Page 53 of At the Edge of Surrender

I fought it, sucking the reaction down and focusing on what had to be done right here.

Right now.

“Nolan has been with me for years,” River argued, though there was no spite behind it.

“Know it. And don’t tell me that hasn’t nagged at you this whole time. And now you’ve got Charleigh, too.”

“Charleigh who supports everything we do. One hundred percent.”

“Same as Raven,” Otto said with a dip of his chin.

I blew out some of the strain. “That doesn’t mean either of you should be putting yourselves in the line of fire. Not when you don’t have to. Not when there is someone else who can stand in your place.”

Otto sighed in frustration. “We each have our roles.”

“Yet we all started out the same,” I said.

Murderers. Thieves. Our days spent riding with the Iron Owls MC ensuring that. Our list of sins long and debased. Corruption seeded into our beings.

Only we’d taken it and used our brutality forthis.

Jaw clenched, River rocked back farther. “You think you’re less important than the rest of us?”

Shrugging, I went for a nonchalant smile that likely came out a grimace. “Pretty sure to your little family, I am far less important than you.”

He was Nolan and Charleigh’s lives.

“That’s bullshit thinkin’, man,” Otto gruffed as he slanted his fingers through the longer pieces of his light brown hair. “Skewed as fuck.”

“And also the truth.”

Another flashfire of that little girl’s face blistered through my mind, this time accompanied by the memory of the woman I couldn’t extinguish. The way she’d felt against me. The warmth of those hands and the sanctuary of those eyes.

Like in that momentary sliver of time, we’d found respite in each other.

Fuck, how I’d wanted to be that for her.

Her peace.

This crazy thing inside me that wanted to make hermine.

That flagrant stupidity pierced me on a fiery arrow, and I gritted my teeth and forced the inane thought down.

She didn’t want a fucking thing to do with me, same as she didn’t want me anywhere near that kid.

Mykid.

Fuck.

Nearly choked on it, the bolt of awareness that was making me contemplate reckless things.

River shifted his gaze to Theo and Cash who sat next to each other. “Either of you have thoughts on this?”

It wasn’t just what River and I wanted. Sovereign Sanctum was majority rule.

Everything put to a vote.

Of course, both he and Otto had gone around that with Charleigh and Raven, but some things were just going to come to be, no matter what any of us had to say about them.

---