A small, scared part of me wanted to burrow deeper in the cave and stay there another full day. I had no weapons or recourse against a man with skill and a gun, if he had one. It would have been easier to hide.
But I pictured Nova going to his room at the compound and seeing me gone, my wallet left on the bedside table beside my car keys.
He’d freak out when I didn’t return in a timely manner.
Then the club would freak out.
And the Booths.
I wrapped my arms around my shivering torso and took off back through the forest. Tears ran down my cheeks unchecked, but it felt good to shed them. It felt as if I’d been scared for so long, of what might happen to my family and friends, what had happened to Dane, and now the sheer terror I’d experience myself… it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
When I finally found the path that led back to the industrial neighborhood north of the city, I turned west and walked along the water, holding the stitch in my side until I hit the high, chain link fence of The Fallen compound.
I could see activity through the fence, brothers getting on motorbikes, Zeus bellowing something to someone inside the clubhouse while Bat emerged from Hephaestus Auto carrying a gun.
The gates were open, so I made my way slowly up the drive and stopped just at the mouth beyond the gate.
“Hey,” I called weakly, then tried again. “Hey!”
As one, the men stopped mobilizing and looked at me.
“Nova!” Zeus shouted into the open door of the brick clubhouse. “She’s here.”
A second later, Nova was in the doorframe, his hair a rioting mess, his face taut with strain.
“Flower Child,” he mouthed, and a second later, he was pushing off the door and sprinting in his motorcycle boots and heavy leather cut directly to me.
I gasped as he caught me up in his arms, cradling the back of my head and holding me up with an arm under my ass. He smelled like home, spicy smoke and leather. I dragged deep lungfuls of his fragrance into my chest and focused on not breaking down.
“What the fuck happened?” he barked, already carrying me into the clubhouse.
Loulou met us at the door with a blanket and tucked it around my shoulders when Nova sat us both in the first couch by the door. I thanked her with a shaky smile and accepted her kiss on my crown.
Then, I told the collected brothers what happened, feeling Nova get tenser than an uncomfortable plastic chair beneath me.
When I was done, Zeus immediately stood up and growled, “Meetin’, church, fuckin’ now. Get the brothers back I sent off already. Fuckin’ fuck, this ends now. If we gotta storm that fuckin’ production lot, we will.”
There was a collective grumble and grunt of assent. Most of the men shot me sweet little smiles as they followed orders and moved toward their sacred meeting room at the left side of the clubhouse, but Zeus himself stalked toward me and crouched his huge frame at my feet.
His face was filled with so much fury, it was hard not to feel frightened when one of his big, scared hands reached out to gently touch my face.
“We got you,” he told me quietly. “We’re gonna handle this now, yeah? You did good, Li, gettin’ that info for Curtains. But we can take shit from ’ere on out. You never shoulda been involved. Fuckin’ regret sanctionin’ this shit…I was in a bad place with King’s passin’, but fuck, that’s no excuse.”
I put my hand over his on my cheek and mustered a genuine smile for him. “It’s the best excuse and probably the only one that would have allowed you to let me do this. I would’ve anyway, Z, but I’m glad I didn’t have to do it behind your back.”
His smile was soft, blurred at the edges with sadness. “Brave girl, ya got, Nova.”
“Don’t I know it,” he responded woodenly. “Meetcha in there in a minute, boss man.”
There was something in his voice, something toxic, that Z seemed to notice, too, because he looked over my shoulder at his brother for a long moment before he sighed loudly, clapped my thigh, and left for church.
“Lou, give us a second, will ya?” Nova asked.
Loulou bit her lip as she looked between us, pity in her expression when it lingered on me.
And I knew.
Just as Z and Lou had.
Nova wasn’t just freaking out. He was breaking, tearing off the piece of me he harboured in his chest, readying to give it back to me.
I didn’t notice Lou leaving, but I didn’t have to because Nova spoke as soon as she did.
“This ends now,” he intoned like some automated speaker at the end of a 1-800 number.