Legend stops beside me. “Don’t ride stupid.”
I give him a look.
He doesn’t blink.
“I mean it,” he says. “You go down on the way there, Amelia gets one more reason to think loving you kills men.”
That is unfair.
Also effective.
“I won’t.”
“You stop when you need sleep.”
“Sure.”
“Derby.”
I turn on him. “What?”
His expression shifts.
For one second, he ain’t just the president. Not just the man whose wedding fell apart and whose possible sister ran to Oregon. He is my brother. And not in the MC brother sense.
“You get there, you ask.”
“I said I would.”
“You don’t punish her for using the freedom I gave her.”
My jaw locks.
Because that is exactly my wound.
I gave her freedom, too, then bled when she opened the door.
“She left my bed,” I say.
“I know.”
“After.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
His eyes go dark. “Yeah. I do.”
Sophie sits unspoken between us.
All her hurt. All his. Their postponed wedding. Her father’s secret. His lie. Becki’s confession. Every person in our orbit hiding pain and calling it timing.
I look away first.
“She left to save me,” I say, and the words taste bitter. “Like I asked for that.”
“No one ever asks for the part that hurts.”