It was unlocked. Locke guided me inside and I realised it was a workshop and it smelled like the coat keeping me warm.
LikeRemy. I glanced at the metalwork tools scattered around. Piles of old coins and gemstones. A jewellery bag with a logo that made my brain glitch. “Why does that look familiar?”
“I was going to make you guess.” Locke pressed a swift kiss to my cheek. “But we’ll miss the sunrise if I’m that mean.”
He opened a box on a workbench and showed me the contents—a beautiful ring crafted from a copper penny, just like...
“Remymade Embry and Mateo’s wedding rings?”
Locke grinned enough to make his eyes crinkle. “The first Christmas Liliana was with us. I watched her find him on Etsy when no one was supposed to know they were going to get married in the spring. But I didn’t know he was hooking up with Lo at the time. That came later.”
“How much later?”
“A few weeks after Logan got hurt. I came to see him just before River’s garage burned down.”
I blew out a breath. “Why are all our trips down memory lane so potholed?”
“Cos you can’t have the sun without the moon.” Locke turned me to the big window at the back of the workshop. It was east facing, opening out onto the hillside, the charcoal sky fighting the first glimpse of an orange glow. He tugged me closer. “Pretty sure this is my brother’s favourite spot for alfresco fucking, but if it wasn’t and things were different right now, I want you to know that I’d totally bend you over this counter.”
I laughed for real, loudness bursting from me, setting me free. “I’d totallylet you.”
“I know, queenie, I know.”
Locke kissed me, for real, his lips a searing burn that quieted my mind and slackened my body, heat pulsing in every nerve. But he was wicked, and it wasshort. He pulled back and fixed me with a deep stare. “There’s something else I want to tell you.”
“I’m listening.”
“The rings.” Locke slid a hand up the nape of my neck, rough fingers tangling in my hair. “Before it came together for me, I was thinking of leaving. How I felt about Nash had scared me for years. Then I met you and I was fuckin’ terrified. I didn’t know how I was going to survive being around you when I wanted you both so much, and cos I’m thick, running away seemed the best option.”
“What changed your mind?”
“Lots of things—everything. But when I saw those rings, when I knew they’d come from this place, from Remy, it felt like a sign, and I never thought about leaving again.”
Until someone took him.
Like all of the club refugees who’d made it this far, Locke was wearing clothes that didn’t belong to him. A flannel shirt that made him seem more lumberjack than biker. “Would you have come here? If you’d left?”
“I’d have wanted to, but no. I couldn’t be that far away from my kids.”
As it did so often, a phone chimed on cue.
Willow.
Locke studied the message, typing back one-thumbed while his other hand stayed on my neck.
“Is she okay?”
He nodded, distracted for a moment, then he set the phone down. “She’s scared you and Nash hate her now.”
“We could never.Nashcould never?—”
“I know.” Locke silenced me. “But as much as her shitty decision making isn’t always something she can control, she has to learn there’s consequences when she gets it as wrong as she did with this.”
“You’re a strict dad.”
“I’m really not. It wasn’t her fault that a drunk driver crossed the central reservation, but if she hadn’t fucked up, she wouldn’t have been there. Neither would Nicky, or Nash, or Cam, and she needs to sit with that for a while.”
He was right. I knew that. But a snippet of information derailed me. “Who was drunk? The lorry driver?”