Page 75 of Where Sinners Repent

She nuzzles into my palm as if these very hands weren’t just wrapped around her throat and squeezing for dear life. Then...

She fucking smiles.

A small, satisfied curve of her lips.

My chest aches and without thinking, I gather her against me, lifting her from Kaleb and holding her tightly against my body. More carefully than I ever have before.

“That was...” she breathes in the crook of my neck, her fingers dancing through my hair. She sniffles, searching for the words. “A lot.”

“I’m... sorry,” I whisper the words I don’t think I’ve ever uttered, holding her tighter.

She pulls back, eyes finding mine. She’s here, but also not quite here. Stuck in that place that wild sex can pull you.

“No,” she breathes. “Good, a lot.”

Her fingertips slide over a thick scar on my collarbone, and my eyes follow them, fighting the instinct to hide my body. Behind me, the sound of clothes rustling as Kaleb gets dressed, barely pulls my attention. I hear the bedroom door open and close, but all I can feel is the steady sound of her heartbeat beneath my fingers.

The beat I’d almost stolen.

Chapter 19

Kaleb

Exhaustion weighs heavily on my shoulders while we wait for Harvey. Even though I haven’t slept right for the last two days, I’m still aware of the tension in the room.

Something doesn’t feel quite right.

It has my eyes scanning the room I’ve been in hundreds of times; with people we consider allies.

Times like this really prove who your real allies are and those that are just snakes waiting in the grass.

Usually by now, Harvey would have us in his office, while some girl was tied into a ball, hanging from the roof, or with his cock resting in her mouth.

He’d be prying about club secrets and sitting there with a sly smirk on his face, prodding Ash for a reaction for his own amusement. Now, he’s nowhere to be seen. One of his brothers answered the door and asked us to wait in the office.

It feels wrong.

I know Ash feels it too. Sitting in a chair with his ankle over his knee, he can’t keep his foot still. Fingers tap against the armrests in a relentless beat. The man has been driving himself crazy trying to put out fires left, right, and centre.

He’s been hiding Maddy away from the club, out of paranoia and fear of losing his obsession. Things have felt... different.

The Devils are partying less. Fucking less. Looking over their shoulders more.

And now this fucking mess with Kai and Roxanne fucking Kavanagh. Whatever happened two nights ago has been stuck in my mind, and I can’t seem to pry it out. Can’t force it to fit into the version of my brother that I’ve known for my entire life.

The way my brother yelled like that. His entire composure fracturing in front of me. Stripped his shirt and showed all of his scars and burns, ones that he’s spent his entire life hiding beneath his tattoos and leather. It’s a level of emotion I didn’t think he was capable of.

I’ve seen him tear another man apart with his bare hands with the same expression he’d wear while drinking a coffee.

Nothing ever reached him.

Until her.

And then, when we got home...

A part of me wonders if I should have just left them to it. If I’d walked away, I would have returned to find a body on the floor with my brother sitting beside it, the emptiness back in his eyes where it belongs.

It’s a dark, horrible thought.