“No.” She smiled, sniffling and wiping away her tears. “I told you she asked about Knox in our letters, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, um, the more she asked, the more I talked. At one point about nine months ago, she asked about things Knox always wanted to do but never got the chance. Like a bucket list, I guess.” Cleo shrugged, peeking around Ace and staring at the bike. “She never said why she wanted it. And I never asked. But now I know.”
Knox had always been into different styles and older models of bikes. He loved working on them and could talk for hours about the ones he wanted to rebuild. There’d been a few mentioned, but this one had always been his favorite.Holy fuck!
“She bought Knox’s bike?” Ace asked.
Cleo shook her head. “I didn’t say he wanted to buy it. I said he wanted to rebuild it.”
Gent laughed, pointing at the trailer. “There’s no fucking way she rebuilt this.”
Cue straightened, sliding his hand over the base. “Original parts.”
Oak snorted. “She must’ve spent a shit ton of money on it.”
Cue shook his head. “Most of these parts are from older bikes. If I had to guess, she got a lot of it from refurbished dealers and hit every salvage yard she could find.”
What?
“You’re telling me” —Ace cocked his brow, gesturing to the trailer— “You think she rebuilt that?”
Cue shrugged. “Someone did, and just by looking they didn’t do the best job. Definitely an amateur with little experience.” Cue glanced up, veering his gaze to Cross. “Butsomeonetried.”
“Wait, hold the fuck up,” Oak said. “You’re telling me Addison rebuilt this bike because it was on some list?”
Cleo knitted her brows. “Notsomelist. Knox’s.”
Ace shifted his gaze to Cross. “You know about this?”
No one was more surprised than him. Addison hadn’t mentioned anything about the bike. And this was the first he was hearing about a list.
“No.” Cross glanced over at Cleo. “What else was on the list?”
“A bunch of things.”
“Like what?”
She smiled. “Skydiving.”
The corner of his mouth hiked. Cross never steered away from a dangerous situation or undertaking, but he did his best to not voluntarily put himself in one. Knox was different, a real thrill-seeker.
“And that big biker rally in South Dakota. The concert he had tickets for right before he died. Rebuilding the bike. This wasn’t really on his list, but he promised me he’d try sushi, so I added that. Spending more time with his family. The club and me.” She ducked her head. “That was at the top of the list.”
“Anything else?” Cross asked.
“Getting the club patch tattooed on his back.”
Cross stilled, sharing a look with Ace. Their insignia was a protected piece of them. Only members could wear it. It was forbidden for any outsider. They used a select few artists to tattoo the members. Knox had been saving up because he wanted it on his entire back.
“She ever get the tat?” Ace asked. His tone was calm, but Cross read through it.
Cross had seen every inch of her body. It was a clean slate. He would’ve seen the tattoo.
Cleo shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t even know about the bike. I’d kind of forgotten about the list once I gave it to her because she never brought it up again.”
“Bring her in, Cross.”
