Page 57 of Finn's Future

Yet I’d hurt her anyway. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t intentional.

Kate had looked at me like I was the one safe thing left in her world . . . and I’d still let her walk away scared.

I hit the bag harder.

“I trust you.”

The words wouldn’t leave my head. Not when I scrubbed floors. Not when I stood gate duty half-asleep at three in the morning. Not even when Reaper looked straight through me like I was a liability instead of a brother.

Kate trusted me.

And I’d still failed her.

A week.

Seven long, grinding days of keeping my head down and doing whatever the hell Reaper threw at me.

And it wasn’t nothing.

It was everything. All the shitty jobs prospects were made to do. I’d thought those days were long behind me. Scrubbing bikes until my hands stung and chrome reflected my own pissed-off face back at me. Hauling trash after the brothers and club girls tore through the bar. Supply runs. Gate duty. Fixing shit that had nothing to do with me.

The split in my lip had healed enough to stop bleeding, but every time my jaw ached, I remembered exactly where I stood with Reaper.

The brothers noticed too. Nobody mentioned it directly, but they knew.

Reaper didn’t swing on patched men unless something mattered.

It didn’t stop Lucy from giving me hell, though.

I sat in the clubhouse after a late lunch, turning a rag through my hands more than actually cleaning anything, when Lucy dropped into the chair opposite me.

“You’re an idiot,” she snapped immediately, folding her arms tight. “You had one job, Finn. One.”

I kept my eyes on the rag. “Yeah, I know.”

“No, I don’t think you do,” she shot back. “Kate trusted you. She needed you. And you what? Decided to remind her exactly why she doesn’t trust men?”

“That’s not what happened.”

Lucy let out a sharp laugh. “Oh, yeah? Because from where I was standing, it looked like you had a club girl in your lap while Kate walked through the door. Then you let her hear that she means nothing to you.”

The guilt hit hard enough, I didn’t answer straight away.

Before I could, another voice cut in.

“Sounds like someone needs a distraction.”

Riley slid beside the table, hips swaying as she leaned one elbow against it. Her bright pink lips curved slowly as her eyes settled on me.

“If you’re still looking,” she added smoothly, “I’m available.”

Lucy was on her feet. “Or,” she snapped, stepping between us, “you could try finding some self-respect and fuck off.”

Riley’s smile didn’t falter. If anything, it widened slightly. “What me and Finn do isn’t really your business,” she said lightly.

“It becomes my business when you start circling my people.”

Riley tilted her head innocently. “Relax. I’m just saying the clubhouse has been tense lately.” Her eyes flicked towards Reaper’s closed office door before returning to Lucy. “And your man doesn’t exactly look happy these days.”