Page 29 of The Oath We Take

“This. You and me. We’ve been on the precipice for over five years. I didn’t believe you that day, when you said you don’t think of me that way. And I know I’ve tried everything to pretend I’ve gotten over you. But this… You kissing me in the stable, you showing up here. You holding me like you care, kissing the top of my head. Holding me like I’m yours to care about. Like I’m yours to defend, when you and I both know, you don’t intend to make it anything more… I need you to stop.”

I think about the video I just watched. It’s not the souped-up truck and the men and the fact there are shaved-headed assholes in my town, trying to take money from those I want to protect, that makes me so unmoored.

Men who would threaten my town, I can take care of. Men like that, I can stop.

But the man who took Ember’s hand when she got out of his car, the man who stroked a knuckle down her cheek, the man Ember tried to protect in the end, the man she climbed onto her knees for after getting knocked down so she could care for him…

Him, I can’t stop.

“I don’t know if I can watch you in a relationship with another man, Ember.” The words come out more gruffly than I intend. I have to swallow deeply once they are out.

A tear spills over her lashes, and that single trail breaks my heart. “Then pick me, Hudson. It’s not hard.”

I reach out to brush the tear away, the heavy drop rolling down my thumb. The veil between right and wrong has never been so transparent. I don’t know where the lines are and, right now, I’m not sure I care.

“Em, I?—"

The sound of hammering on the glass door that leads to the exterior stairs makes us both jump apart.

“Em, honey. It’s me,” Butcher shouts from outside.

Ember swipes the remaining wetness from her cheek, blows out a breath, sucks in another one, and straightens her hair before heading to let him in.

I reach for her wrist, and she turns. “We aren’t done.”

She looks down at the ground for a moment, then back to me before she snatches her hand away from me. “I think we are, Atom.”

My road name sounds jarring as it passes her lips.

For years I’ve been reminding her to call me Atom to put some distance between us.

Now…

“Dad,” she says as she opens the door.

“Would it kill either one of you to answer your fucking phones?” Butcher shouts before scooping Em into his arms and giving her a hug that likely cracks her ribs.

“I’m fine, Dad,” she says. But the waver in her voice says she isn’t.

When he releases her, he takes a moment to kick off his boots, and I’m glad, because it gives me a few more seconds to compose myself. I’m sure the conversation Ember and I just had is written all over my face.

Then pick me, Hudson. It’s not hard.

I need an excuse to look away from her, so I check my phone, and sure enough, the battery is dead. I glance around the apartment and see Ember’s charger on the breakfast bar, so I plug my phone in.

Butcher strides through the apartment in his socks, slipping out of his cut as he walks, before opening the door and hanging it on the hook outside in the hallway.

You can tell he’s done that a million times before. And for a fleeting second, I see the man who truly cares about his daughter and her rules.

“How did you get here so fast, Butcher?” I ask.

He rubs a hand over his face. “Woke up about an hour after you left. Wraith told me what happened. Knew if I called Em, she’d feed me some bullshit about being fine and not needing anything, but I wanted to see for myself.”

“Surprised you can see anything through those bloodshot eyes. You’re still drunk,” I say, smelling the booze pouring from him.

“Maybe. But there was no way I wasn’t coming back here once I knew what happened.” He looks to Ember. “Can see the distress on your face. Glad I made the call to come see you.”

“You didn’t have to,” Ember says.

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