“We’ll figure it out.” His words say one thing but his eyes another.
The three of them did this intentionally before Charlie and I were in the picture, which means they would have ensured it would stick to protect the rest of the club.
Did Willa know about this?
Lights flare in the night. A strobe of red and blue lights up the dark desert. They aren’t here for me, and yet, that does nothing to ease what’s happening.
“Look at me, Emery.” Hayes tilts my face up. “I promise Tanner will figure out a way to get us out of this. I’m not leaving you and Charlie. Everything is going to be okay.”
Nothing is okay.
The sirens near, and the first car pulls to a stop outside the house. They don’t bother knocking, breaking the door off its hinges simply to prove their point. They rush inside, and Hayes doesn’t fight them as they drag him away.
This time, it isn’t my uncle’s doing. It’s the other side of Hayes’s world—a world that is also mine now.
A world that does nothing but tear things apart.
34
Emery
Defeat is strange.
It’s thorough.
I lean against the porch with Charlie in my arms, watching Steel and Legacy tear the broken doorframe down to the studs, and embrace the fact that some things can’t be fixed. They can’t be salvaged.
Defeat comes in accepting that.
But I accept nothing as I glance down at my daughter, our little phoenix who rose from the ashes. Hope that bloomed on a night I had none left.
Her green eyes blink up at me—her father’s eyes. This might be the moment I’m supposed to give up. After all, Hayes is in jail, and they won’t let me see him. Tanner is running out of ideas. All around, everything is falling apart.
Broken beyond repair.
But then Legacy jogs down the steps and grabs the fresh pieces of wood. A new frame. New hinges. A new door.
And I cling to something else.
Some things can’t be fixed or repurposed. They can only be replaced by something new—something stronger.
Charlie wraps her fingers around mine, and I let defeat consume me. I let it take every last drop of the girl I was—the one who cowered before my uncle. Who let him use her. Who let him terrify her and manipulate her. That girl can burn because I’m not bowing down to them anymore. I’m someone new. Someone who will fight for Hayes and Charlie. And myself.
Tempe walks out of the house carrying water bottles for the guys. Steel gives her a quick kiss, and her cheeks are still red when she stops beside me.
“They weren’t joking when they said they’d get it fixed,” I say, rocking Charlie.
After Hayes, Chaos, and Venom were arrested last night, the club descended on the neighborhood. It was a moment I thought I’d feel alone, but I didn’t. The club surrounded me and Willa, and I finally saw the full force of what this family is.
Charlie and I slept at Tempe’s house last night. I told them I was fine, but Steel said Hayes would kill him if he found out I slept in a house without a front door, and I couldn’t argue.
First thing this morning, Steel and Legacy got started on replacing it.
“They’re handy when they want to be.” Tempe smirks, crossing her arms over her chest and watching her man work. “You’re welcome to stay with us longer if you’d like.”
“I’d rather be here,” I admit.
This house might carry nothing but bad memories for Hayes, but for me, it’s home. It’s where my daughter had her first room. Where I fell in love with her father. It’s where I learned to love myself—to stick up for myself. And even if it carries the memories of the cops taking Hayes away, this is where Charlie and I belong.
