I waved him off, settling deeper into the seat. I was bone-weary tired, and my brain was this close to shutting down, but I knew that wasn’t really an option. “It’s okay. It’s true—my dad is gone. But Colt obviously doesn’t see it that way. Anyway, the asshole he set up to torture the answers out of me didn’t get anything before I broke free, and he didn’t leave me with a whole lot of choice but to kill him, so it’s not like they got anywhere.”
We fell into a stretch of silence. We weren’t quite out of the Bend yet, and even here on a busier street lined with shops, the buildings on either side of us were periodically marked with the spray-painted Steel Knights symbol.
The message was clear. Everything here now belonged to them.
Gideon held up his tablet to take a few photographs. “This didn’t use to be Steel Knights territory, did it?”
My stomach knotted. “No. They’re taking over every street they can.”
“I didn’t realize it was so bad,” he murmured.
Maybe it was a good thing the situation had forced the guys to finally come down here. They could witness the changing face of the Bend firsthand.
“I told you,” I couldn’t help saying.
“And we should have believed you before,” Wylder said, the protective note still in his voice making something inside me clench. I hadn’t seen this part of him before, but I liked it. I liked it more than might be wise.
“We’re going to push back,” Kaige said. “We’re going to push back and crush them, and that pathetic excuse of a man is going to wish he never laid a finger on you.”
Rowan exhaled slowly. “He’s fixated on his plan to take over, and he’s convinced your dad was the one who could have screwed it up. That’s why he’s obsessed with getting answers out of you, I’d guess. He’s afraid there’s some way it could still go wrong.” He shook his head. “Of course, it was always going to go wrong once he messed with the Nobles.”
Wylder hit the steering wheel. “Damn straight.”
The assurance in their words steadied me. We were leaving the marks of the Steel Knights behind for now anyway, passing from the Bend into the brighter, posher streets of Paradise City. As we came to a stop at a red light, Wylder yanked something out of his pocket. He twisted in his seat to hand it to me, his expression offering no room for argument. “Take this.”
I reached for it automatically and found my fingers wrapping around the hilt of a knife in a thin leather sheath. I stared down at it and then back at Wylder, but he’d already turned to face the road.
“You obviously need to be armed from now on,” he said. “If Colt comes for you again, I want you ready.”
I wasn’t going to argue with that. An almost giddy warmth bloomed in my chest at the show of trust. Wylder was arming me, giving me the means to hurt him if I’d wanted to—knowing I wouldn’t.
And it was more than that. I drew the knife from the sheath just for a moment to test its weight in my hand and noticed the engraving on the hilt. W.N.
My head jerked up. “This is yours. I mean, obviously, but—”
“And now it’s yours,” he said sharply before I could protest him giving me a weapon that must have been meaningful to him in some way. Presumably he didn’t go around having every knife he ever carried engraved with his initials. “I’ll see that you get a gun too. There are plenty of options in the latest shipment. You’re with us now, and that means whatever you need, it’s taken care of.”
I couldn’t deny that the knife felt good in my hand. I slid it back into its sheath and held it on my lap. “Thank you.”
From his profile, I saw a flicker of a smile cross his lips. “As long as you use it well.”
The hill topped with its sprawl of mansions loomed ahead of us. As we drove steadily closer, I couldn’t help reflecting on who was waiting for us back in the Nobles’ home. My mouth went dry. But I had to say something.
It wasn’t until we’d crested the hill and pulled into the driveway that I forced the question out. “Your father came back this morning—he knows why I’m here, right?”
The click as the engine cut off sounded ominous. Wylder’s shoulders had tensed. “I assume he’s heard the gist of it. I haven’t had a chance to talk to him about you yet. You don’t have to worry. I’ll take care of that too.”
“It was only—Colt made it sound as if someone had encouraged him to come after me right by your house—and those questions he had his guy ask about whether I’d spilled anything about the Nobles—”
Wylder swung around in his seat, his eyes flashing. “What are you trying to say?”
I stared right back at him, my hackles coming up. If he was going to make me spit it right out, then I would. “Maybe Ezra isn’t so happy about having the princess of the Claws in his home. Maybe he already wants me gone.”
Kaige sucked in a breath.
Wylder’s expression went totally cold. “My father would never lower himself to making deals with scum like Colt. He’d be offended if you even mentioned the possibility. So don’t.”
He shoved open the door and got out without giving me a chance to respond. But I couldn’t help noticing that he hadn’t said his father would never turn on a guest of his son’s or that he wouldn’t have acted without speaking to Wylder first.
Maybe I was safe from Ezra Noble conspiring with my ex-fiancé, but that didn’t mean I was actually safe here.