Page 81 of Twisted Steel

I turn my head slowly, and Crimson’s mouth closes.

Harper steps around me before I can stop her.“What exactly is your job here?”

Crimson blinks.“Excuse me?”

“Because so far your contribution has been criticizing the people actually thinking.Is that an elected position?”

The yard goes silent.Saint looks at the ground.Fury coughs.Raven smiles into her coffee like she just found religion and it came with violence.Savage’s mouth twitches once, deadly and quick.

Crimson’s face darkens.“You don’t know shit about club business.”

“No,” Harper says.“But I know panic dressed as masculinity when I see it.”

Jesus Christ.I am going to have to kill fewer men just to keep watching her do this.Crimson steps forward and so I move.So does Savage.So does Raven.She doesn’t get in front of Harper.She moves beside her.

Crimson stops, but Harper doesn’t even flinch.That does something dangerous to me.

Savage’s voice cuts low.“Back up, Crimson.”

Crimson glares at Harper, then me.“This is the problem.”I go still as he points toward her.“She’s got him leashed.Reaper sees it.Everyone sees it.Steel’s supposed to be our hammer, and now he’s standing around waiting for a medic to tell him when to swing.”

The words hit the yard hard, because they aren’t entirely wrong.That’s why I hate them.

Harper’s hand drops from my wrist, and I feel the loss like a wound.

Before I can speak, Raven laughs, and it’s not a nice sound.

Crimson’s glare shifts to her.“Something funny?”

“You,” Raven says.“Mostly the part where you think a man thinking before he swings means the woman near him is a leash.”

Crimson’s jaw tightens.“Stay out of it.”

Raven steps forward, and Savage says her name once in warning.She ignores him, which tells me a lot about their relationship and nothing I needed to know before dawn.

“No,” she says.“I don’t think I will because men like you are predictable as hell.The second a woman makes a monster pause, you call her a weakness.You never stop to consider maybe the pause is the first smart thing he’s done all week.”

The yard goes deathly still, and Harper’s breath catches softly.

Raven continues, voice calm and sharp.“She isn’t his leash.She’s the reason he’s looking where he swings.You should try it sometime.Might save the rest of us from your mouth.”

Crimson looks at Savage.“You letting her talk to me like that?”

Savage’s expression doesn’t change.“She’s still talking, isn’t she?”

That shuts him up.But Raven’s words only buy a second.This is my fight.My woman.My club.

I step forward, stopping in front of Crimson.“You think I can’t do my job?”

Crimson lifts his chin.“I think Reaper found your weak spot.”

I lean in close enough that he can see exactly what lives behind my eyes.“No.He found what happens when men like him forget the difference between weakness and reason.”Crimson’s brow tightens, and I continue, my voice low.“Before Harper, I would have ridden out alone, killed the first man with answers, and maybe walked straight into Reaper’s trap.That’s what he counted on.That’s what you counted on, because men like you only trust violence when it’s stupid.”

A muscle jumps in Crimson’s jaw.

I feel the club listening.Every brother.Every prospect.Harper, especially Harper.

“I am still the hammer,” I say.“I just know where to swing now.”