I should be packing or checking in with Axel. Instead, I lie there listening to her breathe, kissing the top of her head and whispering, “I love you, Bex.”
I don’t say it often enough, but she knows.She knows I love her.
I close my eyes for a moment, the hallway noise fades… the compound hums around us. I breathe her in, allowing myself this moment of peace.
I’ve been meeting Torch by the tree line near the east fence, getting everything ready. I want a porch facing west so we can watch the sunset together. A big kitchen where she can cook.
Windows that don’t rattle with bass.
I haven’t told her. I don’t like keeping things from her, but I want to see the look on her face when I hand her the keys.
I need to show her that I am serious, show her this life can be bigger than the wall or this clubhouse. Show her what family in this compound is all about. That she can be happy here, we both can be, because family belongs inside these gates.
I know what she thinks… but this place isn’t meant to be a cage… its safety, protection. Family.
I trace lazy circles against her back.
“I’ll build it,” I whisper against her hair, even though she can’t hear me. “You’ll see. I will give you everything.”
I finally slide out from under her when the sun shifts higher, she stirs but doesn’t wake.
For a second, I consider staying… I considered calling Angel and asking someone else to take point. Because… and I cannot put my finger on it… but, I feel like I should stay. I should show her that she is a priority… I have been failing at that lately.
But that’s not who I am.
So I get dressed, my eyes never leaving her sleeping form, I pull on my cut, strap my boots and check my sidearm.
At the door, I look back. She’s still curled on her side, hand resting on the mattress where my chest was, the ring I gave her sits proudly on her finger.
Everything I want is in that bed and I ride out thinking I’m protecting it.
CHAPTER 5
BEX - SAFE
The first call comes in just before midnight. I’m halfway through a trauma intake when my phone vibrates in my pocket. The ER is running at capacity, fluorescent lights glaring, monitors beeping, stretchers lining the hallway because there aren’t enough rooms left. A kid with a broken arm is crying three curtains down. A man with a head wound keeps asking the same question over and over, like his brain is skipping.
I don’t check my phone, I can’t… but that doesn't mean my anxiety doesn’t spike with each buzz. It isn’t until two hours later, when I finally get five minutes alone, and the ER hum settles into something manageable.
Five missed calls.
Dani.
Unknown number.
Dani.
Dani.
Unknown number.
My stomach tightens.
Dani doesn’t call like that unless something is wrong. I take a deep breath and steady myself for whatever I am about to hear when I step into the stairwell. The concrete walls are cool, painted institutional grey, the kind of place that smells faintly like bleach and dust.
She answers on the first ring. “They took him.”
My heart drops. “Who?”