I could shove him. I could try. I could put my shoulder into the president of my club while my blood is still drying on Reyes Floral’s floor and Lady’s voice is still cracking in my ears. I could prove every damn thing she just accused me of.
Diablo knows it.
So do I.
My jaw locks. “She’s hurt.”
“She has Darling.”
“She needs me.”
His eyes go black. “She just told you she doesn’t.”
That lands like a fist.
I hate him for saying it.
I hate him more because he is right.
“Get your hand off me, Prez.”
“Make me.”
The room goes still around us.
Magic stops by the hall, one hand still wrapped around Cherry’s upper arm. Vice is outside, tailing Lady and Darling at a distance because Diablo gave the order and Lady agreed to that much. Six is gone with him. Alpha stays at the altar table with Amour Reyes’s photo on one screen and Reyes Floral records on another. Key Rat freezes mid-pace with a phone held to his ear. Even Disco shuts up for once, which means the bird has better survival instincts than half the prospects.
Diablo steps closer.
He ain’t bigger than me by much. He doesn’t need to be. He carries the title of president like it’s nothing. I saw him come up out of Rafael Solano’s blood and sit in a chair men wanted to kill him for. I watched him almost destroy himself trying to make nice with a debt and keep his woman a secret.
Darling nearly broke him open before he learned.
Now he is looking at me like he sees every mistake before I make it.
“You chase her now,” Diablo says, “you lose her.”
“I already lost her.”
“No. You wounded her. You scared her. You made her question every damn touch you put on her body because you left another woman’s blood in the dark and thought silence was mercy.” His voice lowers. “But lost? Not yet.”
My hand curls.
“Careful,” I say.
“Or what?”
The old church breathes around us.
I smile without humor. “You always this wise when it’s not your woman walking away?”
His eyes flash.
“If Darling walked out of here bleeding and pissed at me,” he says, “every brother in this room would have to chain me to the fucking altar.”
“Then why am I the only one getting a sermon?”
“Because I learned the hard way.” His gaze cuts toward the door where Darling left. “Saving a woman ain’t the same as earning her. Bleeding for her ain’t the same as listening to her. Killing for her is easy. Letting her choose the distance between you? That is the part that feels like dying.”
