Page 104 of Thornhill Road

She’d been killed in a tragic motor vehicle accident in the middle of the night.

With the volume turned down, I couldn’t catch everything the news anchor said, but I did hearbrake failure.

My stomach sank and I had to concentrate on my breathing as I wrapped my head around this news.

Mary-Kate’s mother was dead.

They’d said her brakes had failed, and I believed that.

I also knew, Iknewit wasn’t an accident.

The Wild Stallions were in the business of protection.

They were also professional mechanics.

Mustang told me they weren’t assassins. He also said in a kill or be killed situation, they did what they had to do. It didn’t take much for me to figure out that wasn’t a logic which applied exclusively to the men in the club.

Trix’s negligence had threatened Mary-Kate’s life. The Stallions did what they thought they had to do.

A month ago, this realization would likely have freaked me out majorly. In all honesty, it was a bit terrifying to think about it even then—but I knew these men. They were outlaws, but they weren’t monsters. What I saw on the news was only half the story. The full story was a tale of vigilante justice.

I was well aware that any justification of their actions was an acceptance, on my part, of their criminal nature. But I was in love with a Stallion. I trusted him with my life. I trusted him with his daughter’s life.

Winnie had told me the most valuable piece of advice she could ever give me was to never doubt my man. Not ever.

It might have made me a stupid woman, but I was too far gone.

I was going to heed that advice.

I loved him too much not to.

“Did you know her or something?” asked Sarah from where she sat in a nearby armchair, her gaze cast in my direction.

I inhaled deeply and let it out in a calm exhale as I nodded. “I did, actually. Well, I met her a couple times. We weren’t friends or anything.”

“It’s too bad, what happened to her. Only thirty years old.”

I nodded in agreement.

There was no denying it was too bad.

But as it always did after death, life would go on.

Mustang

Four Days Later

He stood in thedriveway, leaning against his Road King, arms folded across his chest as he thought back over the last few days. It had been a whirlwind, but at least most of the physical labor was behind them. Now, him, his ol’ lady, and his girl could focus on settling.

It was early Monday morning when the cops knocked on his door to make the notification regarding Trix. Mustang waited until MK woke on her own before he broke the news.

It had been his call, but he wasn’t heartless.

He knew what it was like to lose the only mother he’d ever known, and he knew—regardless of the circumstances—MK would feel a similar loss. She was still young. She couldn’t fully wrap her head around the concept of death, but she had her moments of grief, moments he let her have. He didn’t regret his decision. He was grateful his daughter was alive to feel anything at all, even if that was sadness for a woman he knew didn’t deserve her tears.

Mustang was certain his MK would be alright—especially because now she had Tess, too.

His backup. His partner. His ol’ lady.

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