ANMELDENAlina’s POV - One Week Later
Life at the compound had settled into a strange routine. The immediate threats were gone. Hart was in prison. Morrison was in prison. Tommy was in prison. The Vultures were scattered and broken. We’d won.
So why did everything feel so weird?
I stood in the kitchen making coffee at eleven AM on a Wednesday, having slept past ten for the first time in months. No one had woken me for training or security briefings or trial prep. Becau
Chloe’s POVShe picked up before the second ring. “I was going to call you in twenty minutes if I didn’t hear from you.”“I just needed to sit with it first,” I said.“How are you?”“Confused,” I said. “Which is annoying because I thought ending the threat would make everything clearer.”“It usually doesn’t,” Alina said. “When the emergency stops, you have to deal with the actual thing. The emergency was easier.”I pulled my knees up on the couch. “Can I tell you something embarrassing?”“Always.”“I’ve been comparing myself to you this whole time.” I said it quickly, before I could dress it up. “Every decision, every feeling…I-I keep holding it up against what you did with Jaxon and Maddox and Ronan and asking if I’m doing it right. If I’m feeling the right thi
Chloe’s POVThe police were gone by ten.Kane was in custody. His crew was scattered. Ronan had shaken the last hand, exchanged the last number, and come back to where the rest of us were standing on the waterfront with the particular expression of a man who had just closed a file.“It’s done,” he said. Not dramatically. Just fact.Jaxon rolled his shoulder and looked out at the water. “For now.”“For now,” Ronan agreed. “Kane’s connected, but without leadership and with the Kozlov case already in trial, there’s no appetite for a rebuild. We’ll monitor.” He looked at me. “But you’re not the target anymore, Chloe. You can breathe.”I tried breathing. It felt strange. Like a habit I’d gotten out of.We went back to the warehouse because there was nowhere else obvious to go. Someone made coffee — Lucian, automatically, the way he d
Marcus’s POVThe venue was a waterfront event space hosting a public photography exhibition. Open to the public, well-lit, steady foot traffic, three entry points and two exits, which was terrible for security and perfect for a trap, because Kane’s crew would see opportunity written all over it.Chloe stood in front of the mirror in the warehouse getting ready, and I stood in the doorway trying to look like I was reviewing the comms check and not watching her.“You’re watching me,” she said, without turning around.“I’m reviewing the comms check.”“You’re watching me and calling it something else.” She turned around. She was wearing a blue dress, simple, nothing dramatic—we’d specifically avoided anything that looked like a costume. She needed to look like herself. A little exposed, a little alone, a woman at an art exhibition who maybe hadn’t been careful enough ab
Chloe’s POVI recognized Ronan’s footsteps before I saw him.That was a strange thing to realize. But I’d spent enough time at the compound to know the way he moved — measured, deliberate, the kind of walk that said he’d already assessed the room before he walked into it. The warehouse door opened and he came through first, and behind him was Jaxon, and the sight of both of them in my Seattle life was so disorienting that I stood up from the couch and just stared for a second.Ronan looked the same. Raven-black hair, green eyes that clocked the entire warehouse in three seconds flat. He looked at Marcus, then Dominic, then Lucian, then me.“You look good,” he said. “Better than I expected, honestly.”“Thanks,” I said. “That’s either a compliment or an insult.”“It’s an observation.” But something in his expression was warm, briefly, before i
Marcus’s POVThe name came through at eleven forty-seven PM on a Tuesday, five days after the hotel.Victor Kane. Former Vulture enforcer. Age thirty-one, last known location Portland, moved to Seattle approximately four months ago. Long sheet — assault, extortion, two counts of armed robbery that hadn’t stuck because witnesses had a way of changing their minds. Connected to the Vulture MC through Viktor Kozlov, who was currently serving time in Chicago.I sat with the file open on my laptop and read it twice. Then I called Ronan.He picked up on the second ring. “Tell me you have something.”“Victor Kane,” I said. “Ring any bells?”A pause. The kind that meant yes. “Kozlov’s cousin,” Ronan said. “Lower rank, but nastier. Kozlov probably had lines he wouldn’t cross. Kane doesn’t.”“He’s been in Seattle for four months. Building
Chloe’s POVI wore a blazer to visit the office. Armour, basically. The kind of outfit that said I am a professional person who has a normal life and definitely did not spend last night in a converted warehouse after being shot at through a hotel fire escape.It was a very good blazer. I didn’t think it was working.Adrian looked up when I knocked on his open door, and his expression did the thing it had been doing lately — that careful, assessing look that meant he’d noticed more than he was saying.“Chloe. Come in.”I sat across from his desk. Straightened the blazer. “Before you say anything…I’m okay. The situation is being handled, I just wanted to stop by and see everyone.”“I heard there was an incident at a hotel downtown two nights ago,” he said. “Two men were found zip tied in an alley.”“I wouldn’t know anything about that.&rdquo
I turned to face him fully, taking his face in my hands, making him look at me. “You’re not going to lose me. I’m right here. I’m alive. I’m staying.”“You don’t know that,” he said desperately. “You can’t promise you’
Alina’s POV – Six Months LaterLife had settled into something I never thought possible… A routine. Not a boring routine, but the comfortable kind where you wake up knowing what to expect, where threats don’t hide around every corner, where you can actually plan for tomorrow without worrying if you
He made a sound low in his throat, almost a growl. The strategist, the planner, the always-in-control Ronan vanished. In his place was a man stripped bare of pretense. He yanked my shirt over my head and tossed it aside. His eyes drank me in, dark and intense. Then his mouth was on my neck, sucking
Alina’s POV - Two Weeks LaterMy new job as a consultant started with learning how the club actually worked. Ronan showed me their different businesses, some legal, some not and he explained how they made money, what could get them in trouble, and what might be against the law.







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