Page 44 of Pain

And yeah, I’d made some sort of promise to him about wanting revenge against Devil for what he’d done, and Knight had become the one and only person I’d ever met who I thought I could legitimately count on to take care of me.

But I was still just a girl he’d literally picked up off the street, member of another MC, and personally attached to his arch enemy. I’d done everything I could to prove that I didn’t want anything to do with said arch enemy, but for all Knight knew, I was some sort of spy or something, sent to learn all his deepest, darkest secrets so Devil could use them for nefarious purposes.

I might be feeling like Knight held a piece of my soul and wasn’t ever going to get it back. But that didn’t mean he felt the same way, and it sure as hell didn’t mean I belonged here. It therefore didn’t give me the right to be worried about him having been gone so long, or furious that he hadn’t managed to call anyone to check in.

I mean, technically.

In real life, though, I was so worried I could hardly see straight, and spitting mad about him not having called anyone.

Even worse, he’d left me here with Gemini and Mandy, and though Mandy and I had ended this morning as enemies-turned-friends with her crying on my shoulder about how worried she was, that hadn’t wiped out my awareness that this might all be happening because of me.

I’d taken it personally when she said it was my fault Gemini had been shot.

That didn’t mean I didn’t agree with her. And the guilt of being around the two of them and pretending I didn’t feel that way just might kill me.

I huffed and turned, intent on at least getting out of the clubhouse where they were both napping, and made my way into the garage. Gemini wouldn’t be out there, I didn’t think, as he was currently on bed or couch rest, and Mandy was occupied with taking care of him. By which I meant she was making sure he stayed in bed or on the couch.

The garage should be a safe space. Maybe even quiet enough for me to do some real thinking—and planning.

After all, Devil and his guys had sent Mandy a picture that included a threat to show up at the Banshee headquarters tonight unless they gave me back. I didn’t think Knight would go for it, but I also knew he’d have to put it to a vote and let his guys decide what they thought. And when it came right down to it, I thought I knew what their decision would be. They didn’t know me, and they didn’t have any loyalty to me. They weren’t going to be willing to risk their own lives and the lives of their brothers on a girl they didn’t know. They’d voted yesterday to go to war with Devil and protect me, sure, but I was guessing that might change with Devil’s offer of peace.

As long as they let him have me back.

I wanted to think I was safe here and that they wouldn’t go for it, but I also had to be honest with myself. There was a chance they were going to give me back, and as long as that chance existed, I needed to have a plan for what I’d do if it happened.

Or how I was going to escape them when they tried to make the exchange.

Because I might not know whether the Banshees were going to continue to offer me protection, but I knew one thing: I had no intention of going back to Devil. I’d escaped him once, and there was exactly zero chance of me getting a second chance at that. So I was going to have to keep myself out of his hands, even if the Banshees tried to send me back to him.

And to do that, I would need a plan.

I walked through the door that led to the garage, stopping only long enough to grab a soda from the fridge on my way, and made my way into the garage with my eyes on the ground and my brain turning the problem over, looking for a solution. I stopped short when I heard a voice shouting.

“Watch it, girl!”

I stopped in the act of stepping forward, one foot up in the air, and looked up in time to see Tinker stepping quickly in front of me. He held his hands out to the side like he was blocking me from something and shooed me to the side. Surprised, I looked behind him to see a bike up on the rack.

A bike that had a brand new electric green coat of paint on it.

“New paint job?” I asked, stepping to the side and keeping my feet light to avoid kicking up any dust.

Tinker turned to look at the bike, his face becoming both fond and proud. “New paint job. New fenders over the wheels. New side pieces. Half the engine had to be replaced. Spent the entire night doing it.”

I grinned. “And I’m guessing you don’t want some girl walking right into it and leaving her face imprinted on the paint.”

He heard the smile in my voice and returned the grin. “You’re pretty, Saraya, but Knight wouldn’t thank you for ruining that paint.”

I turned and looked at the bike with renewed interest at his words, and now that I knew it was Knight’s, I could see the things I’d missed before. The way the handlebars were shaped, the way the seat sat atop the machine—things I’d seen on the day he saved me, but wouldn’t have recognized unless Tinker had said something.

The bike looked... completely different than it had the last time I saw it.

“You restored it,” I breathed. “You did this overnight?”

Tinker shrugged, his skin flushing with pleasure and embarrassment. “The thing was riddled with bullet holes from that little encounter yesterday, and it’s Knight’s favorite. I wasn’t going to let him ride it again like that. Hell, don’t even know if it would have started. One of the bullets went right through the engine. He’s lucky it got back from the Steeds’ HQ at all.”

I pressed my lips into a thin whistle and turned back to the bike again. These things were a marvel of engineering, every piece vital to the running of the whole. To take a bullet to the engine and keep ticking...

“He must have sold his soul to the devil himself to keep the bike running under conditions like that,” I said frankly.