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CHAPTER ONE
Eight years ago
Cat watchedthe live oaks pass the backseat window of her brother’s truck as she tried to focus on anything but her twin sister slowly losing it.
“We’re five minutes out,” Devlin said.
“Oh, God…” Nora whispered.
Cat trapped Nora’s trembling hand against the cool leather backseat and swept the pad of her thumb over Nora’s sweaty but cold skin. Unlike her twin sister, Cat couldn't wait to finally arrive at the Iron Vikings clubhouse and get a glimpse of the notorious biker gang that her seventeen-year-older brother, Devlin, had joined before she was even born.
Cat had seen a man wearing the same leather jacket as her brother at the mall two weeks ago, and walked up to him to say hi while Nora stood frozen in the middle of the coffee corner.
The old biker had been friendly but also a little surprised by a thirteen-year-old girl walking up to him with a smile on her face. Turtle had been nice and even bought them humongous swirls. She hoped that the biker with the funny name would be there today.
“Do you think they have swirls?” Cat asked her brother.
Devlin's upper lip twitched in the rearview mirror in a hint of a smile. Until now, Devlin forbid them to go anywhere near his club, but somehow Turtle had persuaded him to let them come hang out this Sunday cookout.
“We should have listened to Mom,” Nora whispered.
Cat knew one thing for sure, and that was to never listen to their mother—or their dad. They only kept them away from Devlin just because he wasn’t afraid to call them out on their bullshit.
Devlin slowed the truck the moment the dirt road swirled towards a closed fence. A guy, not much older than her, hurried out of the crappy booth on the other side of the chain-link fence with the barbwire on top. He opened the fence for Devlin’s truck to enter the IVMC compound.
“Better look away if you want to keep your eyes. And close the gate, Prospect,” Devlin said in a voice that left no room to argue.
The prospect tore his eyes away from Cat and Nora in the backseat, but not before he gave Nora a wink. Nora gasped while Cat turned around, spying on the guy as he closed the gate.
“Tell me if anyone so much as blinks your way today. I’ll make sure they’ll never bother you again.”
“O-okay,” Nora whispered.
Cat huffed. “Geez. What’s so wrong with a little wink and—”
Devlin brought the truck to an abrupt full stop in the middle of the courtyard, making Cat and Nora brace themselves against the front seats.
Devlin turned around, his eyes dead calm, like his voice. “You’re my precious angel sisters and I don’t want my world touching you.”
Cat snorted at him calling her an angel.
Devlin continued undeterred, “We’re only doin’ this because I love you and I want us to stay close, even though I can’t always be with you.”
“But why can’t you come over to the house more?” Nora asked with a wobble in her soft voice.
Devlin brought a hand through his longer hair on the left side of his scalp and then over the short, buzzed side of hair on the right side.
His dark eyes almost matched his black hair as he said, “You know I can’t.”
“They’re your parents, too,” Nora said, her voice surprisingly firm.
Devlin gave her a watery smile. “Nah. They haven’t been for a long time. IVMC is my family now, but I’ll always be your big brother. It’s just better for everyone if I stay in my part of town.”
Cat startled at someone tapping her window.
“There you are! Get your little butt out of that truck so uncle Turtle can give you a hug.”
Devlin’s frown disappeared like snow on a Texas summer day. “Yo, Turtle! Aren’t you supposed to keep an eye on the ribs?”
