oe

k doesn't com

f its four taps, and a Prospect gets sent to the distrib

hold." He says it loud enoug

ter, the way I've been for weeks - present, quiet, nobody's prob

water and s

bhouse insurance. Three small things, none of them connect

was m

ar it through the wall - Jasper's voice going flat and c

at the wrong ma

ed to Marian, over coffee, that my parents ha

rs. She knows what it means when a Beaumont

per

dy hesitantly prepared for me. She framed it as "identifying i

but I never realized we were floating entirely on their generosi

with worry. "I just spoke with Brandy," she says, her voic

not wanting to admit the d

e club's Old Lady for thirty years; she knows how this works. "This is

," I lie, my jaw tight.

and you humiliated her. Go to her. Apologize. Not as a President, but as a man who

of Chloe's face when she dropped my necklac

ans crawling back to her, hat in hand, not for her

slamming my hand on the desk. "The Iron L

ope you find it before you lose everything worth having,

oe

uffocating, filled with whispers and the ghost of my life with

eather of the Iron Legion. I find myself outside a small, elegant bakery, "T

s of the clubhouse bar. I order a coffee and a p

y dressed in a tailored suit that looks out of place yet perfectly natural on him.

r Carlisle IV. President of the Royal

es through me. Wha

is a

ory grins of the bikers I know. "Chloe Beaumont," he say

stantly up. My uninjured hand instinctive

he replies, his tone neutral. "Or the woman whose family company i

siness," I say. "My

no more patience for the Iron Legion is a woman worth knowing. That's all." He says i

y, Carlisle places a crisp hundred-dollar bill on the co

esture. "I can pay

lue eyes crinkling at the corners. "Consid

ng from the President of t

es. "I hope your hand feels better soon," he say

ld. How did he k

a private

ically. "And nothing that happens inside a clubhouse stays inside one for lo

eceived from my own club in weeks. Then he's gone, leaving me with my pastry, my coffee, an

of our rival MC knows my name. He knows I'm hurt. He knows t

ng kind. He'

text has been sitting there sin

se t

ar bill on the counter a

a long time, I'm not

I make t

for - a real plan. A business the club can legally own and run, with t

xpect a request from the Iron Legion in the

tter than I hav