“Babe, what the hell . . . ?”

“I didn’t want to worry you. I know you said emergency, but by the time it became one . . .” She trailed off, shook her head.

The creak of the floor behind him made him turn, ready to strangle the next person who came near him. He hadn’t been prepared to see his stepbrother.

“Hey, Cage.”

“Eli, what’s going on?” The fact that he was even in the clubhouse meant something was completely fucked.

“He saved me and Holly. Well, Holly saved us and then Eli protected us from the police,” Calla explained, her voice strong enough to make him believe she was okay. He looked between them and saw an understanding had blossomed between his woman and his brother, and that a bond had already begun to form. Life and death would do that to you.

“Is that true, Eli?”

Eli nodded, but he looked troubled. “She wouldn’t have needed saving if I hadn’t fucked up in the first place.”

“Eli, no,” Calla started, but Cage put a hand on her shoulder and motioned for Eli to continue.

“They followed me here. They had to. I thought I was being slick but . . .”

He looked miserable.

“Why’d you come here in the first place?” Cage asked.

Eli shrugged.

“I think you two need some time alone. I’ll go check on Holly.” Calla touched his back and then Eli’s arm on the way out. Her look implored Cage to go easy on him, and Cage would. He just wouldn’t let Eli know that.

* * *

Cage watched Calla move from the main section of the clubhouse before he said to Eli, “You know how many times I’ve reached out to you?”

Eli shrugged. Now the kid was going to pull the cool act.

“Does your mom know you’re here?”

“Doubt it.” He paused. “I spent the past week at clubhouse.”

Cage almost growled out loud. Eli’s mother had promised that Eli would spend minimal time at the clubhouse. Eli had seen Cage as the enemy before this. Cage saw a scared kid behind the teenager in the probie cut, forced to be a man too soon.

“Why?” he demanded harshly. More so than he’d intended.

Eli’s jaw tightened. “I was moving there permanently, at Dad’s request.”

“Dammit, you were supposed to stay . . .”

“Like you did? You left.”

“Eli—”

“Heard it before.”

“You’ll hear it again.”

Eli turned away from him and Tals stuck his head in. “Cage—a moment?”

Cage said to Eli’s back, “We’re not done,” and the boy just grunted.

“Way to parent,” Tals told him.

“Like you could do better?”

“Mommy Dearest could’ve,” Tals informed him seriously. “Take a step back. He finally did what you wanted—he came here. Don’t push him back out the door.”

* * *

Holly was already asleep, helped along by whatever meds Rocco had given her before he and Bear took the bullet out of her thigh. I’d heard her moaning, and it had been a struggle to stay out of the room myself. Once Preacher arrived, he seemed to have that same struggle.

Rocco said he’d stay with her overnight at the clubhouse, but then Preacher said Rocco should drive us home and that he’d stay. That got a raised eyebrow from both Tals and Rocco, but I didn’t question them. Tals quickly decided he would stay to stand guard, in case the Heathens tried to come back. Rocco drove me and Cage and Eli back to the apartment. Once Cage got Eli settled in, he came back to where I waited, by the windows.

“Babe.” He circled his strong arms around me. I tried not to tremble and failed miserably. He pushed me against the wall, his body holding me down and protecting me all at once, like a human shield. “Please tell me that blood on you isn’t—”

“It’s all Holly’s,” I said quickly. “Rocco helped. He took the bullet out of her thigh. Said there’s going to be a scar. I wanted to take her to the ER but—”

“Babe, stop. You don’t have to relive it.”

But I was—worse than when we’d been at the clubhouse. I’d been calm there, out of necessity, but here I was losing it. I was babbling. Spinning. And then I realized that he must’ve faced demons of his own tonight, because the look on his face was so tortured. “Just hold me.”

He did, and for a long while it was just us, standing on top of the world. “Calla, I had no idea Eli would come by.”

“I know.” For Eli, I had to hold it together. I wouldn’t let him feel guilty for any of this. “Holly . . . if she hadn’t been there . . .”

He grimaced. “I’m thankful she was. Otherwise, Eli would’ve taken action.”

“Holly was like a wild woman. She was possessed. What’s her deal?”

Cage ran a hand through his hair. “She was hurt a while back. Her old man was killed pretty brutally in front of her. He wasn’t one of ours, but his MC didn’t stand by her.”

“I thought that’s what you guys did.”

“They claimed he’d sold out his club. That he was trying to get out. If someone hadn’t killed him, his own MC would’ve. If you want out, you’ve got very few options.”

“And Holly?”

“They hurt her. The MC kicked her out, took over her business and left her with nothing. She came here to start over.”

There had to be a reason, but it didn’t seem to matter. No wonder she’d freaked out so badly. “But if the violence scares her, why come back to an MC?”

“It’s all she knows. MCs are where she’s comfortable. What she likes.”

I tried to wrap my mind around that and only semifailed. “How’s Eli?”

“Not admitting much. Trying to pretend he’s fine. Furthest thing from.” He sighed. “My father’s going to be calling me soon.”

My heart broke for him. “So now that Eli is here, they’ll try to hurt you again?”

“Better me than him. But at some point he’s got to decide to tell them he’s staying here. I’m just giving him a little breathing room to do so.”

“He’s a baby.”

“No, he’s not. Not in this world.”

“What about getting a court order?”

“We don’t need that. The Heathens—my father won’t go to the courts for help, and even if we did, it’s not a code of justice he’d bother to follow.” He hung his head. “I never should’ve let him stay there that long.”

“The last few years . . .”

“I spent trying to kill his father,” he finished.

“Well, when you put it like that . . .” I murmured, then continued. “The thing is, there are always going to be Heathens. If you stay in this world, it’s always going to be a fight. Is it worth it?”

“Always has been. Always will be.”

“Then I’m in.”

“The Heathens can stay. It’s my family I want out of there. That’s who I’m exorcising. The rest of those motherfuckers . . . they can stay and try to fuck with the Vipers. But my family? That’s personal, and I’m handling it.” He buried his face against my neck. “I promised to keep you safe, dammit.”

“You can’t be with me twenty-four/seven.”

“I should’ve been here.”

“It’s my fault.” Eli stepped out from the shadows and Cage’s face turned pale.

“No, nothing is your fault,” Cage said quietly, and I nodded in agreement.

“I put your woman in danger. I’ll go back.”

“You’re not going back,” Cage told him.

I watched the scene, imagining a young Cage being as stalwart as Eli was at the moment. I pulled away from Cage and went to stand with Eli. “Eli took care of things.”

“Yeah?” Cage moved closer to both of us and put a hand on the back of Eli’s neck, and the teen couldn’t stop a grin from escaping. “Good job.”

“I was trying to make up for everything,” Eli confessed, like he couldn’t hold it in any longer, the look on his face breaking my heart.

“There’s nothing you need to make up for,” Cage told him.

“They found you that night because of me,” Eli confessed.

I tensed, but needn’t have worried.

“And your calling the cops saved me. You risked everything by doing that, Eli,” Cage told his younger brother firmly, before getting up and dragging the boy into a hug.

“I can’t go back there, Cage. I feel like I’ll fucking die if I do,” Eli admitted quietly.

I wanted to hug both of them.

“You’re not going back. Ever. You belong here. You saved me and then you saved Calla. You’ve more than proven yourself to Preach.”

“Suppose I don’t want the life?” The question burst out of him like a surge of gunfire, but the only damage in this case was the fear I saw etched in his face.

“Is that what you’re worried about? That the only reason I’d let you stay is if you join Vipers?”

“You had to.”

“Fuck no, I didn’t have to. I wanted to. I didn’t want it any other way, but Preacher wouldn’t let me join until I was sixteen. Until I saw what Vipers was about, and if I hadn’t wanted to? He would’ve paid for college.”

As Cage spoke, Eli’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Yes, really. You stay with me. If you want out of the life, you’re out. Simple as that. I want you to have all your choices open to you.”

“It really doesn’t matter to you?”

“The only thing that matters is that you’re happy. And that you’re a good man. From what I’ve seen, you’ve already gone a long way toward that second part.”

Eli’s shoulders slumped with relief. “I didn’t know if there was room for me.”

Cage put a hand out to me while looking at him and said, “There’s room, Eli,” as he gave my hand a squeeze.

There was room for all of us, Cage was telling me.

* * *

“You don’t have to hover over me like I’m a child.”

Holly’s clipped, cold tones never sent him away, although that’s exactly what she was looking to do.

Preacher ignored her and pulled a chair right up to the bed. “And if I wanted to, I’d lay the fuck down next to you,” he told her.