“Eden.” I hold the preacher’s eyes. “Anybody keeping you here against your will?”
“No.” She comes down the steps to stand at my side. Her arm settles against mine. “I want to be here.”
Her father scowls.
“You don’t know what you’re doing, girl. Did you tell him what this will cost you?” His voice is raised and unsteady. “Did you tell him I’ll stop paying for those classes? You think a man like this is going to?—”
“Doesn’t matter,” I interrupt.
He stops.
“I’ve got money,” I tell him. “Whatever she needs for school is covered. I’ll give her every single thing you wouldn’t.”
His face goes red from the collar up.
“So that’s your plan?” He’s louder, and he’s yelling at me. “My daughter living in— What is this? An old hotel. A fraternity house full of criminals. That’s the life you’re giving her?”
“No.” I keep it flat. “I live here because I never needed more than a bed and my brothers down the hall. That was before her.” I cut a look to Eden, then back to him. “She wants a house; I’ll buy her whatever house she points at. She wants a yard; she gets a yard. You raised her to think a man like me can’t give her a life. I’ll give her a better one than the cage you kept her in.”
The preacher opens his mouth to speak, but it takes him a second to get words out. “I can still call the police.”
I don’t like talking much, but it turns out words come easy when they’re for her.
“Here’s where we are. We’ve established nobody kidnapped your daughter. She’s a grown woman who’s telling you that she’s staying. So the only illegal thing happening on this property is you, trespassing.”
His eyes go to Eden. “Eden. Please.” Sweat tracks down his temple, a father watching his kid pick the wolf. “Come with me. Come home.”
“No, Dad.” Her hand finds mine. Hers is small and warm, and it doesn’t shake. “I am home.”
Her fingers thread through mine and hold on, and I close mine around them.
Saber comes down off the porch, and he’s not alone. Crash, Jinx, Joker, and Duke fan out behind me. Not one of them opens their mouth. They’re letting me handle this, but they’re there if I need them.
I’ve stood in lines like this since joining the Hellborn Kings. First time I’ve ever been the reason for one.
Saber steps up to my other side.
“This is Viper’s Old Lady.” He says it easy. “Makes her one of ours. So think real hard about those police. We get protective of our family.”
The preacher takes in the line of us. He takes in his daughter’s hand in mine. Whatever he’s adding up comes out short, and he knows it.
He turns without a word, walks to his sedan, and drops in. The door slams. Gravel sprays. Then he’s a shape going small down the dirt road, and then he’s gone.
Eden doesn’t watch him go. She’s watching me. Her thumb moves once across the back of my hand, slow, and the sensation carries up my arm, across my shoulders, and down into the muscle along my spine, unlocking it a notch at a time. I didn’t know how wound up I was until she undid it.
Crash claps a hand on my shoulder and says something I don’t catch, grinning the whole time as he walks away. The rest drift off to whatever they were doing.
Then it’s Eden and me in the heat, her hand in mine. A crow calls off the fence line. The dust her father kicked up settles back onto the gravel.
“What does that mean?” She tips her face up to me, squinting against the sun. “Old Lady. You keep saying it. Saber said it. What is it?”
I turn to her. I take my time because she should hear this right the first time.
“Means you’re mine, and everybody here knows it now. Not a girl I’m seeing. Not a girl who comes around with a casserole.Mine.The club guards an Old Lady the same as a patched brother. Anybody puts a hand on you or threatens you, they answer to all of us. That’s what just happened out here.”
She takes that in. “And the rest of it? The house, the school. Were you saying that to scare him?”
“It’s true.” I wrap both hands along the curve of her jaw and tip her face up. “I’ve never needed much. I have money saved. A lot of money. Don’t think about paying for school again. I’m buying you a house the day you tell me where. I’ll take care of you, Eden. That wasn’t a line for your father. It’s real.”
