Page 105

Bunnies ran rampant, dressed in barely-there leather and slinked up to the Crows.

The promise of carnality was thick in the air, the oxygen drenched in sex and lechery.

Elena shifted behind me like she felt it, too.

My stomach tightened.

It made me want to lose my damned head when she was in the mix of it. I’d thought it my duty to shield her from the depravity, the typical parts of a motorcycle club that we allowed since we had to look legit.

Something the men demanded, anyway, since they’d been drawn to this life because they refused to conform to the typical laws of society.

Guilt clamped down on my ribs. Felicity had hated it, too. Hated that I was a part of it, even though that’s where she’d met me.

Or maybe what she had really hated was that I had cared more about Elena being there than her.

I kept moving down the lane, twisting through the thicket and underbrush that surrounded the road before the house appeared at the farthest backside of the property.

I eased to a stop in front of it.

The screen door burst open, and Brinley busted out with Kai hooked to her hip. “Two days in a row. How did this girl get so lucky?”

Elena all but flew off the back of my bike.

She ripped off her helmet, and it thunked to the grass-covered ground.

“Um, I told you not to fret since you’d likely see me more now that I moved than you did before.”

With her smile stretched wide, Brinley laughed. She was a knockout. Kind to boot. Good for Silas and Kai. That kid who was so fucking sweet as he reached a hand toward Elena.

“You come home, Wena. We miss!” he called, the child already dressed in his pajamas.

My guts tangled in a knot at the sight of him.

So fucking precious.

So fucking sweet.

I swallowed around the thickness in my throat and swung off.

“That’s right, we do!” Brinley shouted as she bounced her son on her hip. Not by blood, but by everything that truly counted. “You can bet I was fretting.”

“Pssh, you are so full of it,” Elena said. “Don’t tell me you haven’t already moved your things into my closet.”

“Okay, that’s just a tiny bonus that I’m not really considering a bonus at all. I only go in there so I can reminisce about you.”

“Such flattery,” Elena said as she hopped up the steps. She tugged Kai out of Brinley’s arms and squeezed him tight. “Oh, my goodness, my little shmooshy-boo. Auntie thought about you all day today.”

“You fink about me?” He scrunched up his little button nose as he tipped his head back to look at her.

I could feel Elena’s affection ripple out. I wondered if I was the only one in the world who could feel that there was a tiny bit of sorrow woven in it.

Had to wonder if Elena could feel mine, too, considering she seemed to be able to see straight through me.

“I sure did.”

“You got new store?”

“I sure do!” She bounced him.