“I’m still holding onto hope she’ll come back,” he added, voice rough with something I couldn’t place. “Claim her spot with me. But until then, she’d be good with this. With you.”
He gave her a sad, crooked smile. “So… what do you say, Remi? Shall we put on a show?”
Before she could answer, he smacked her ass with enough flair to make her jolt, then spun away, mounting his bike like the conversation had never happened.
Remi didn’t protest.
He handed her a helmet, steady and deliberate, before moving to help her adjust the strap, as if he'd done it a thousand times. His thumb brushed softly across the bruise on her jaw, and he said, "I will keep you safe."
Then he leaned in even closer, “Trust me,” he murmured. “Hold tight. Move with my body.”
Remi nodded, hands trembling as she climbed on behind him.
I stood frozen on the steps, heart hammering so hard it hurt. I wasn’t ready for this. For her to ride away with strangers. For this next chapter to start.
But then she looked back, just once, and gave me the smallest nod. She was scared. But she was going.
And I had to let her.
The engines roared to life, splitting the quiet, vibrating through my ribs. I watched them disappear down the street, my sister on the back of a stranger’s bike.
For the first time in days, I didn’t feel like we were losing her.
We were buying her a chance.
A heartbeat of space.
A breath before the storm we both knew was coming.
CHAPTER 59
HARLAN - I COULD LIE
The engines faded until they were nothing but memory, but the weight of them stayed heavy in my chest. I watched the road long after the Dawnbreakers disappeared with Remi.
But she didn’t turn around. She rode away like she meant it. Like she was ready to fight for herself, even if none of us were prepared to let her go.
Gray moved toward Jack’s SUV, murmuring something low enough I couldn’t catch. Jack didn’t answer right away. He just stood there, arms crossed tight, eyes still fixed on the spot where we last saw her.
They stayed like that. Gray, quiet and steady, Jack was a fuse waiting to burn.
I didn’t blame him. I felt the same.
Ava shifted beside me; her arms wrapped around herself. She hadn’t moved since Remi left. I could feel the tension in her shoulders, the static in the air between us. The kind of silence that wasn’t peace, just a pause. Grief in the shape of stillness.
“I don’t like this,” she said finally, voice raw.
“Neither do I.”
“She’s not safe,” she whispered.
“She’s safer now than she was here.” I looked at her. “And she’s not alone. You made sure of that.”
She let out a bitter breath. “She shouldn’t have had to ride away on the back of some stranger’s bike to survive.”
“No,” I agreed. “But she did. And she did it because she trusted you, us, that this is what was best. How we could keep everyone safe.”
A beat passed. Then another.
