Page 12 of Tank's Temptation

I close the door, strip off my cut and boots, then lie beside her without touching. The mattress is wide enough to keep space between us. By dawn, there isn’t any.

Tessa sleeps on her side with her back against my chest, one bare leg tangled through mine and my arm around her waist. The shirt she put back on has ridden high enough for my palm to rest against warm skin. Her breathing is slow, but mine changes the second I wake and feel her pressed along every hard part of me.

I don’t move my hand. I don’t want to wake her, and I don’t want to let go.

That’s new. I’ve wanted women before, but wanting ended when the room emptied. With Tessa, I spent half the night on the perimeter thinking about getting back to her. Now Harlan’s men are outside the gates, church starts in twenty minutes, andall I can think about is rolling her beneath me and hearing the sound she made when she came.

She shifts against my erection, then freezes.

“You’re awake.” Her head turns enough for me to see the edge of her mouth. “That’s difficult to hide with you pressed against me like a weapon.”

“So are you, and you moved over here.” My hand tightens once on her waist, making it clear I’m not complaining.

“I was asleep. I can’t be held responsible for my unconscious decisions.” She says it dryly, but her hips settle back instead of moving away.

I slide my palm over her stomach, slow enough for her to stop me. Tessa catches my wrist only to guide my hand higher beneath the shirt. The first touch of her breast turns every thought in my head dark and simple.

She arches into my palm. I put my mouth against the side of her neck and feel her pulse jump beneath my lips.

A fist strikes the door twice. “Church,” Judge calls from the hall. “Five minutes.”

Tessa closes her eyes and mutters that she’s beginning to dislike my vice president.

“He knows.” I drag my thumb across her nipple once before forcing myself to let her go. “Stay here until I know what Gray found outside the fence.”

Her expression sharpens as she rolls to face me. “Don’t start telling me where I’m allowed to be again.”

The warning lands cleanly. I sit up and reach for my jeans. “Church is patched members only. After that, you hear everything that concerns you.”

She studies me, then nods because the difference is real. I leave her my second clean shirt, hang her now-dry jeans over the chair and pull on my cut.

The last thing I see before I walk out is Tessa watching me fasten the ENFORCER patch across my chest, disappointment at the interruption still visible on her face.

Kane waits at the head of the church table with the murder sequence spread in printed sheets before him. Judge sits at his right. Cash has a map of Ransom marked with Harlan’s vehicles, known properties and the roads his men used overnight. Gray remains standing near the wall, his phone facedown in one hand.

Every patched brother is present. Chains takes his usual seat and says nothing. Griz looks at the photographs longer than most, jaw working as he studies Harlan’s gun and Morrow falling.

Kane doesn’t waste time. He tells the room Harlan fabricated a demand for money to make Tessa look like Morrow’s partner. He expected us to recover the camera and laptop without examining the files. When I told him we’d seen the murder sequence, he tried to call the shooting self-defense, then ordered me to wipe the evidence and kill her. Judge follows with the facts Cash verified, making it clear Kane’s original order covered retrieval and a short hold only. Nobody at the table mistakes what changed.

Cash points to three marks north of town. “Two vehicles rotated along the public road, and a third dropped a man near the rear service track. Gray’s team lost one car near the river, but we have the plates and both registered addresses. Harlan owns the shell company on one. The other belongs to a foreman at the Rivermark.”

Griz leans back. “What happens to the advance? We took a contract, and now we’re switching sides.”

Kane’s gaze settles on him. “Harlan lied to us about the contract, aimed this club at a civilian and tried to make us bury his part in a murder. His money goes back with our answer. The matter is closed.”

A long second passes before Griz nods. “Then tell me where you need me.”

Kane gives him the north road with two brothers, then assigns the remaining perimeter and vehicle teams. The new way doesn’t make the club uncertain. It tells us exactly who deserves what we do.

I look down at the photographs. Harlan handed us a target, a plausible lie and just enough truth to stop us looking closer. Under King, that would have been enough. He thought I was useful because I didn’t ask what was on the files or why the target had been chosen; I only made sure the job got done. Kane never asked that of me. Harlan counted on me behaving as if he had.

“She’s no longer the job,” I say.

Kane meets my eyes. “No. Harlan is. He made sure of that the moment he lied to us.”

Gray’s phone vibrates against his palm before Kane can continue. He reads the message, pushes away from the wall and says, “Rear tree line. We’ve got one of Harlan’s guys.”

Gray and Cash bring him through the side door of the workshop with his wrists bound behind him and mud ground into the knees of his pants. He’s younger than I expected, maybe twenty-eight, with a Rivermark security badge clipped beneath hisjacket and enough confidence left to sneer when Kane tells the others to clear the work bay.