Page 16 of Wilder’s Mistake

“Yeah.”

“Why did you take them?”

“Perdition moved through our territory under King. Kane ended it. Bishop tried the old road anyway.”

“So you stole a rival club’s shipment to make a point.”

“We took property moving through our land after they were warned.”

Lucy looks toward the garage. “That is the same sentence from two different moral systems.”

“Welcome to an outlaw club.” She doesn’t flinch from the answer. That matters more than agreement.

“They threatened me because I married you?”

“They used your name because somebody gave it to them. We just don’t know who.”

“What does that mean?” she asks.

“It means Cyrus chose the wrong woman.”

Her mouth tightens. “You are very good at answering a different question.”

“I’ll answer it when I know you’re safe.”

“You keep promising tomorrow.”

“Then stay alive long enough to collect.”

I put my thumb over the mark at her throat. Her pulse jumps beneath it.

“Wilder,” she whispers.

I kiss the mark slowly. Her hands close around the sides of my cut.

“Your club is preparing for an attack,” she says. “This might not be the time.”

“I know.”

“And you are doing this anyway?”

“I have a minute.”

“That confident, huh?”

“About you? Yeah.”

I turn her against the porch post and kiss her mouth. The first touch is controlled. The second carries everything unfinished in my room. Lucy’s hand slides beneath my cut and over my side, and I break away before a minute becomes the whole afternoon that I don’t have.

“Inside.”

“You do enjoy giving me orders.”

“I enjoy you still breathing more.”

She hears the fear beneath the words. Her expression changes before she nods and walks into the clubhouse. I spend the afternoon checking the approaches into the compound. Summer heat presses sap and dust into the air. Tank reports nothing from the east. Griz follows a dark pickup near the river for six miles before the driver turns into a farm and starts unloading feed.

The Road Captain’s job is not leading from the front because it looks good. It is seeing the turn that will split a formation, the gravel shoulder that can swallow a rear tire, the vehicle that appears twice where it has no reason to be. Today every decision carries Lucy at the center of it, and I hate that Cyrus has forced her into the situation.