Page 17 of Raw & Reckless

"You aren't going to lose me, Phoenix," she whispers, her voice ringing with absolute, fierce certainty. "You survived the dark by closing your heart. But you don't have to survive anymore. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."

The weight of her words, unshakable, brave, and sincere, settles deep into my core, breaking the last remaining shards of ice around my chest.

I pull her down into my arms, burying my face in her sweet-smelling black hair. We kiss, slow, deep, and healing, anchoring ourselves against all the storms of our pasts. Within minutes, wrapped safely in each other's embrace, the tension bleeds entirely out of our bodies, and we drift off to sleep together in the quiet sanctuary of the morning.

10

LAYLA

The morning sunlight streaming through the windows brings no warmth, only a heavy, suffocating weight. For the last few hours, Phoenix has been locked in the back office, his low, rumbling voice vibrating through the walls in a relentless string of phone calls. I’ve tried my best not to eavesdrop, staying glued to the living room couch, but my curiosity—and a nagging, cold dread—eventually gets the better of me.

Phoenix hasn't been entirely transparent with me. All he ever said about the night he intercepted my kidnapping was that those men were trying to get to my brother. But I still vividly remember the way he talked about tracking someone before all of this even started, speaking with a calculated edge that felt like he was hiding a much darker truth.

I step quietly down the hallway, moving over the hardwood on stockinged feet until I reach the office door. It’s cracked slightly ajar, just enough for Phoenix’s voice to spill out clearly. To my surprise, I hear other voices mingling with his; he must have the phone on speaker.

“Is he still looking for her?” Phoenix asks, his voice tight.

“He’s fuckin’ tearing the town apart, and it doesn’t look good for us that she’s been staying in our fuckin’ enforcer’s house,” a rough, unfamiliar voice grumbles through the receiver.

“She’s not going anywhere,” Phoenix nearly snarls over the line, the fierce, protective edge in his tone unmistakable.

My heart stutters. Am I getting him in trouble with his club? And what did the man on the phone mean by tearing the town apart looking for me? The syndicate? Is kidnapping me really the best way to get my brother’s attention? They don’t even know I walked out on him after the attack. For all they know, he might not even care that I’m gone.

Then, another voice cuts in, throwing my entire world into absolute, irreversible chaos.

“You’ll need backup for when Agent Davis finds his sister,” one of the men says with an exasperated sigh. “I sent you out to dig into the Agent’s background, and then you went and stole his little sister. What a fuckin’ mess.”

Wait. What?

My breath catches sharply in my throat. Jeremy is the one tearing the town apart looking for me?

Another horrifying thought slams into my chest, stealing the air from my lungs. Phoenix was the one trailing my brother? He’s the club’s enforcer, after all.

Was it all a lie?

Did he play a long, calculated con just to get to my brother? Instead of kidnapping me himself… did he just seduce me?

Panic swallows me whole. I stumble backward away from the door, my foot catching awkwardly on the edge of the rug. In my frantic attempt to sprint away, my legs tangle, and I crash hard to the floor with a loud gasp.

The door swings wide open. Phoenix is standing right there in the threshold, towering over me, his massive frame cast in deep shadow from the light spilling behind him.

“Layla,” he says, his voice deceptively calm, taking a step forward.

Terror spikes through my veins. I don’t know who to trust anymore, and the realization cracks my heart cleanly in two. The only two men I’ve ever truly trusted, and they both lied to me.

“Layla, it’s not what you think,” he continues, walking slowly toward me with his hands raised.

“Stop!” I shout, my voice cracking as I scramble backward across the floor on my hands and knees, my stomach twisting into painful knots, my chest squeezing shut until I can barely breathe. “Just stop!”

He tries moving closer, but I flinch violently away from his reach, pressing myself flat against the hallway wall.

In the dim light, I see his broad shoulders drop. Despite the shadows masking his face, I can clearly make out the raw, sbroken look of pained betrayal in his green eyes. It’s almost enough to make me believe him—or at least give him a chance to explain.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Phoenix says softly, his palms turned outward in a silent sign of surrender.

“You already did,” I choke out, hot tears streaming down my face.

He looks like my words just drove a knife straight into his heart, but I don’t have the emotional capacity to feel guilty. I just need to escape. I scramble to my feet, race into the bedroom to grab my shoulder bag, and shove my feet blindly into my shoes. Ignoring his desperate calls behind me, I dash out of the front door and bolt down the driveway.