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There had been a time when I hadn’t needed to stand in the dark and wonder what she was to me.

There had been a time when she was simply mine.

Not in the way men like Nico meant it. Not ownership. Not possession. Nothing ugly. Just the quiet, fierce certainty of two stupid kids choosing each other in whatever scraps of secrecy the world allowed them. A time before locked doors and silence, before every glance had to be translated and every touch stolen through glass.

My girl.

The words came unbidden and sat heavy in my chest.

And before I could stop it, the memory was already there, curling at the edges of my mind like smoke. Her at seventeen, eyes flashing, mouth too smart for her own good, looking at me like I was something worth choosing. Worth keeping.

Worth the risk.

I slid the helmet over my head and kicked the bike to life, but the woods, the cameras, the job—all of it had already begun to fall away.

Because now I wasn’t thinking about routes or shipments or the Riders getting bolder.

I was thinking about the first time Gabriella had truly been mine.

Chapter 22

Gabriella

Before

17 Years Old

Luke had a girlfriend. Or at least, that was what people were saying.

The funny thing was, for one stupid, humiliating second, I had let myself hope they meant me.

But of course they never meant me.

I was never the girl people spoke about when they talked about Luke.

Now that we had both left the local high school, we didn’t see each other nearly as much, but he made the effort to stop by at least once a week. Our late-night texting sessions had turned into late-night rides. We went everywhere and nowhere, all at once. Sometimes we drove to Skegness, and watched the waves at night. Other times we simply hung around locally, watching the stars and talking about life.

But one thing was always consistent: it was done in secret.

At first, that thrilled me. After our… I hated to call it a fight, but that’s what it was. After our fight when Luke had rescued me from my date with Darren, it was nice to know he was still around, that he still wanted to be my friend.

There was some awkwardness… especially as we both knew that we wanted this to be something more. But we were content to be secret friends.

Even though that title didn’t quite fit.

We were something more, but neither of us had ever said what. Friends didn’t sneak out in the middle of the night to watch the stars together. But we weren’t anything official, either.

And then there were occasions like now, where rumours were flying around about his sex life, and I realised just how much of a secret I really was.

Natalie had no idea how much it hurt when she told me Luke was caught at his clubhouse with Dante, and some random girl spread between them. She had no idea that I would hate the visual of Luke leaving bite marks on some other girl’s neck. But Natalie thrived on gossip, and she always gave me the latest.

I had no room to complain. I was a seventeen-year-old girl, and I had a lot to make up for.

In the year since Darren, I had dated myself. But I was always aware that Luke and I weresomething, and so I was much more discreet than he was. I wasn’t willing to put my life on hold for a man who might never be ready, but I also wasn’t willing to hurt him by flaunting any men I might have in his face.

Fool as I was, though, I had blown off a date tonight to ride with Luke again. Even after hearing about his threesome with Dante—a secret that had earned them a beat-down from Kitty. Or Mama, as they called her. Even after months of being his secret, the tradition of riding with him, sneaking back into my house, and flashing the light to let him know I was safe… it was my routine. Ingrained in me.

I couldn’t let it go, even if part of me broke every time I heard he was giving a piece of himself to someone else.