Page 51 of Steel

“No.” I drop my gaze to hers. “I don’t blame you for it.”

“Good.” A faint smile brightens her hazel eyes.

“We’ve come a long way, haven’t we, wildfire?” I chuckle, taking a sip of my beer.

“We have.”

Her eyes brighten like gems that house the souls of men who have fallen into their depths. The desert sky could be void of the sun, and she’d still brighten it.

A breeze kicks up, and Tempe sets her beer on the bar. She reaches for the hair tie around her wrist, wrangling her hair into a bun on the top of her head. A few pieces fall around her face, and my fingers itch to brush them back. To feel her skin. To get a hit of that electrical current that vibrates between us.

The club has always been my entire life.

My purpose.

Women were there to fill a void, like booze was there to loosen my nerves.

But when I look at Tempe, I’m faced with something I didn’t realize I’ve been hiding from. A man beneath the president patch. One who might want more than I’ve been giving him.

A man I lost at twenty-one when my father took a bullet to the forehead. A man I was still figuring out, so this is what I became instead.

A mask of myself.

Tempe looks around the yard, and I follow her gaze. She watches Austin and Bea in the kiddie pool, smiling at the sight of them having fun.

Legacy is acting as a barrier between them and a couple of the guys with water guns, and he’s soaked, taking the brunt of the battle.

I never got it before.

Family.

Kids.

I had my brothers, and that was enough.

Maybe it always will be. Because I have no other choice when the club has to come first to a man in my position.

But when Austin looks up and spots Tempe standing next to me, he smiles with the full force of the sun. He waves at us, and my chest expands.

Like his sister, Austin sees straight past my cut. He sees the parts of me I’ve been avoiding, and he hands me his full trust. He’s still too young to understand the terrible things I’ve done. Some of it for good reason, but others not so much.

Austin smiles at me, and I don’t want to fail him. I don’t want either of them to suffer any more than they have—especially for the sins of my club.

“Cute kid.” Reina slides up beside me, cutting through my thoughts.

Her smile is as fake as her bleach-blonde hair as she looks from Austin to Tempe.

“Thanks.” Tempe forces a smile.

“You coming back, Steel?” Reina rests her hand on my arm. “It’s getting lonely over there without you.”

She doesn’t really care where I am, but she’s being territorial because she sees Tempe as a threat. Rumors have been spreading over the fact that Tempe and Austin have been staying at my house, which explains Reina’s desperate attempt to claim me.

If she knew me at all, she’d realize jealousy just gets under my skin. No one owns me but my patch.

I shake her off in irritation. “Seems like you and Havoc were getting along just fine without me.”

“Oh, come on, Steel. You know how it is. You never cared before.”

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