She grimaced. “Don’t have a heart attack.”
“Spike?” I barked. “As inSpikeSpike? Tattoos, fights in bars, more felonies than teeth, Spike?”
“I don’t know if that’s fair…”
“Fair?” I shoved off the couch. “Are you seriously saying thatourRemi is seeing Logan fucking Maddox from the Devil's Ride MC... That man is walking trouble. What the hell is Remi doing with him?”
Ava stood too, arms crossed. “She met him outside the clinic. He’s been pursuing her ever since. She finally gave him a shot.”
“She gaveSpikea shot?” I stared at her. “That man’s got a record, Ava. Other bikers call him a fuck boy... He is... they can't be...”
“So does half the damn county. Doesn’t mean they can’t change.”
I paced to the window and back, hands on my hips. My heart was thudding like I’d just run a mile. “I’m going to talk to her.”
Ava rolled her eyes. “You go in guns blazing, and she’ll shut down. You know that.”
“I’ll talk to her,” I said again. “I just… I need to make sure she’s okay. That she’s not falling into something she can’t climb out of.”
Ava stepped forward, placing a hand on my chest. “She’s not a girl we have to fight to protect, Harlan. You know her. She’s the strongest person I have ever known. If she needs help, she’ll ask.”
I covered her hand with mine. “And if she doesn’t?”
“Then we’ll be there anyway.”
I exhaled slowly, trying to shake the dread clawing at my gut.
"I am still going to talk to her, Ava... I can't not do anything..."
She tapped my chest and moved back to the boxes, muttering, "Have fun with that."
Spike. Jesus.
Remi deserved better.
And I wasn’t going to sit back and let her forget that.
CHAPTER 83
HARLAN - LET ME BE HAPPY
The clinic smelled like lavender and coffee, always did, but it was quieter than usual for a Monday afternoon. The front desk was empty. The waiting room was half-lit. The door to Remi’s office was cracked.
I hesitated outside it for a long second.
I had no real reason to be here. No emergency. No official business. Just a feeling I couldn’t shake. A knot in my gut that had been tightening since Ava told me.
Spike.
It sounded like a joke. A name you gave a stray dog or the villain in a bad western. Not someone Remi would fall for. Not someone she would let in. Not after everything.
But here I was.
I knocked once and pushed the door open.
Remi looked up from a stack of intake notes. She was barefoot, curled in her chair with a mug of something that had probably gone cold hours ago. Her hair was twisted into a messy knot. There were shadows under her eyes and pen smudges on her fingers.
She looked exhausted.
