don’t think you should.”
“I just met you, Mia. I just found out I have a kid. You don’t need a dad. You’re an adult. You grew up fine without me.” He swallowed like something painful was lodged in his throat. “But Iamyour father. And my job is to protect you. I can’t—I don’t know what’s going to happen with you being involved with all this shit, but it’s got me thinking the worst.”
I paused. “That I won’t live.”
He nodded his head in agreement. “If you die, it’ll break them. It’ll break us. Colt. Silas. Me.”
“Don’t put any of that on yourself. It’s not your choice.” My tone wasn’t forceful or even angry. It was flat, cool, like river water over pebbles.
He ran a hand across his face and then held out his other for the bottle, which I gave him.