Page 172 of Romeo

Ma Belle: You’d better make it good.

Me: You’ll have my complete attention. That good enough?

Ma Belle: It’s a start.

I smiled down at the phone.

Another apology hovered at the edge of my thoughts, but I didn’t send it. She didn’t need another one. She didn’t need another paragraph explaining why I wasn’t there.

She needed me to eventually fucking show up.

I slid the phone into my pocket and headed downstairs.

Shotgun, Ace, Big Ben, and Archie were already outside checking their gear. Chasm stood beside his Harley, staring across the compound while his thoughts went wherever the hell they went when that distant look settled over him.

I climbed onto my bike and wrapped my hands around the grips.

For months, I’d convinced myself distance gave Fiona some kind of protection from the shit we were dealing with. Nebraska and Virginia were far enough apart that the violence surrounding the club couldn’t easily spill into her life.

After the attack, that reasoning didn’t comfort me the way it used to. Fiona was still in Virginia, still far away from everything happening here, still safe. But for the first time, all I could feel was the distance itself. I’d spent months treating those miles like they were protecting her.

Now they just felt like they were keeping me from her.

And now King was sending me in the opposite direction again.

I understood why. Chasm was stepping into a presidency while half his life was coming apart around him. Letting him take off alone while the rest of this shit remained unsettled would’ve been fucking stupid.

Understanding it didn’t mean I had to fucking like it.

I started the engine and felt the familiar vibration roll through me. Fiona’s last few messages were still sitting heavy in my head.

I wanted you here.

I’m just tired of missing you.

Sooner or later, I needed to stop asking that woman to trust that I’d eventually arrive and actually show the fuck up.

Ace pulled up beside me. “You ready for this shit?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Not really.”

Ahead of us, Chasm was already rolling toward the gate.

I shook my head and put the bike in gear.

“Then let’s get this shit over with.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Romeo

The ride to Little Rock took a day and a half, and there wasn’t a mile of it where I completely relaxed. Any vehicle that stayed behind us too long caught my attention, and every overpass, side road, and gas station became another place someone could be waiting.

By the time the old warehouse came into view, every muscle in my body ached. I should’ve felt something coming back here. Nostalgia. Anger. Maybe even relief.

Instead, I found myself calculating how many more miles Little Rock had put between me and Rosewood.