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“It’s the cut,” she says in an overly dramatic voice. “It’s making me extra bossy.”

I chuckle. “That ain’t how property cuts work, darlin’.”

She reaches between us and takes me in her hand. The joking comes to a screeching stop when she guides me to her opening.

I push inside slowly until I’m buried deep. Her breath catches, and her arms close around my shoulders. I stay there for a moment with my forehead resting against hers, enjoying the feel of her beneath me. Then I begin to move.

There’s desperate need building between us tonight. I know her body now, and she trusts me with it. It’s hard to hold back and go slow when we both want it so badly. It takes discipline to pull almost all the way out before pushing deep again, without rushing the moment. Her nails drag down my back while she lifts her hips to meet every thrust.

The leather shifts beneath my hands, reminding me she accepted everything I offered today. My property cut. My club. My home. My cock. She’s eager for all of it.

I slide my hand between our bodies and circle her clit with my thumb. Her inner muscles begin tightening around my cock.

“Sabre,” she gasps. I can tell by the tone of her voice she’s about to come screaming. She does that sometimes. I cover her mouth with mine as she comes again. Her body locks down and then contracts rhythmically around me until I can barely hold back. When she whispers naughty things in my ear, I lose the fight. I thrust deep and hold, groaning her name as I come inside her.

Afterward, Linsey sprawls across my chest and traces one of the tattoos on my arm lazily. I realize in this moment I don’t think I’ve ever felt happier or more at peace with my life.

We chat back and forth for a while before she drops off to sleep. Before I close my eyes, I reach for my phone and check the backyard camera. The tent glows green in the night vision feed. Two boy-sized shapes fill the sleeping bags, and one flashlight is still on beneath the canvas even though it’s well past midnight. The yard is secure. The house is quiet. Everyone I love is safe.

Chapter 16

Linsey

I’m standing at the kitchen counter with a piece of toast in my hand when my phone rings. I pull it out of my back pocket with my free hand. When I see the call is from my cousin Shelly, I answer immediately.

“Hello, Shelly. What’s up?”

“I’ve got some news for you. Is this a bad time?”

Sabre walks across the kitchen with a piece of bacon in his hand, because we’re both feral when it comes to walking around eating in the kitchen. I put the phone on speaker so we can both talk to her.

I’d texted Shelly after Dylan got arrested and updated her on the situation. Seeing as she had warned me that he might come looking, I wanted to keep her in the loop. “It’s never a bad time for you. I’m making breakfast but I’ve put you on speaker. Sabre’s here with me, is it okay if he listens in?” I ask her.

“Sure, now you’re with him it could affect him too.” I can hear a door close on her end. “I figured out how Dylan found you. It was our family.”

I freeze with my piece of toast halfway to my mouth. “Wait. What? Start at the beginning and tell me everything.”

“Aunt Dorothy died two months ago.” Her voice sounds pained when she talks about Aunt Dorothy. “About a month after the funeral, your mama and daddy came down to clean out her house. That’s when they found the letters.”

Aunt Dorothy was Aunt Carol’s sister. When my aunt left Billings she told me that she didn’t speak to any of the family anymore. That’s why I felt she’d understand why I had to leave too. I’m confused, so I ask, “What letters?”

“Aunt Carol’s letters. She and Aunt Dorothy wrote to each other for years. I guess they kept in touch secretly. Aunt Dorothy kept every single one of them in a big tin with her other keepsakes.”

I look up at Sabre. He stops chewing.

“Aunt Carol wrote to Dorothy,” I say slowly, trying to work this out in my head. “Since when?”

“They go back ten years.”

I consider what she’s just said. Aunt Carol took me in when I showed up on her porch with a black eye and a suitcase. Carol, Dorothy, and my father are siblings, but couldn’t be less alike. I don’t know the full story as she didn’t like to talk about it, but I did know that Aunt Carol had a falling out with my father which resulted in her leaving the community when I was a child.

She always said that she never told anyone in that family where I was because she didn’t trust any of them. But Dorothy wasn’t just anyone, she was Aunt Carol’s sister. I wonder if me turning up on her doorstep made her reach out to her sister?

“What was in the letters? Do you know?” I ask.

“She spoke about you and Noah. How she loved having you both staying with her.” Shelly’s voice goes soft. “She talked about his birthdays, how smart he is, and how he’s crazy about military history. She wrote about you being a chef. She even talked about the classes you teach and the little catering jobs you take on the side. She was so proud, saying it was thanks to you, that the restaurant you worked at back in LA got a Michelin star, and how she wouldn’t be surprised if The Gilded Fig got one too.”

I can feel myself tearing up as my emotions get the better of me. “She was bragging on me and Noah and pretty much told Aunt Dorothy everything about us, right?”