Page 27 of Forsaken Oath

“C’mon, Margot, you and I both know that Thorne can’t stay mad at me,” Nate says around a low chuckle.

“Eat shit, Nate. My sister is a total badass, and she can do whatever she wants.” She pushes open the car door, hard enough that I hear Nate’s muffled grunt.

Okay, so maybe they’re really not hooking up.

I don’t bother smothering my smile. I can’t help it if I enjoy seeing Margot talk a little shit, even if it is to my oldest friend.

Before she closes the passenger door, she leans in and points right at my face. Her dark eyes bore into mine, intensity and sincerity blazing like a goddamn furnace. “Fuck ’em up, Louie. You’re a badass, don’t fucking forget it.”

I shake my head a little bit. “I won’t. Thanks for the pep talk, sis.”

“Anytime, sis,” she says as she steps back and closes the door.

Nate braces his forearms on the car, leaning in the open window. “You good, baby?”

My smile falls into a frown instantly. “Don’t. Not now.” I jerk my chin toward my sister standing behind him. “Watch her back, okay?”

His brows rise toward his hair. “She’ll be fine. She’ll tear the balls off of anyone she doesn’t want within reaching distance. I’m more concerned with you.”

“Well, don’t,” I murmur, looking out the windshield. “I’ll be fine.”

He backs out of the open window, tapping the car twice. “Yeah. You’ll be alright.”

“Keep her safe, Nate.” I don’t look at him when I say it, but I can still feel his gaze on me.

“I will, Eloise.”

The cars shift forward, and I follow them, rolling up my window and starting my playlist over from the top. It’s time to get my shit together.

I’ve got a race to win.

13

BEAU

“I still can’t believeyou and Graham run this place,” my sister says. She nudges her shoulder into my arm. “And for so long.”

I glance over at her, frowning. I try to see it from her perspective. The lights, the noise, the speeding cars, the rowdy crowd. “Yeah.”

“You could’ve told me, you know. I would’ve kept it from Mom and Dad if that’s what you were worried about,” she murmurs, her gaze stays straight ahead.

Guilt carves out pieces of me like a slice of Swiss cheese. I swallow and face her. “I’m sorry, Cora. It wasn’t malicious. It was . . .” I shrug and run my hand over the back of my neck. “At first, we were further on the other side of the law, and we didn’t want to drag anyone into it, yeah? And then, it just became this thing that we did. I don’t know. Iamsorry, though.”

She looks at me, her gaze crawling over my face. “And you guys are being safe? Because I’m sure Jasper could?—”

“You name-dropping me now, baby?” my sister’s boyfriend slings an arm over her shoulder, half-leaning over her.

My top lip curls before I can arrange my face into something more neutral. “Jagger.” I grit his nickname out.

My sister lives in his lake house in Avalon Falls, but he’s a Reaper. A member of the local motorcycle club in Rosewood, our neighboring town—and where we grew up. There’s no love lost between our crew at the Alley and the Reapers. But we don’t run in the same circles, so I’m never worried about them.

Jagger lifts his face from Cora’s neck, tipping his chin toward me. “Carter.” His gaze goes over my shoulder, and I don’t need to turn around to know Graham is scowling behind me. “Carter.”

Graham only grunts in response. Jagger smirks before my sister steals his attention. I can’t deny that it’s a little fuckin’ weird to see my sister all over some random Reaper, not after all the years she spent shit-talking them.

But I’ve also never seen her this happy before. And I’m not hateful enough to want her to suffer just because a handful of Reapers were assholes to us years ago.

Speaking of Reaper assholes, Jagger’s friend Hawke strolls up. Perpetually smirking and never pressed, he bounds down the stands from above. He weaves his way through the stands, skirting around everyone while holding two completely full drink holders.

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