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Kodiak flipped through a stack of bills then handed them over to me.

I glanced from the cash to his face.

“It’s five grand,” he said. “Well under the amount the bank has to report to the IRS and FinCEN.” The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. “Put it down on a place for you and Lili.”

I shook my head and gave the cash back to him. “I love you, brother, but I can’t. And you shouldn’t want that money either, not if it’s going to put us right back where we came from.”

We’d lost too much. We’d made commitments to the Hellers. Not just the Hellers. We owed Bullet. He’d risked his life when he’d broken the chokehold the Crawlers had on us. He hadn’t just killed the Crawler club, but he’d patched us into the Hellers on his word. Kodiak wasn’t just risking his patch. He risked mine and Vega’s, too. We came in together. If Kodiak brought trouble into the club, guys like Tank wouldn’t forget where we came from.

Chapter Five

Jaymi

I wasn’t supposed to feel like this, especially about Brett. The delicious ache between my legs wasn’t supposed to become a sharp pain in my chest once he rode away. I’d lied to him when I’d said a friend was picking me up. Holly would be dead to the world after a night behind the bar at Roosters.

If I asked him, my brother would be here, but he’d have too many questions about how I got home. I couldn’t tell him about how the dangerous, but so sweet, biker who’d come to my rescue and spent the night with me. Ryan would never be satisfied with a vague explanation, and I didn’t have the gene that would allow me to lie to him.

My phone pinged. I grabbed my purse and water bottle and made my way out to the waiting ride share.

“You can sit up front if you prefer,” the woman said when I opened the back door. I took her up on her offer.

“Thank you for picking me up.” I clicked on my seatbelt and kept my purse in my lap. On our way to the school, she chatted about traffic, cats, yoga, and her favorite smoothies giving me a chance to sit quietly with my thoughts of Brett.

My crotch had been pulverized, and I’d wanted more. During the night, with his strong arms around me and the heat of his body surrounding me, I’d slept better than I had in over a year. Maybe even longer.

Somehow he’d kept the nightmares away. And that scared me because I wasn’t ready to let go, not of my anger and not of my grief.

It was still early, and the playground was quiet. I slipped into my classroom. I had a routine that worked. Each week, I picked a student to be a helper. They had to skip half of their recess, but I rewarded them at the end of the week with a prize from my treasure chest. Silly stuff like cheap barbies, army guys, rubber snakes, and big plastic ants.

I’d barely had my worksheets printed off in the copy room and grabbed a second cup of coffee from the teacher’s lounge before the kids were filing into the school with the first bell.

My heart did a little bounce when Lili came into class. Now that I’d studied the angles of her father’s face as he slept in front of the fire, I recognized the arch of her brow and the bow of her upper lip as Brett’s.

I couldn’t tamp down the flutter in my belly as she slid onto her seat at her table. She was quiet this morning, chewing on her fingernail and staring into Taco’s terrarium.

I swallowed past the tightness in my throat and clapped three times to gather my students’ attention. I’d find time to talk with her later, but for now, I had to take attendance and show them where to find Australia on a map.

During first recess, I spoke with the dealership. Something about a starter solenoid and blown fuses, not to mention the two new tires. But they promised my car would be ready by the end of the day and I could pick it up between five and six.

I sent off a quick text to Holly. If she’d pick me up, I’d treat her to an early dinner at Tuscany, this Italian restaurant downtown we both loved. After, she could drop me off at the dealership. I was still cleaning up my classroom at the end of the day when she arrived a little early.

“I’m almost ready,” I said and finished wiping the whiteboard.

“Good. I’m starving.” She sat on one of the tables and thumbed through her phone. “What happened last night? It was late when I got your message. I checked your location on Snapchat and saw you were home. I didn’t want to call because I knew you’d be asleep.”

“My car broke down. I had to get a tow.” I gathered my purse, making sure I had my phone and water bottle. “The storm was coming in, and the wait was going to be three hours.”

We made our way out of the building and out to the parking lot. “I’m so sorry I didn’t check my phone.”

“Don’t be. I know when you’re working it’s hard to hear calls coming in.”

“How long were you sitting on the side of the road? God, anything could have happened.”

Brett had said we could keep last night a secret, but I couldn’t. Not from Holly. “It’s a long story, but anything did happen.”

Once in the car, we started toward downtown. I leaned my head back against the seat. “Thanks for picking me up.”

Holly and I had gone from playing with dolls as kids to sneaking out of the house together to meet up with our boyfriends. She’d been the first person I’d confided in when I lost my virginity and again when I’d gotten pregnant. She’d known before Jeff because I’d been petrified to tell anyone. She’d held my hair while I’d puked during first period biology class every day for a month with morning sickness. When I’d gotten married, my brother had stood next to Jeff, and Holly was there for me.