Page 84 of In the Midst of Chaos

The bike was barely parked when both of us jumped off and ran to the front door. It was locked, but that didn’t mean shit, so while Finley worked the keypad, I looked around but couldn’t find anything.

I sent a text to the guys just in case.

We ran inside the house. It was like her parents had never left. Finley stopped in the foyer, looking around the house.

It smelled like dust and old books—like a fallen empire.

I looked at my girl as she took it all in, and I was about to tell her that it wasn’t too late to keep the house, but she spoke before I could offer.

“All the happiest memories I have, I carry inside of me,” she said, touching her heart. “This house can stand, or it can break, but it won’t take away the memories.”

“I fucking love you, you know that, right?” I rubbed my thumb against her cheek.

She looked at my busted face and then at my ribs and nodded.

“Do you want to separa—”

“Fuck no,” I yelled at her. “I’m not risking it.”

She nodded, and together we took the stairs, going to check for the one person who could have told Huxley.

We searched the guest rooms, but there was nothing. They looked like they hadn’t been used in years—the same with the master bedroom.

We both stopped when we were at the entrance to her father’s office. I took a step in front of her and pushed her behind me as I opened the door.

At first, everything looked fine. I pulled out my gun just in case. I went to the bathroom while Finley made her way across the room.

When I opened the room, I noticed that this room didn’t look like it had been locked for ages. There were toilet paper and other toiletries.

“Nash,” Finley said. I turned around, but she was pointing to the space behind her father’s desk.

There was a small sleeping bag ruffled with a few blankets.

Anger flared through my veins.

“That son of a bitch,” I spat.

Then my eyes made it to the window in Micah’s office. It led to an outside balcony, and there was a state-of-the-art telescope.

I ran outside, and my chest heaved with what I saw.

“What better place to hide than our own backyard,” Finley said as she saw the telescope and binoculars.

Leon had been spying on us. I felt like a damn idiot for not thinking of looking here before today.

No one at the club had told Huxley about Finley and me because they cared too much about him to hurt him when he was recovering, but Leon wanted to push him over the edge.

I heard the roar of Harleys, but I ignored it as I took a look into the telescope, trying to see the last thing Leon saw.

It was a perfect view into the clearing, and I bet the fucker had seen me fuck Finley and then told Huxley all about it.

“He couldn’t have gotten far,” I said as I turned around, but Finley shook her head at me.

She was standing next to her father’s chess game, and there was a paper covered in droplets of blood.

Checkmate.

You may have won the battle, but after chaos comes a war.

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