LOGINDevane doesn't do family. She does territory. As the ruthless leader of a notorious biker gang, she's built her reputation on cold eyes and colder decisions. She takes what she wants and never looks back. Sentiment is weakness. Love is a liability. The only soft thing she's ever allowed herself is the tattoo on her wrist—a faded, ghostly handprint she never explains. A debt she can't repay. Clarisse is unravelling. A ballerina forged in pressure and perfection, she controls the one thing no one else can: her body. Every skipped meal is a small victory. Every sharp bone is proof of discipline. She doesn't need saving. She doesn't need anyone. She's fine. She's always fine. Then a wedding neither of them wanted makes them family. Thrust under the same roof, Devane and Clarisse are now cousins by marriage—and enemies by instinct. Devane is chaos and cigarette smoke, cold and unapologetic. Clarisse is silence and uneaten dinners, a girl folding inward. They clash at every turn. Devane thinks Clarisse is a fragile little princess playing at suffering. Clarisse thinks Devane is a brute who takes up too much space. But the tension between them is a living thing. And it's growing. Every slammed door. Every lingering stare. Every accidental touch that lasts a second too long. Devane finds herself watching Clarisse in ways that have nothing to do with family. Clarisse finds herself craving a danger she's spent her whole life avoiding. Neither of them is ready for what happens when hatred starts to feel like hunger. And neither of them knows that this isn't the first time their lives have collided.
View MoreClarisse nodded. She didn't trust herself to speak.Ella kept talking. Something about a date. Something about riding on the back of the motorcycle. Something about how Devane's hands felt on her waist. Clarisse heard fragments, pieces, the words slicing through her like glass.She'd thought—stupidly, pathetically—that the moment in the kitchen had meant something. The handhold. The whispered okay. The way Devane had looked at her like she was the only person in the world.But Devane had disappeared for a week. And now she was texting Ella. Taking Ella on rides. Putting her hands on Ella's waist.Clarisse was nothing. Just the stepsister in the other room. Just the girl who'd bandaged her ribs and thrown a wrench and held her hand in the kitchen.Stupid, she thought. Stupid, stupid, stupid."I have to go," she said abruptly. "Class.""Oh, okay! Text me later. And tell Devane I said hi!"Clarisse walked away. Her legs were numb. Her chest was hollow. The hallway stretched on forever, f
She hadn't seen Devane for a week.Not at breakfast. Not in the hallways of the too-big house. Only once at a compulsory family dinner. The days blurred together—grey light through the windows, the distant roar of the motorcycle at odd hours, the creak of floorboards that might have been Devane or might have been the house settling. Clarisse couldn't tell anymore.The morning after the garage, she'd woken to an empty kitchen. The coffee she'd made sat cold in the pot. The apple was still on the table, brown and withered. Devane's water bottle was gone too.Clarisse had stood there for a long moment, staring at the empty doorway where Devane had stood, where Devane had held her hand, where Devane had whispered okay like it was a promise. Then she'd walked to school on autopilot, her feet bandaged, her chest hollow.She didn't see Devane that day. Or the next. Or the next.Aunt Helena asked about the bruises on Devane's face at dinner one night—"What happened, darling? Were you in an a
She walked to the kitchen. Her bare feet slapped the cold tile.Then she heard it.A crash from the garage—metal on concrete, a sharp clang that echoed through the walls. Then a grunt. Male. Deep. Then another crash, louder, followed by Devane's voice, low and cold."You picked the wrong night."The unmistakable sound of a fist hitting flesh.Clarisse's hand froze on the refrigerator handle. Her heart stopped. Then slammed against her ribs so hard she felt it in her throat.She was moving before she could think. Her bare feet slapped the hallway floor. The garage door was slightly ajar—Devane hadn't latched it—and Clarisse pushed it open with both hands.The garage was chaos.Devane's motorcycle lay on its side. The mirror had snapped off and skidded across the concrete. A metal shelf had collapsed—wrenches, screwdrivers, paint cans scattered like shrapnel. The single overhead bulb swung wildly on its cord, throwing shadows that lurched and spun and made everything look like a nightma
The neighborhood was quiet. Manicured lawns. Sprinklers hissing. A dog barking somewhere in the distance. Devane walked with her hands in her pockets, shoulders hunched, pace slow. Clarisse walked beside her, biting inside her cheeks and glanced at her through her side eye. The silence between them was heavy but not hostile. Like a bruise that hadn't decided whether to heal or spread.They reached a small park at the end of the street. It was empty. A swing set. A rusted slide. Devane sat on one of the swings and pulled out a cigaretteand lit it. The smoke curled upward and vanished into the grey sky.Clarisse sat on the swing next to her. The chains creaked."I don't know why I stay with him," Clarisse said quietly. The confession came out of nowhere. She hadn't planned it. Hadn't even known it was true until the words left her mouth. "He's—everyone thinks he's perfect. Basketball captain. Good grades. My aunt loves him. The school loves him. We're supposed to be the 'it' couple."






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