Chapter 3

"Well? Cat got your tongue, Trouble? Or are you just happy to see me?" Landon’s voice brought me back, his focus entirely on me again

I tried to act unfazed. "Yeah, well, Tess and Maeve dragged me here. I didn’t wanna come."

I answered his previous question as I stepped closer, taking in his towering presence and inhaling that familiar unique scent that always made me feel strangely safe.

"Mhmm." He raised an eyebrow. "And here I thought you came to cheer for me."

I laughed, shaking my head. "You’re not the one getting initiated, Reaper."

"Still. I look damn good in firelight, don’t I?" he quipped, turning his shoulder so the club patch caught the glow."

I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t help smiling. "You’re insufferable."

He took a slow sip of his beer, his eyes glinting with amusement. "There it is. The smile I came for."

Before I could respond, someone called his name from across the courtyard, waving him over. Landon hesitated, his gaze flicking briefly toward Leo who was now surrounded again by a pack of people with the blonde pressed close. When did he leave?

His jaw tightened. For a second, I thought he might say something, but then he just sighed and murmured, "Stay close to your friends, Trouble. And don’t take any drinks from anyone but me and your girls. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal" I said softly, the small, specific instruction making me feel strangely protected.

He brushed past me with the briefest touch of his hand against my back as he walked away. It sent a shiver down my spine.

"He always look at you like that?" Tess’s voice snapped me back to reality. She had returned with two fresh cups.

I blinked, taking the proffered drink. "Like what?"

Her eyes held mine. "Like he wants to kill anyone who gets within ten feet of you."

My laugh came out shaky and too loud. "Landon’s just… Landon. He’s like that with everyone."

"Uhm, no," she said in a low voice, almost amused. "He’s not."

"He's Tyler’s best friend. He’s been forced to be protective of me since I was a kid. I’m like his annoying little sister."

"Right," she said, her voice dripping with quiet amusement, but she dropped the topic thankfully. "I’m gonna go get another refill. Wanna come with?"

I shook my head.

As she walked off, I turned my back to the bonfire, taking a long drink of the sweet, burning mixture. I focused on the sounds of the ceremony: Vince’s booming voice, the guttural cheers, the thwack of something hitting leather.

But when I looked up again, drawn by a shift in the crowd's energy, my heart fell apart all over.

Leo had the girl pressed against his motorcycle, his hands on her hips and his mouth sucking hers like she was oxygen and he’d been suffocating.

He was making a statement. A blatant, public show of ownership designed for anyone who might have any interest in her.

The noise around me dimmed instantly, replaced by that awful, high-pitched ringing silence only I could hear. The firelight blurred and the crowd dissolved into smears of color.

And before I knew it, I was moving—pushing blindly through the crowd, past the laughter, past the firelight, past the smell of gasoline and sweat. I needed out. I needed air. I needed to escape the physical space he occupied.

I burst out of the courtyard and onto the cracked asphalt of the service road. Outside, the night was cold and far too quiet. The tears came before I could stop them, hot and corrosive streaks down my cheeks, ruining Maeve’s careful eye makeup.

I leaned against the rough brick wall of the building, pressing the heel of my hand to my chest, trying to breathe through the frantic, agonizing ache in my lungs.

I hadn't made him notice me. I had just managed to make myself look more foolish and pathetic. Why couldn’t I just love someone else? Someone who might actually see me? Why did it have to be him?

"Trouble."

The voice came from the shadows.

I looked up, blinking through the watery blur, and Landon was standing there. His expression was completely unreadable, devoid of the teasing amusement he’d worn moments ago. Just that quiet, granite intensity.

He stepped closer, the gravel crunching under his boots."You okay, Baby girl?"

I nodded quickly, pulling myself up straight, swallowing the lump in my throat. "Yeah. Yeah, I’m—"

He caught my chin with two fingers, his touch firm and slightly rough, forcing me to meet his cold grey gaze. "Don’t lie to me, Kasey."

Something inside me broke completely. The façade shattered.

"He kissed her, Reap. Right in front of me." My voice came out small and shaky.

He exhaled slowly through his nose. His thumb brushed away a tear I didn’t realize had fallen. "Yeah, I saw."

There was something dangerous in his eyes then. Not pity or anger. Just raw, simmering protectiveness. His jaw flexed once before he straightened up. "Get up."

My voice cracked. "What?"

He reached out a hand. "You’re not staying out here on the pavement. I’m taking you back to the dorms, before someone else sees the VP’s daughter looking like this."

I hesitated, but took his hand anyway. His fingers closed around mine firmly and he pulled me to my feet like I weighed nothing.

"Come on," he said, softly now. "You’ve had enough for the night."

He didn't ask if I wanted to go. He simply handed me his spare helmet, then swung a leg over his powerful, custom bike and the engine roared to life beneath him. I climbed on behind, my fingers trembling as I gripped the thick leather of his jacket.

"Hold tight," he murmured over the engine, and then we were gone.

The wind tore at my face as we sped through the night, the roar of the engine drowning out the noise inside my head. But no matter how fast we went, I couldn’t outrun the ache. My tears came hot and fast, streaking down my cheeks, soaking into the leather beneath my hands. I held on tight, my face buried against the solid anchor of his back and my body shaking with every sob I tried to swallow.

Landon didn’t say a word. He just rode faster, pushing the engine until the wind whipped past us in a punishing torrent.

By the time we turned off the main road toward the dorms I was heaving and my body was exhausted by the sheer force of the heartbreak.

He killed the engine and the silence that followed was deafening, broken only by my ragged breathing.

For a long moment, neither of us moved. The night was cool and still, the moonlight spilling over the cracked asphalt, catching on the faint outline of the Serpents tattoo that peeked out from beneath his sleeve.

Then he turned slightly. "You done crying yet, Trouble?"

I let out a shaky, humorless sound and shook my head. "No."

He exhaled through his nose. "Yeah. Didn't think so."

I wiped at my eyes, but more tears came anyway. "I don’t even know why it hurts this much," I whispered. "He’s never been mine. Not even once."

Landon looked at me for a long time with an unreadable expression. "Doesn’t have to make sense to hurt."

He reached up, brushing away a tear with his thumb. The gentleness in that touch almost undid me all over again.

"I love him so much. Why can't he see that?"

"You’ve been chasing him for years," he said quietly, his eyes holding mine in the moonlight. "But you’re doing it wrong."

My brows furrowed. "What’s that supposed to mean? What else is there to do?"

Landon’s lips curved into that half-smile; the one that looked lazy until you realized it wasn’t.

"It means," he said, stepping closer until the space between us was thin as breath, "if you want my little brother to notice you, you’ve gotta stop being the girl he looks past."

I blinked up at him, my heart beginning to slow, replaced by a cautious, fearful curiosity. "And how exactly do I do that?"

He studied me for a moment, his eyes tracing over my face, lingering on the swollen redness around my eyes like he was memorizing the damage. Then he said,​ "Let me help you."

I frowned. "Help me how?"

"I can teach you what gets his attention. What keeps it. I can teach you how to be the kind of woman a man like Leo can’t walk away from, even if it’s the only smart thing he should do. You want him to see you, Trouble? Then you’ll have to make him."

My heartbeat stumbled. "You’re serious."

"Dead serious."

I searched his face for a hint of mockery, but there wasn’t any. Just that same quiet intensity that always made me forget how to breathe.

"Why?" I asked finally. "Why would you do that for me?"

His eyes darkened and a flicker of something unreadable passed through them. "Let’s just say I’m tired of watching you get hurt over someone who doesn’t deserve you."

I didn’t know what to say. The wind picked up, carrying the faint sound of laughter from the party far in the distance — a world away from this one.

Landon leaned in just enough for his voice to slide across my skin.

"You want Leo?" he asked. "Then let me teach you how to make a man fall to his fucking knees."