Page 51 of Cocky Secrets

Mom smiles, “Would you like some coffee?”

Dad grunts, “I thought we were going to bed.”

“I was going home to do the same,” Bear offers as a polite way to decline the even politer coffee-offer. “Just wanted to check in on Sage and make sure she’s okay.” His gaze settles on my bruise. “That looks bad.”

I wink, “Thank you.”

He laughs, “You make it look good.”

Mom holds out her arms to include Dad and my brothers. “Let’s all give Sage and Bear some time alone.”

They start to leave but Dad turns back and thrusts his hand out. Bear shakes it, their expressions somber. “Thank you for coming here. For letting us help the police find her.”

Atlas surprises me by agreeing, “You didn’t have to do that.”

Luke jerks his chin in a brief nod. “You could’ve just let the police force do the work.”

My chest tightens with emotion as I watch my family leave the foyer for their respective bedrooms, a long night over and morning sleep the only way to go, now.

Bear and I come together, alone. He touches the air around my bruise. “I wanted to kill them tonight. Knowing they hurt you.”

“I’m safe now,” I whisper. “Because of you.”

“I could say I wish you hadn’t gone out to find me, but I wanted you to. Nobody could have planned this.”

“A rival club in town? No, it’s not a common thing.”

“Your family, this club, they were incredible.”

I stare at Bear, realizing suddenly why Sofia Sol gave me the extra warning. With this gleam in his eyes, the feelings I have for him, I want to tell him everything. I want no secrets. I’m proud of my family and I want to say how much they help people. Did I take his choice away from him?

But they do it outside of the law.

And he’s the law.

Grabbing onto something to steady my racing mind, I share with him what I can, “They’re going to train me to fight. After tonight, they don’t want me defenseless again.”

Bear searches my eyes. “The thought of you kidnapped, Sage, I can’t explain how angry I was. We searched motels first and came up empty and the more time that passed, the more my imagination tore me up.”

Cupping his face, I whisper, “So you came here first?”

He takes my hands, holding them and kneading them like bread as he recalls what happened. “It went down in two stages. When dispatch got the call from the gas station attendant, I was nearest, found out the low down from him and immediately got the entire station involved. Everyone was called in, some woken up to come on duty. When something like this happens, time is of the essence. Everyone helps. As soon as the police force was galvanized, I raced here while they began the search.” Bear gives me a brief kiss, closing his eyes for a moment. They open again, amber calm after a storm. “Searching the motels alongside your father, your family, it was impressive. Your dad and Jett, they really took charge and I felt like…they’d done this before. The way The Ciphers as an organized unit systematically searched each location?—”

“—They were driven by wanting to find me,” I shrug.

Bear stares into my eyes, searching me until finally, “Yeah. That’s true.”

“There have been other run-ins with The Spiders, remember?”

“Right,” he nods, the extra detail wiping away the remainder of his curiosity. “This wasn’t the first time.”

I kiss him, partly to distract him, but my heart aches for the secret I keep. He returns the kiss until all of the world’s troubles disappear and all that matters is that I’m in his arms, held and safe.

I cannot allow myself to think of anything else. Not right now. Now is a time to celebrate. I pull back and smile up at Bear, “They accept you now.”

“Fighting beside one another tends to bring people closer together.”

“So…there was a silver lining to the darkness we went through.”

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