Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 47714 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47714 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 191(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
If I’d been weaker, I’d have gone back up. Instead, I started my bike, and the deep growl broke the hushed evening. The vibration steadied me the same way it always did. By the time I pulled out onto the main road, the sun was gone and the sky burned orange behind the trees. My fists tightened on the handlebars, but my hands were steady again. My head wasn’t.
Jax’s baby sister, I reminded myself. Off-fucking-limits.
I’d already crossed enough lines just by wanting her.
2
DRIFT
The clubhouse wasn’t far. Just a couple of miles from town and down a stretch with a row of low palms bowing in the breeze. By the time I rolled through the gates, night had settled in, but the air was still humid and thick.
The lot was lined with bikes, chrome glinting under the security lights. I parked in my usual spot beside Edge’s custom Harley. The sound of my engine cut off, leaving the kind of silence that still buzzed in your bones.
Inside, the air was cooler, permeated with the smell of leather, beer, and something cooking in the kitchen. A few brothers were scattered around the main room—Cage playing pool, Tyre poring over books at the bar, and Gauge laughing at whatever bullshit Rev was saying.
Our president, Kane, was near the entrance to a hallway that led to our offices. His arm was draped around his old lady, Savannah, as he stood talking to Edge—who happened to be his brother by blood, not just oath.
I nodded toward them and kept moving, ignoring the penetrating stares I could feel Kane and Edge aiming at my back. The steady and familiar noise was in the background, but it didn’t touch what was running through my head.
My phone buzzed as I was entering my room upstairs. I pulled it from my pocket and opened the screen.
Jax
Everything good with Alanna?
I stared at the message for a long moment, my thumb hovering above the keyboard.
Me
She’s settled in. Apartment’s secure.
That was it. No mention of how my hands had shaken when she hugged me. Or how her laugh still rang in my ears.
I tossed the phone and my keys onto the dresser, then sank onto the edge of the bed, the mattress creaking under my weight. Then I scrubbed a hand over my face and felt the grit of the day under my palms.
She’d looked happy—nervous, yeah, but proud. Like she was finally breathing air that belonged to her. Jax had done right by setting her up there, even if he didn’t realize how close that put her to the fire.
I leaned back against the headboard, the familiar ache in my chest settling heavy. The craving for a cigarette hit me then—sharp and almost physical. I reached for the lighter instead, rolling it between my fingers. The metal was warm from my pocket and smooth from years of use. I flicked it open once. Flame caught, hissed, and died. Again and again.
It helped. Giving my hands something to do besides remember what she felt like pressed against me.
I’d met Jax when he was seventeen and Alanna was nine. She’d been a sweet, funny, smart-mouthed kid who’d hung around when we were fixing code or rebuilding engines, bringing us lemonade like it was her job. Adorable, always smiling, and soft around the edges.
She idolized her brother, but they’d grown up in a home with parents who cared more about appearances than affection. And Jax had refused to conform to their expectations for him—which meant their relationship had deteriorated to outright disdain by the time he was an adult.
I’d only lived thirty minutes from them, and despite being five years older, Jax and I became best friends. And when he turned eighteen, he’d moved out of his parents’ house and in with me. But he’d stayed close and spent as much time with Alanna as he could. I only saw her from time to time, and I barely noticed her growing up.
When Jax turned twenty-one, Kane and Edge founded the Redline Kings, and Jax and I were patched in as original members. That was the last straw for his parents, and they’d forbidden Alanna from seeing him.
She was their shining star, the perfect child who was impressive and did exactly as they expected. Except when it came to Jax. He and Alanna continued to meet in secret, never letting their relationship wane. I’d been with him on a few of their visits until Jax and I relocated to Crossbend when she was around fourteen.
Before Jax’s wedding, I hadn’t seen Alanna in over six years. Six years of thinking of her as Jax’s kid sister and barely remembering what she looked like when I’d last seen her.
Nothing could have prepared me for what came next.
One minute, I was simply standing next to Jax at the altar, and the next, my world was turned upside down. Alanna walked down the aisle, and for the first time in my life, I forgot how to breathe.