Page 10 of Untamed Crow

Emma's arms tighten around my waist. "Someone's following us, aren't they?"

Smart girl. No point lying now. "Yeah. Could be Outlaws, could be just some asshole. Either way, we're not sticking around to find out."

I feel her nod against my back, her body still perfectly in sync with mine as we lean into another curve. No panic, no screaming - just trust and determination. Christ, she's perfect.

"Hold tight," I warn before opening up the throttle.

The bike responds instantly, eating up the road as we accelerate. The car tries to keep up, but they don't know these mountain roads like I do.

I take us through a series of tight turns, using every trick I know to lose our tail. Emma moves with me like she was born for this, never fighting the bike's motion. When I glance in the mirror again, the headlights are gone.

Still, I take a few extra turns just to be sure before pulling into a small lookout point. The bike's engine cuts off, leaving us in sudden silence broken only by our heavy breathing.

"You okay?" I ask, turning slightly to check on her.

Emma's eyes are bright with adrenaline, her cheeks flushed. She's still wearing my jacket, her dress hiked up around her thighs, and she's never looked more beautiful.

"That was..." she starts, then laughs breathlessly. "That was intense."

"Sorry about that," I say, though I'm not really sorry at all. She handled it like a natural. "Probably should have stuck to the main roads."

She shakes her head, still not letting go of my waist. "Don't apologize. I've never felt more alive."

The way she says it, combined with how she's pressed against me, makes my blood run hot. I need to put some distance between us before I do something stupid like kiss her.

"We should head back," I say reluctantly, but Emma's already swinging her leg over the bike.

"Can we stay? Just for a little while?" Her voice is soft, almost pleading as she stands beside me. "I've never seen Cedar Falls from up here before."

I should say no. Being still makes us an easier target. But the wonder in her voice... "Yeah, okay. A few minutes."

I dismount, keeping a respectful distance as we both look out over the valley, the city spread beneath us like scattered diamonds on black velvet. I've always loved this view - feeling on top of the world with the whole city underneath, blinking like it's trying to talk to us. Up here, everything else falls away.

A gust of wind catches us, rustling through Emma's dress. She quickly grabs at the fabric as it threatens to expose her, her cheeks flooding with color - but not before I catch a glimpse of lace. My hands clench on the viewpoint's handlebars, my chest rising and falling heavily. Fucking hell.

"I, um..." she stammers, clearly trying to change the subject. "The lights are really pretty from up here. Like stars or something. Not that stars are usually arranged in straight lines, obviously. I mean, unless you count constellations, but those are more like..."

She trails off, embarrassed by her rambling. The moonlight catches the flush on her cheeks, making her look even more beautiful.

"Do you ever regret it?" she asks suddenly. "This life?"

I take a moment, wondering how much to reveal. "No. Never."

"Even with all the danger? The violence?"

"I love it," I admit, surprising myself with my honesty. "Love feeling in control after..." I pause, the memories rising unbidden.

She turns to look at me, but I keep my eyes on the city below. "Was it really bad? Before Cedar Falls?"

The memory of those days rises like bile in my throat - our father's drunken rages, the foster homes where we were just meal tickets, watching my little brother get beaten for speaking up. The day I finally snapped and put that last foster father in the hospital.

"Yeah," I say roughly. "It was bad. But the club..." I gesture at the city below us. "Iron & Blood gave us purpose. Gave us family. Now we're the ones in control, the ones with power. Nobody can hurt us anymore."

The sound of an approaching car breaks through our moment. Headlights sweep across us as a sedan pulls into the lookout point - the same one that was following us earlier. My hand moves to my gun as two men step out, carrying iron bars.

"Would you look at that?" one sneers, the moonlight glinting off the Outlaw's patch on his jacket. "Using a car instead of our bikes actually worked. Caught ourselves an Iron & Blood member all alone."

"And with a pretty little thing, too," the other one adds, eyeing Emma in a way that makes my blood boil.

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