Page 28 of The Oath We Take

The rest of the clip passes by, and Atom is silent as they tell me how much I’ll owe and how I need to pay. He doesn’t even say anything when Rocco is beaten.

His only words come when I get slapped down to the ground.

“I’m gonna fucking kill him.”

9

ATOM

Iturn and tug Ember to me, wrapping my arms tight around her.

I’m not even sure why I do it, beyond needing to feel her near me. To feel the warmth of her skin and the beat of her heart against my own chest. To confirm in the most physical of ways that she truly is alive and standing here with me.

Because there was a minute when I saw those men approach her, that a different outcome flashed before my eyes, and I couldn’t take it.

“Fucking hate that they got anywhere near you,” I say without thinking.

Feelings of vengeance and fear roll through me, ebbing and gaining in strength, one overtaking the other until I don’t know which way is up.

I could have lost her, before she was even mine.

She smells soft and sweet, and I fight hard to bury the feeling that right here is where we are both meant to be, always. Ember presses her forehead against my pec, and I feel her shoulders sag.

“I’m fine,” she says, but her voice wavers.

“You don’t have to be strong all the time, Em,” I mutter, kissing the top of her head like it’s the most natural thing in the world. The scent of her hair is fruity in contrast to my nasty hungover self.

She sighs. I feel the warmth of it through my T-shirt. I feel her relax in the safety of my arms. Then, she gently pushes away from me. “I do. And don’t act like you care.”

I stand and loom above her. Fucking love it when she looks up at me with those big eyes the color of storm clouds. But today, I see red. “You’ve never been more wrong, Em. So, reel your fucking neck in, because I’m really struggling with how close those assholes got to you.”

“The only reasons you’re here are because of Dad, those men, and what they mean for the club.” She jabs a finger at her laptop as she speaks.

I tear a hand through my hair. “Butcher didn’t send me. I told you, Wraith got a call from Margie, and all I could think about was how to get back here to check you’re okay. Butcher was passed out in his tent with the two girls he hooked up with last night. He only found out long after I’d left.”

Ember swallows deeply, then purses her lips for a moment as she looks out the window. “I don’t believe you. You’ve never put me first.”

But I want to. Jesus, do I want to.

Instead, I remain silent.

It’s tough to watch her regain her composure.

I want to reach for her again.

Comfort her.

Something.

“We need to stop this,” she says finally.

“Stop what?” I ask, although there is a sinking feeling in my gut that I know what she’s talking about.

She means us. This dance. And I’m not ready for there to be a permanent end. I thought I’d severed us five years ago, but the reality slaps me hard that I hadn’t. It was a pretense. A façade.

This time,she’sending us, and the pain of it is immeasurable.

When she looks back at me, she’s as devastated as she was that day in the meadow when she first offered me her heart. I guess we’re both thieves, because even though our words and actions said one thing, we took each other’s hearts anyway.

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