Page 18 of Cold Hard Truth

“Did you say goodbye?” I ask, and she nods. “It’s going to be strange around here with you gone. You’re the first person who welcomed me when Ellie and I were dropped off here. It’s finally starting to feel real.”

“It feels weird leaving.” Reed turns back to me. “I don’t remembernotliving on the compound. I’m used to things always being loud and chaotic.”

“Never a dull moment around here.”

“That’s for sure.” She shakes her head. “Remember the patching-in ceremony three years ago? I still can’t figure out how they got the bikes up on the roof of the clubhouse.”

“Or how it didn’t cave in from the weight of them.”

“Good point.” Reed smiles.

I bite my lip. “Remember the Santa?”

She grabs her stomach when a laugh bursts out of her. “They still think the Santa was haunted.”

“And they’ll continue to think it.” I laugh.

Every December, Reed, Ellie, and I took turns moving a Santa figurine around the clubhouse. We’d sneak it from one spot to the other. They figured one of the guys was messing with them until I convinced them the Santa was haunted. That he was watching over them and all their bad behavior.

They deserved it for always making fun of my cards and fortunes.

“What happened to that Santa?” I catch my breath, but Reed’s still laughing.

“I think one of the guys burned it.”

“Talk about bad karma.”

“Right?”

Our laughing fades out, and all the fun the three of us had in this place flashes through my mind. The pranks we pulled and the trouble we caused. Our biker-daughter girl squad has slowly shrunk from three to two and now to one.

Reed once more adjusts the strap of her bag. A gust of wind barrels down the street and kicks our hair around. It feels like time moving on, sweeping our memories into the past, but even as Ellie and Reed move on, I’m stuck in it.

A sad smile ticks up on Reed’s face, and she looks so much like her brother, it hurts a little sometimes. He might share more of their dad’s features, and she might mirror the photos I’ve seen of their mom, but they havethe same dark brown eyes and big smiles that light up their whole face.

“I’m going to miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too.” Reed grabs my hands in hers. “But you’ll be good. We both know you practically run this place. Besides, I’ll come to visit every chance I get, and you said you’ll come to Boston this winter to see the snow.”

“I’d die to see some snow.” I’m sure people who live in it don’t appreciate the cold, but seasons in Los Angeles aren’t quite the same as they are in other places.

And at some point, I need to actually experience the world.

Reed pulls me in for a hug. “Keep an eye on my brother for me.”

“That’s the club’s job now.”

Sage might still be a prospect, but they treat him like a member already. It’s his blood and dedication. He’s been doing the club’s dirty work since before he was handed his cut, and I have no doubt he’d do anything to protect them. Which seems to be weighing heavier on him lately.

Outside the club, Sage is relaxed and a jokester. At the tattoo shop, he’ll mess around and play pranks on the guys. But the more time he spends at the compound, earning his place in the club, the more I watch that side of him slowly start to fade away.

“I know they will.” Reed sighs because she didn’t want this life for her brother either. “But they’ll also be the ones to put him in danger.”

I hate that I can’t argue with her because it twists the knot in my stomach.

I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to Sage, and there’s nothing I can do about it. The club is dangerous.

“He’ll be fine.” I squeeze Reed’s hands and force a smile, trying to put her at ease. “This is Sage we’re talking about.”

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