Page 59 of Finn's Future

“And Kate?”

Lucy held my gaze for a long moment.

“She’s safe,” she said. “That’s what matters right now.”

Not what I’d asked, but it was the only answer I was getting.

She stepped closer, lowering her voice enough the others couldn’t hear. “You earn your way back with both of them,” she said. “That’s the only way this ends.”

Then, she walked away, leaving me sitting there with the weight of it all heavy in my chest.

Chapter 26

Finn

Nine days without Kate and Noah had turned my house into somewhere I only slept instead of lived. Every room still carried traces of them.

One of Noah’s toy cars sat crooked beneath the coffee table where he’d kicked it. Kate’s shampoo still lingered faintly in the bathroom. Even the blanket she’d wrapped around herself at night was still folded over the arm of the couch.

I should’ve packed it all away. Instead, I kept coming home and staring at it like some pathetic bastard hoping they’d walk back through the door.

By the time I pushed into church that night, the meeting had already started. The second my boot hit the clubhouse floor, every voice cut off.

Reaper looked up from the head of the table. “You’re late.”

“Gate relief didn’t show.”

His stare held steady on mine. “You don’t miss church,” he said evenly. “And you don’t walk in after it starts.”

A beat passed.

“Or did you forget how this works?”

“No, Pres.”

The silence stretched just long enough to settle under my skin before he finally nodded towards the table.

“Sit.”

I dropped into my seat, aware of every pair of eyes following me.

Reaper got straight back to business. “Kate and the kid are secure,” he said. “Cabin’s holding. Keno’s still there full-time. Prospects rotate through the lower property.”

Relief hit harder than it should have.

Safe.

At least they were safe.

“Lucy’s been riding my arse about visiting,” Reaper added, irritation threading through his voice. “Wants to check on the baby.”

A couple of brothers smirked.

Reaper ignored them completely. “I’ll head out there myself soon,” he continued. “Make sure everything’s still locked down.”

My chest tightened at that. He was going himself, which meant he didn’t fully trust the situation either.

Link turned his laptop around. “I dug deeper into the parents,” he said. “Names are real, but everything after that gets messy.”