Page 45 of After the Burn

Gideon typically got folks moving fast after the medical check.

Keeping Taryn and Lila there overnight meant one of two things: He wanted to find out more about them, or he already had someone in mind for them.

Neither option pleased me.

The boarding house door creaked open behind me before Beck stepped outside shirtless, tattoos stretching across hard muscle as he scrubbed a towel over his damp hair.

Beck and I had gotten to know each other better. He was a fiercely loyal man who didn’t speak just to hear himself talk. He could be brutal, but there was usually a reason for it.

In short, I liked the guy. I just didn’t want to share the woman I loved, and I was sure he felt the same way.

We were both going to have to move past that.

Max was still asleep on the couch, refusing the pallet on the floor I’d made for him. Apparently, Taryn had kept spoiling him after we left.

Several women walking toward the cafe slowed at the sight of Beck, and I rolled my eyes. “Put on a shirt before they break their necks.”

He hadn’t even fought in the ring yet, and the females were already trying to get him to claim them.

I’d also had to be blunt with several myself.

Beck curled his lip in disgust and ignored them. “What are we going to do about Taryn?” He sighed. “And Lila?”

“I’m working on it.” I stared out toward the jail.

“Are the guards still there?” Beck asked.

“Yes.”

His jaw flexed.

Violence sat close to the surface in Beck at all times now. The apocalypse hadn’t created it. It had simply removed the need to hide it.

“She hates enclosed spaces,” he muttered.

I snorted, “Taryn is smart enough not to let them know that.”

A faint grin touched Beck’s mouth, surprising me, before disappearing again. “She is smart, among other things.”

I knew, ‘Among other things,’ was her ability to think on her feet and her ruthlessness. We had that in common.

Lucas, not so much. I tried to keep my smirk from forming. He’d gotten a taste of that before everything went to shit.

Below us, a group of men walked past, laughing loudly after a night at the ring.

One of them mentioned “future claims” casually, and Beck went still.

“Did you hear that?” he asked quietly.

“Yes.”

The settlement also had rules. Rules that I hadn’t paid much attention to until now.

No assault.

No forced claims.

No touching girls before they came of age.