Chapter 2

Selene’s POV

The gun didn’t move. The man kept the gun aimed straight at my chest. His hands shook, but his eyes were steady,  too steady. That was what scared me most.

He took one step inside the office. “Don’t move,” he said.

I froze. My breath lodged in my throat, sharp and painful.

Before he could speak again, Cassius’s voice cracked down the hallway like a whip. “Put it down.”

The man didn’t turn. He didn’t lower his arm.

“She’s the reason Darius found us,” he spat. “Her old man brought hell here, and I’m ending it.”

My knees weakened. Cassius stepped into the doorway like a storm waiting to break, all muscle and fury.

“Point that gun at her again,” he said quietly, “and you won’t walk out.”

The man laughed, but it sounded strained, and desperate. “You’re protecting her? After what her father did to us?”

Cassius didn’t blink. “Last warning.”

The man’s finger tightened on the trigger. The click echoed in my ears like lightning splitting the room.

Cassius moved faster than I thought. One punch snapped the man’s head to the side.

The gun fell, and the man fell with it.

Cassius grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him against the wall. “You pull a weapon in my house, I break you.”

The man coughed up blood. “Do it. We’re all dead anyway.”

Cassius’s grip tightened. “What did you say?”

“Darius knows,” the man gasped. “He knows everything. The warehouse, the shipment, and you.”

Cassius’s jaw flexed. “How?”

“You already know how,” the man said. “Her father.”

Silence punched the breath out of my lungs. Cassius slowly turned toward me.

It wasn’t an accusation or belief. It was something far more dangerous, something like doubt.

He threw the man out of the room and slammed the door. I backed up instinctively, my palms damp with sweat.

Cassius didn’t go after me. He paced once, chest rising and falling sharply like he was trying to cage his anger.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

My voice shook. “I…think so.”

He nodded once, like he needed that answer to be true. “Sit before you fall.”

“I’m not…”

My legs gave out.

Cassius crouched in front of me. Close enough for me to feel the heat rolling off him.

“You don’t walk toward danger,” he said. “Ever.”

“You told me to stay here,” I whispered. “I didn’t walk toward it.”

“That’s different.”

“How?” I demanded.

He leaned closer. “Because you’re under me.”

My breath caught. “Under your control?”

“Under my protection,” he said.

The words rattled something deep in me. Not comfort, not fear. But  something heavier, and something I didn’t want to name yet.

“If you think I’m connected to all of this,” I said, “why protect me?”

He didn’t look away. “It’s not a thought, it’s a fact.”

The words cut deep, sharp, and unfair.

“So hand me over to Darius,” I said.

Cassius stood suddenly. His anger filled the tiny room like smoke choking the air.

“I’m not Darius,” he snapped. “And we don’t trade people like cards.”

My chest tightened painfully. “I’m not one of your people.”

“You are now,” he said. “Like it or not.”

He opened the door and motioned for me to follow. My legs trembled as I walked.

Every biker in the hallway stared, not kin. Suspicion in their eyes, curiosity, and something much darker that made my skin crawl.

Cassius ignored them. He guided me with a hand on my back.

“You’ll stay in the main house today,” he said. “With Livia.”

“Why her?” I asked.

“She’s the only one I trust with you,” he said. “And the only one who keeps the men in line.”

The door ahead opened. Livia stepped out, wiping grease from her hands.

Her eyes landed on me first. Then Cassius. “Gun incident?” she asked.

Cassius nodded. Livia sighed dramatically.

“You boys get dumber every year.”

I almost smiled. Almost.

She studied me like a puzzle someone handed her without instructions. “Are you alive?”

“Barely,” I said.

“You’ll get used to it.”

“I really don’t think I will.”

“You don’t have a choice,” she said. “Not anymore.”

Cassius turned to her. “Don’t let her out of sight.”

“I wasn’t planning to.”

“And if anyone tries something….”

“I’ll break their teeth,” Livia said. “Relax, go and handle your mess.”

Cassius didn’t look relaxed. Not even a little. His eyes lingered on me for a heartbeat too long.

“Stay with her,” he said quietly.

I nodded, even though my stomach twisted as he left.

Livia jerked her head toward a door. “Come on, sweetheart,” she said. “Welcome to day one of biker babysitting.”

The lounge she brought me to looked different from the rowdy bar area. Smaller, quieter, and almost normal, if not for the tension humming under everything.

Faded sofas, old vinyl, and a dusty TV that looked like it survived a war.

Livia dropped onto a couch. I hovered awkwardly, unsure where to sit or breathe.

“That was a messy morning,” she said.

“That was terrifying.”

She shrugged. “It happens.”

I rubbed my arms. “I don’t think I belong here.”

“No one does,” she said. “Not at first.”

I looked at her. She met my gaze with sharp, assessing eyes that saw more than she said.

“So,” she said, “what do you know about Darius?”

My stomach twisted. “Nothing.”

“You hesitated.”

“I only know the name,” I said. “My father said it sometimes.”

Livia leaned back slowly. “Well, that makes sense. Darius doesn’t forget people who owe him.”

“And my father owed him?”

Her expression didn’t move. Didn’t soften.

“Your father owed a lot of people.”

The words sent a cold ripple through me, like someone dropped ice water down my spine.

“What did he steal?”

Livia tilted her head. “If you don’t know, I’m not the one to tell you.”

A chill slid down my spine. “Why not?”

“Because Cassius should be the one,” she said. “And because you might break when you hear it.”

My throat tightened. “What if I already am?”

Livia opened her mouth, but a voice thundered down the hall. “Where is she?!”

Cassius. His boots pounded toward us.

He appeared in the doorway, his jaw tight. The moment he saw me, he breathed out, just barely.

“Selene,” he said. “We need to go.”

“Why?” I asked.

He held something in his hand. A small envelope.

Fear crawled up my spine like fingers made of ice. “Cassius… what’s going on?”

He looked at me with something I’d never seen in his eyes before. Not anger, maybe fear or something close enough to it to make my pulse stumble.

“Darius sent us a message,” he said. “And it has your name on it.”