Page 58 of My Knight

“So they’re waiting?” Poppy asked.

Yarder nodded. “For now.”

“But if they confirm it…” Fallon trailed off.

“Then Stretch becomes collateral,” Compass said bluntly.

Poppy’s hand flew to her mouth.

“Leo said the only way they can take out Boone and Gibbs without repercussions is if everyone connected to them disappears with them,” Yarder said. “That includes Stretch.”

“No,” I said. It just flew out. “There has to be another way.”

“There always is,” Sloane said. “We just have to find it before Leo and Brynn pull the trigger.”

Silence fell again, heavier this time.

We all knew what this meant.

The war wasn’t over.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Pirate

Saylor and I lay facing each other in the room, dim except for the soft light spilling from the bathroom doorway. Saylor’s hair was spread across her pillow, her cheek cradled in her hand as she smiled at me like I was the most interesting thing in the world.

I pointed to the small tattoo on her forearm—a little pink pig tucked into a blanket. “Pig in a blanket?”

She grinned. “Yup. That one’s pretty obvious.”

I moved my gaze to the tattoo on her wrist—a pack of cigarettes with a halo above it. I blinked, confused, then laughed out loud. “What the hell is that?”

Saylor laughed with me. “Holy smokes,” she said with pride.

I laughed harder. “Jesus Christ.”

She giggled and curled closer. “Come on, you can’t tell me that’s not genius.”

I shook my head, still grinning. “No, it’s genius. Ridiculous, but genius.”

This. This was what I needed.

After the bomb Leo and Brynn had dropped earlier—after seeing Dice completely lose it hearing that Stretch might’ve betrayed us—it felt like the ground beneath us was crumbling. We didn’t know anything for sure. Not yet. Brynn had said she needed time to confirm it all.

And until then? We were in limbo.

We’d spent the rest of the day trying to shake the weight off our shoulders. Hanging around the clubhouse. Eating dinner together like it was a regular night. But everyone had been quiet. Eyes distant. Every joke forced.

Until Saylor looked at me and said, “Want a tour of my tattoos? Might distract you.”

And just like that, I was laughing again.

So far, she’d shown me:

- A cherry pie slice with the word ‘cutie’ written under it. (Cutie pie.)

- A fork with a smirk that said, ‘fork yeah.’

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