Chapter Fifteen
Prime
The west side of the island had always been quiet.
Too quiet sometimes.
Dense trees, thick brush, and stony cliffs that overlooked the lake.It wasn’t the part tourists ever saw.Hell, most of the club didn’t bother wandering this way unless we were doing a full sweep.It was rugged, steep, and uneven on a good day.
Today, the only sound I heard was the crunch of leaves under my boots.
Lost walked about ten feet ahead of me, near the cliff’s edge, his eyes scanning every inch like he was expecting the bastard to come crawling out of the rocks.
He didn’t talk much.Didn’t complain.Didn’t get distracted.
He just worked.
Exactly the guy you wanted with you when shit kept hitting the fan.
I walked slower, and my thoughts dragged behind me like a second shadow.
Shay.
I hadn’t expected last night to go the way it did.
Not because I didn’t want her.Hell, I’d known I was going to make a move eventually, but I had planned not to push her before she was ready.
Not after what she’d been through.
Not after the ex who’d hurt her.
If she wanted me, it needed to be onherterms.Her pace.Her choice.
And last night… yeah, that had been all her.
And I was damn glad for every second of it.
Just thinking about her waking up with her head on my chest that morning, her hair tangled, warm and soft, while smiling at me like she wasn’t scared of anything anymore, it did something to me I didn’t even have a name for.
This shit wasn’t supposed to happen now.Not in the middle of madness.Not with a killer crawling around the island.Not with Bernice gone and Shay’s entire life upended.
But it did.
She chose me.
And I wasn’t letting go.
“Son of a bitch!”
Lost’s voice cracked the quiet like a gunshot.
My head snapped up.“What is it?”
He was crouched near the cliff edge, staring down at something.He turned to look back at me, and I didn’t need him to say a single word.
I could read it in his eyes.
I jogged toward him and stopped behind him.
