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The few candles that had been lit out there had already been snuffed, and only a couple dingy lights filtering from the eaves illuminated the gravel parking lot.

Darkness sat heavy, but the air was cool and thin. A gentle breeze rustled through the trees, and a canopy of stars were smattered overhead.

“About time to roll,” Regan said to three other Crows standing out near their bikes as he clomped across the porch and down the stairs.

I didn’t startle when Phoenix pushed out from where he was concealed in the gloom against the wall in the corner of the porch.

I’d already sensed him lurking there.

I could barely make out his murky, intimidating shape as he stepped forward.

Pure menace radiated out. Baited violence and shackled demons.

A bustle of unease rippled through my consciousness.

Or maybe it was just my conscience that wouldn’t rest.

I glanced back through the windows and into the store to find Elena moving behind the main counter. She ducked down for a beat to get something out of a low cabinet before she straightened and tucked it into her big bag that sat on the counter.

My heart thundered in my chest.

I realized I was staring in a way that was far from reasonable, and I cleared my throat and started to angle around Phoenix.

“Gonna go check to make sure the lids are secured on the garbage cans. Don’t want to be suckering in any bears.” It was the first excuse I could think of.

Before I could pass, his hand shot out and gripped me by the shoulder, and he angled his head so he was speaking near my ear. “You’d better fuckin’ watch yourself, man. You think I don’t know what was going down in there? You think the rest of the guys didn’t?”

For one beat, the blood froze in my veins, then I grated out another lie. “Don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

Phoenix’s discordant laugh was a warning. “Don’t bullshit me, Trev. I’m not a fucking idiot, and neither is Silas. It’s been clear to me for years that you want her. Way you watch her. Way everything about you shifts when she comes into the room. Bending her way.”

Nerves scattered through my body.

Pricks of pain that made me feel like I was being electrocuted.

“I—”

“I know you withstood for years, and I’m not sure how long this has been going on, but I fucking heard you while I was doing a loop around the building.”

My throat closed off.

Fuck.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

His voice lowered more. “I get it. I get you wanting her, and I know you two have a ton of history. But you can’t have her. Silas trusted you to take care of his sister, and I’m pretty sure that’s not the way he asked you to do it. His mercy only extends so far.”

Shame rippled through Phoenix’s face when he said the last. He’d nearly found the bullet end of Silas’s gun a few months back. When he thought he was protecting the club, but it turned out he’d only put Brinley in danger.

He’d made a fucking bad choice, but it’d been done out of his concern for this mismatched family.

I was deliberately breaking an oath that I’d taken.

But my oath went so much deeper than the one I’d made to Crimson Crows.

This was the oath I’d made to Silas years ago. When I’d shown up outside his house when I was eighteen and swore my allegiance to him.

A plea for his forgiveness after what I caused. The treachery I’d meted.