Page 89 of Finn's Future

Kate stiffened immediately. I handed Noah back to her and brushed my fingers lightly against her wrist.

"I’ll be back," I murmured.

Her eyes searched mine for a few moments before she nodded. I brushed my knuckles against Noah’s cheek before stepping away from them and following Reaper to the back room.

The church table was already full. Riot. Keno. Spider. Link. The prospects standing along the wall. Reaper standing at the head of the table.

The door shut behind the last brother, sealing church off from the rest of the clubhouse.

Nobody spoke while I took my seat. Reaper stayed standing.

That wasn’t a good sign.

He planted both hands on the scarred wood table and focused directly on me. "You got lucky," he said.

Straight to it. No bullshit.

I leaned back slightly in my chair. "Yeah. I figured that out when the judge didn’t bury me alive."

Nobody laughed. Reaper flicked a glance to Riot, who only nodded.

"This wasn’t only luck," Reaper continued.

I scanned between them slowly. "All right, then. What was it?"

Keno exhaled sharply and rubbed a hand over his beard.

"The Moretti’s stepped in," Reaper replied.

I frowned immediately. The Moretti family. Old money. Older violence. You didn’t cross them. You didn’t owe them. And if both happened at once . . . God help you.

"Why the fuck would they care about me?" I asked.

Nobody answered right away, and that made my stomach knot.

Finally, Riot spoke. "Because of Luca."

Right. Luca Moretti. The man who’d helped Reaper in the past. The same mafia guy who’d shown up months ago when Lucy had information on them.

I sat forward slowly. "What did he do?"

Reaper held my attention. "Made calls."

That told me enough. Judges. DA offices. Witnesses suddenly changing stories. Evidence getting softened.

Strings. Big ones.

My jaw flexed.

“Moretti was happy enough your little outburst put the stepfather in hospital,” Reaper said dryly. “Saved him collecting the debt himself, since Volkov hadn’t been able to find them. Doesn’t mean he did us a favour for free.”

"And now, we owe them." It wasn’t a question.

Reaper nodded once. "Yeah."

I dropped my attention to my hands. The bruises across my knuckles were still bright, though the pain had faded a little.

The memories hadn’t though. Kate screaming. Noah crying. Her stepfather’s blood covering the floor.