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One from the group text labeled SS.
Swore, the tattoo on the back of my hand throbbed. The searing truth of who we were.
SS
We have a situation. Midnight.
It was all the information I needed to know what had to be done. I glanced at the time. Fifteen to twelve.
I looked back at the girl who was gazing back at me. “Sleep well, Little Runner. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
She nodded again before she lifted her hand and brushed her fingertips over the screen like she was physically trying to meet with me before she whispered, “Goodnight.”
I ended the call before I got stupid and said something else, and I scrubbed both palms over my face to break up the disorder the girl had left in me then sat up on the side of my bed.
I was still dressed, so I quickly worked to put my boots back on, and I crept from my room and out into the bare light of the hall. I paused at Nolan’s door, peered in where the kid was fast asleep, the lion he used to sleep with replaced with the stuffed puppy Charleigh had given him.
My heart squeezed. Squeezed so fucking tight I couldn’t see. Couldn’t see anything but the two of them.
Forcing myself to move, I pulled his door closed, leaving it open a couple inches, before I crept farther down to Raven’s room. I quietly tapped at the door with my knuckles.
“Yeah?” she called from inside.
I nudged it open. She was sitting up against her headboard, under the covers with her tablet on her lap. She looked up and smiled, thoughthe smile fell off her face when she saw whatever must have been written on mine.
“What’s wrong?”
“Got a call.”
Worry flashed through her expression. “You have to go now?”
“Yeah. Can you keep an ear out for Nolan?”
Her brow pinched. “Of course.”
“Thank you.”
She bit down on her bottom lip and gave me a slight dip of her head. I went to back out, but the tremor in her voice stopped me. “Be careful, River. We need you.”
Blowing out a strained sigh, I pushed her door open a fraction. Enough that she could see me and understand that I meant it. “Told you I would never let anything happen to me. Not when I need to be here for you and Nolan.”
I needed to remember that. My duties. My calling.
I tried to as I hurried downstairs, grabbed my keys, and strode into the garage to my bike.
But the thoughts of Charleigh remained strident in my mind.
TWENTY-TWO
RIVER
My bike rumbledas I traveled through Moonlit Ridge beneath the cover of night. Stars blanketed the sky, so many that it felt as if the town were shrouded in a blanket of silver glitter.
Hardly a soul was out, and the air was cool as the wind whipped across my face and stirred my heart into chaos.
My pulse thudded hard, a thunder that rolled as I roared down Vista View. Heavy metal vibrated beneath me, and the pavement passed by in a blur. I slowed and made the left onto Culberry, and I wound my way up the road until the area became more congested as I hit downtown.
Kane’s was packed, as per usual. A mess of cars and trucks and bikes littered the huge gravel parking lot, rolling from the front of the old building all the way out to the street.
