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“My parents. Well, first I went to see Cami earlier today and then I decided they needed to know too.” She swallowed. “It was hard. They got so upset. Of course my dad wanted to run out and castrate Parker Neely. I had to promise him I was pursuing more legal options. My mom was beside herself. She kept saying, ‘Why didn’t you tell us? Why did you try to deal with this alone?’ I explained that I thought I had a good reason, that I was only trying to spare them pain.” She swallowed and played with the end of her ponytail. “And I also told them I’d never felt alone. Because of you.”

“You’re not alone,” I promised her. “Never.”

That made her smile. “Curtis Mulligan, you turned out to be nothing like the callous jerk I thought you were at first.”

“I believe you thought that because I told you that’s who I was,” I said, remembering that night in her bedroom when I figured the best thing I could do for her was to tell her I wasn’t good enough.

“It seems we were both wrong,” she said, looking at me with those blue eyes that had somehow staked an irrevocable claim on my heart when I wasn’t paying attention.

I pivoted and stood in front of her, bracing my hands on the counter. We were inches apart now. The top of her head only reached my collarbone so she had to look up to see me.

Her hand reached up and brushed against my cheek. “I like this,” she whispered. “I like seeing all of your face.”

I was so fucking hard it was practically an emergency but I took the time to raise her hand to my lips and kiss the palm. She smelled sweet, like butter and cookies. I wanted to know if she tasted as sweet. Another few seconds of being this close to her and nothing was going to stop me from finding out.

Then a key fumbled in the front door lock and we moved in opposite directions so Brecken wouldn’t notice anything.

“Cassie!” He was holding a giant soda cup and a bag of corn chips. Brecken was always thrilled to see Cassie. Sometimes I wondered if he even had a crush on her. “I didn’t know you were coming over today.”

“Yeah, I wanted to see the place now that you have all your furniture,” Cassie laughed. “And my mom sent over some food.”

“Cool.” Brecken dropped the bag of chips on the counter. “I’m starving.”

Cassie removed the casserole dish from the fridge and set it in the microwave. Brecken bounced around like an eager puppy as she heated up the food.

My phone started ringing so I retreated to my bedroom to answer it when I saw the caller was Deck.

“What’s up?” I greeted him, wondering why he was calling at the dinner hour on a Saturday.

He sounded tense. “Curtis. You know a guy named Tim Dietz?”

I was instantly on alert. “Yeah, down in Emblem. We were never the best of friends but I called him a few times and asked him to keep an eye out for Tristan. Why?”

Deck sighed and told the story. A buddy of his owned The Dirty Cactus, a seedy bar down in Emblem. Per Deck’s request the owner had been asking around about Tristan. Meanwhile, Dietz had run up quite a tab there and everyone knew he didn’t have two dimes to rub together so the orders were not to serve him anymore. That’s when Dietz decided that it might be worth his while to break the news that Tristan Mulligan was now back in town and had joined a hell raising crew of bikers led by a man named Bastien.

My stomach dropped. “That’s bad news,” I said.

“It is,” Deck agreed.

“Is it as bad as I’m thinking?”

He sighed. “I know you’ll be remembering Bastien as one of the Rioters chiefs.”

“Brutal son of a bitch.”

“Still is.”

“Thought he was still doing time for attempted murder?”

“Someone on the parole board must have lost their minds. He walked out of the cage two months ago.”

I was still grappling with the unsettling news and what it all meant. “There aren’t any Emblem Rioters, not anymore.”

“Not the same ones. The old guard is mostly gone, except for Bastien and a few others, but you knew that. They don’t go by that name anymore. They call themselves Emblem Evil and tend to sport ink with double E’s to advertise membership.”

My mouth was dry. “How bad is it, Deck? What are they involved in?”

“Some small time stuff. Reselling stolen electronics, running underground casinos around Emblem. They’re trying to get a piece of the meth trade though and that’ll catch the attention of the authorities.”

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