Chapter 3: SILENCE ISN'T SAFETY

Sarah

The night didn’t bring sleep. It brought memories — clawing, suffocating ones that twisted in my gut. I curled up in the farthest corner of the room, watching the door, every creak and shadow a potential threat. The worn leather jacket he gave me lay draped over my legs, his scent—smoke, leather, and something uniquely masculine—wrapped around me like a ghost I didn’t know how to name. I hadn’t taken it off since he threw it at me like I was some stray dog he didn’t want to freeze.

And still… I clung to it.

The walls were silent, a deceptive quiet that screamed with unseen dangers. Silence never meant safety. It just meant whatever was coming hadn’t shown its teeth yet.

I didn’t know what to make of Jax. No—Reaper. The name clung to him like blood, dark and inescapable. He wasn’t like the men I knew, the ones who took and broke and left nothing but wreckage. And that made him even more dangerous, because I couldn't predict him. There was a line in his eyes—hard and jagged, a constant warning. But he hadn’t touched me. Hadn’t raised his voice. Hadn’t tried to take.

Instead, he’d handed me warmth, a temporary shelter in a storm.

The lock on the door rattled, a harsh sound in the quiet room.

I shot to my feet, breath caught mid-throat, my muscles coiled tight. The jacket fell to the floor in a heap.

The door opened slowly, revealing a sliver of the brightly lit hallway. “Easy,” he said, his voice low, a rough rasp of calm.

Reaper stepped inside, the hallway light casting him in long, intimidating shadows that stretched across the floor. His leather cut hung open over a black shirt, and his dark jeans were grease-stained, familiar signs of his world. There was something off in his posture—shoulders tense, but not in that calculated, ready-to-fight way. This was something else. Worn. Like he carried a weight no one else saw.

He glanced at the untouched sandwich on the small table by the window. “You planning on starving yourself?”

I didn’t answer. Words were dangerous. Words made people remember you. Remembering got you hurt, made you a target. I’d learned that lesson the hard way.

His eyes dragged over me, slow and heavy, pausing at the angry marks on my arms. Not fresh, but not old enough to forget. His gaze felt like a physical touch, too raw. “You sleep at all?”

I shook my head, my hair brushing against my cold cheek.

He walked to the window, glanced out like he was waiting for someone. Or watching for ghosts. “You don’t talk much, huh?”

Still nothing. My throat was tight, sealing the words in.

“You think staying quiet’ll keep you safe?” he asked, turning back to me, his voice rough with something that sounded like impatience, but wasn’t.

That caught something in my throat, a sharp, bitter pang. I looked away, fists clenched at my sides, fighting the surge of a painful memory.

Reaper sighed, a low, rumbling sound. “Alright, then. You hungry or not?”

I hesitated, the thought of food a strange, distant concept. “No.”

“Liar,” he muttered, walking over to the sandwich. He picked it up, weighing it in his hand. “Eat. Or next time, I’m making you something worse. Like gas station sushi.”

My lips twitched. Almost a smile. Almost. The absurd image of him trying to force-feed me questionable sushi was enough to loosen some of the tightness in my chest.

I took the sandwich and sat slowly, pulling my knees up. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed, watching me. Not like a predator. Like he was trying to figure out what the hell I was, like I was some riddle he couldn't quite solve.

After a few bites, the bread feeling like sawdust, I looked up. “Why am I here?”

“You need a place. I had space.” His answer was flat, unreadable.

“You don’t know me.”

“Yeah. And you don’t know me either,” he said, his gaze unwavering. “So that makes us even.”

“But you brought me here. Why?” My voice was small, but the question felt huge.

He looked away, his jaw tightening. “Call it a favor.”

“No one does favors without expecting something.” The bitterness in my voice was unintentional.

“I don’t expect anything,” he said, his eyes now hard on mine. “But I don’t make promises either.”

A beat passed between us. Something heavy. Unspoken. A new, fragile understanding began to form in the space between his words and my silence.

“You’re in my world now,” he said, his voice dropping to a low growl. “It’s not clean. It’s not safe. I can’t promise you comfort. But I can promise that no one’s gonna touch you in this house without your say-so. You understand?”

I nodded slowly, the words sinking in.

He pushed off the wall and walked toward the door. Just before leaving, he added, his voice flat, “And don’t touch the bike in the garage.”

That stopped me. My head snapped up, the sandwich forgotten.

“Why?” I asked, surprising even myself with the sound of my voice, strong and clear.

He turned his head just slightly, looking over his shoulder. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes held a raw, deep sadness. “Because it’s the only thing I’ve ever loved that didn’t leave me.”

The door closed behind him with a soft click, leaving me stunned, the weight of his words hanging in the air.

The next morning, the deep, guttural hum of the bike's engine woke me. I crept toward the garage door, drawn by the sound, peeking through the narrow crack. Reaper was crouched beside the matte black Harley, wiping the chrome like it was something sacred, a ritual.

The way he moved... there was reverence there. A kind of quiet love, a devotion that didn’t match the dark ink and raw violence etched into his skin. He touched it with a gentleness I hadn't seen him show to anything else.

By the time dusk rolled in, I couldn’t stay cooped up anymore. The walls of the room felt like they were pressing in. I slipped out and wandered through the dimly lit hallways of the clubhouse. Most of the bikers ignored me, their attention on card games or greasy food. Some stared, curious but silent, their eyes following me like shadows. I heard whispers, hushed tones that carried through the smoke-filled air. About “the girl Reaper brought in.” About me being “another broken bird.”

Let them talk. Their words held no power.

Outside, in the fading light, I found him again. This time, shirtless, his back to me, the intricate ink crawling down his spine like wings of darkness, He was hunched over the engine, black grease smudged across his chest, a true part of the machine.

He didn’t notice me until I was too close to turn back.

“You know,” he said without looking up, his voice low, “I told you not to touch her.”

“I didn’t,” I said quickly, my hands held up in a placating gesture.

He straightened, slowly, turning to face me. His face was unreadable, but his voice was calm, a surprising lack of anger. “Good.”

I shifted awkwardly, the silence stretching between us. “You love that bike.” It wasn't a question.

“She saved me once,” he muttered, his gaze drifting over the bike. “After my sister… when I was seventeen and the world felt like it was tearing apart, this was the only thing that kept me breathing. Before my daughter, she was everything.”

“You have a daughter?” I asked, before I could stop myself, the words tumbling out. The thought of this man, this dangerous leader, having a child was a shock.

His jaw ticked, a muscle flexing. “Yeah.”

“Where is she?” My voice was barely a whisper.

“Safe,” he said, but his voice cracked just slightly on the word, a tiny fissure in his hardened armor. “She doesn’t live here. Doesn’t belong in this world. I see her when I can.”

I wanted to ask more, to understand the raw pain in his eyes, but something in his gaze stopped me. A storm brewing just under the surface, a warning not to push too far.

“You love her,” I said instead, a simple statement of fact.

“I’d burn the whole goddamn city for her.”

There was silence after that. Heavy and thick. But not uncomfortable. A different kind of silence.

“I don’t know how to be here,” I whispered, looking around at the rough garage, so different from any place I’d known.

He turned fully to me, his dark eyes searching mine. “Me neither.”

Then he did something that caught me completely off guard—he reached out and handed me a rag, a clean one, folded neatly. “Here. If you’re gonna hang around, you might as well learn how to take care of her.”

I stared at it like it might explode, then at him, disbelief flooding me. “You’re letting me touch your bike?”

“Not yet,” he said with a faint, almost imperceptible smirk, a ghost of a smile touching his lips. “Just clean the tools. Baby steps, Butterfly.”

Butterfly.

The word hit me in the chest like a memory I couldn’t place, a flicker of something so delicate, so soft, so utterly out of place in this harsh world. Had anyone ever called me something so tender? It felt like... a fragile promise, a breath of lightness I hadn't felt in ages. It was a secret word, just for me, from the most dangerous man I'd ever known.

I took the rag, my fingers brushing against his calloused ones.

Maybe survival didn’t have to mean silence anymore.