I felt it again—that pull, like a rope tightening around my throat. My breath hitched, eyes flicking toward the shadows, but when I turned, no one was there.
Because no one cared I would be here tonight and no one here would be watching my back like usual.
It’s like the phantom of Aiden was haunting me, the hope that he would show following me around all night.
The rage of never having what I wanted ate at me, killed me, and ruined any other man for me. Even this beautiful one in front of me.
But if I was going to suffer, I sure as hell wouldn’t suffer alone.
Chapter 13
Aiden
Rule #4: Don’t piss off Evie.
The bike idled quietly under me as I pulled off the side of the road, staring at my phone as I worked myself up into a near rage. Evie’s text glared up at me, the one word a precise arrow aimed to cut me open. She always knew exactly how to ruin my day, a skill she’d honed for me. And here I was, playing into her hands again.
The moment she had ridden up, my shirt hanging off her, I’d lost my mind.
I had been gripping the life out of my phone, my fingers flexing like I’d been seconds away from reaching for her.
Like some part of me had been on the verge of yanking her toward me, of fisting my hands in that damn shirt, of proving to myself that she was actually wearing it and not some hallucination conjured up by exhaustion and frustration.
Especially not after learning my favorite psycho girl was also a closet romantic?
The past few days of my life felt like a fever dream.
I had told the guys I’d be out for the day, needing a break. Space from the suffocating world I’d built around myself. But noamount of space ever seemed to matter, because the real prison wasn’t Havenwood or the pack, work, or even the weight of all their expectations. It was Evie.
She was everywhere—woven into every corner of my life, filling the cracks I didn’t even know were there until she pressed her way into them. She took over my life and could burn it all down with one small ember. An ember she had already placed in me and now she sat back, fanning it to flames. Every glance, every laugh, every infuriating stunt she pulled only made it worse. She wasn’t just under my skin—she was woven into every part of me. I didn’t know how this life would exist without Evie in it.
The worst part was—she knew it.
My grip on the handlebars tightened as I reread her text.
This is what she did. Teased. Tormented. Taunted me until I was choking on my frustration, knowing I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. She’d boxed me into a corner, and no matter how much I wanted to break free, I couldn’t. Not without shattering everything else I’d worked so hard to build.
But maybe tonight could be different.
I wasn’t sure how long I could keep going. How long could I keep pretending I didn’t want her and her flaunting it in my face how badly Ididwant her?
I needed a small understanding of what having Evie would be like. I needed to satisfy the part of my brain screaming that it would be the best thing to ever happen to me, and prove it wrong.
I needed one night to show myself that having her wasn’t worth losing everything else in my life. And she deserved to lose her game. She had to know how badly I wanted her because she seemed happy to use it against me. Even now, I was her prisoner, caught in her web of scheming and lies with no escape. She knewexactly where to aim to make me unravel, exactly what buttons to push to keep me on edge, chasing after her because she knew I would never be allowed to catch her.
My backpack sat heavy against my shoulders, the black mask inside—the blue crossed out eyes and creepy grin—almost daring me to make the choice. It wasn’t only a disguise, it was an escape. With it, I could be someone else. Someone who didn’t care about rules, or consequences, or the lines I’d spent years refusing to cross.
The thought of shedding every familiar restraint, every boundary I’d set around myself, surged through me.
I let the thought simmer, the thrill of it mixing with something darker, something dangerous. She thought she could push me to the edge without consequence, but tonight I’d show her what it felt like to fall.
I slipped the backpack on and put my phone away before pulling back out onto the road.
I wasn’t far from Finis Ledges now. The dreary cliffs that overlooked the water were one of Hero’s favorite places and his first choice of where to have a party. Even with the early spring chill in the air, the night was perfect for one.
Bikes lined the small made-up parking lot. There were no formal parking spots, but no one in Havenwood ever seemed to notice us here, so we always came back.
The air was thick with the scent of gasoline and damp earth, the distant echo of laughter blending with the rev of engines. It was the sort of place that felt outside the boundaries of reality, where the rules blurred and anything seemed possible.
