Page 95 of Twisted Steel

Safe is a word for people who don’t know better.

“She flinched,” I say lowly.

Savage says nothing because there’s nothing to say.

My voice comes out flat.“From me.”

Saint steps closer, but not too close.“She watched an execution,” he says.

I turn my head slowly.“He was armed.”

“He was down.”

“He was breathing.”

Saint’s jaw tightens, but he doesn’t look away.Neither does Savage.That’s the problem with brothers.Real ones don’t let you lie to yourself even when you really fucking need to.

Fury drags the body away with two prospects.Mama M is inside with the women, locking down the back hall.Crimson is barking orders near the fence like he didn’t nearly fracture us this morning.Men move.The compound repairs itself around blood because that’s what it knows how to do.

I know how to do that too.Patch the hole.Dump the body.Find the enemy.Forget the woman’s face when she realized loving me might cost her soul.

The clubhouse door opens behind me, and Raven steps out with a strip of bloodied cloth tied around her upper arm, her face pale but her spine straight.Savage sees her before I do, and his whole body changes.

“You should be inside,” he says.

Raven lifts a brow.“And you should try having one original thought before the next apocalypse.”

His jaw tightens as she walks past him and stops in front of me.Raven Blackwood doesn’t look at the knife first, she looks at my face, and that makes her smarter than most.

“You let her leave,” she says.

“I did what she asked.”

“Yes.”Her voice softens half an inch.“That’s the part that hurts.”

I look away.The knife feels heavy in my hand.

“She said she needed peace,” I say.

Savage exhales once.“Do you have any to give her?”

“No.”

“Then give her the next best thing.”I look at him.His eyes are cold, but not cruel.“Choice.”

Harper said no, and I backed up.Harper said don’t come, and I stayed.Harper left, and I let her.Choice.It feels like ripping out my own fucking spine.

Raven steps closer.“She isn’t gone because she doesn’t want you.”

My jaw locks.“Don’t,” I grit out.

She ignores me of course.“She’s gone because she wants you too much and she doesn’t know how to survive that yet.”

The words land wrong.Deep and ugly, but undeniably true.

My body remembers her under me.Her hands on my shoulders.Her mouth opening on my name.The way she said she chose me, and the way I believed her because I could feel it in every inch of her body.

My hands were on her skin last night.Tonight, they held a knife in front of her.No wonder she ran.