“What if I want a snack?”
“I walk you to the kitchen.”
“And if I decide to make a run for it?”she challenged.
I met her gaze, dead-on.“You won’t.”
“How do you know?”she asked.
“Because you’re smart,” I said.“And you already know leaving here makes you easier to find.”
She swallowed hard.
She did know.
She leaned her head back against the couch and stared at the ceiling.“Does it get less terrifying?”she asked quietly.“Knowing someone out there picked you for something like this?”
I thought about the file.
About Bernice.
About my own rage.
“No,” I said honestly.“But it’s less lonely now.”
She looked over at me again.
“Because of you?”she asked.
“Because of all of us,” I said.Then, softer, “But, yeah.Because of me too.”
We held each other’s gaze a second too long.
Then Skull’s voice came from the hallway, loud and obnoxious.
“TIME FOR SOME BREAKFAST, FUCKERS.”
Shay flinched.
I sighed.
“Welcome to the Kings of Anarchy,” I said.“It’s loud and crazy, but you’re safe here.”
For the first time that morning, the corner of her mouth lifted in something that wasn’t just strain.
It wasn’t a full smile.
But it was close enough to make the rage in my chest settle into something sharper.
He wanted her because she was connected to us, but none of us knew how.He was trying to use her to break us.
Instead, he’d just given me something new to fight for.
And I didn’t lose what was mine.
Not ever.
Chapter Two
