Page 24 of Her Savior Biker
“And the club?”
“The club moves on. Savior gets back to focusing on what matters.” He pockets the coin, the gesture final. “Everyone wins.”
Everyone except me.
“Five days,” he says, standing. “Use them to say your goodbyes.”
When I return to the bar, my hands are shaking so badly I can barely hold my order pad. Reyes looks up from his booth, takes one look at my face, and starts to rise.
I shake my head quickly, focusing on a table I need to clear instead of the questions in his eyes. I can’t deal with this right now. Not while I’m supposed to be working, while my emotions are too raw.
For the rest of my shift, I avoid his corner. When I have to pass his table, I keep my eyes down. When Red asks if I’m okay, I nod and keep moving. When Grizz offers to let me leave early, I tell him I need the hours. Anything to avoid the moment I have to ask Reyes if sending me away was his idea.
The ride home is silent, save for Aiden’s chatter about his day. He made a friend named Tyler who also has a cast. His innocent joy is a thin veil over the tension radiating between me and Reyes.
At the safehouse, I focus on dinner, bath time, bedtime stories—all the domestic routines that help me avoid thinking about Michigan. It’s only after Aiden’s asleep, after the dishes are done and there’s nowhere left to hide, that I finally tell him what happened.
He listens without interrupting as I explain about Rector, about Michigan, about the five-day countdown ticking in my head. When I finish, he goes very still.
“Hewhat?” His voice is deadly quiet.
“He called someone named Rector. Says he’ll be here in five days—”
“That wasn’t Tank’s choice to make.” The words explode out of him. He paces the kitchen like a caged animal. “I’m not a child who needs the club to make my decisions for me. I don’t need him managing my personal life.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Interesting perspective.”
He stops, the irony in my tone hitting him. Some of the rage leaves his expression, replaced by shame. “That’s different.”
“Is it?”
He sinks into a kitchen chair, head in his hands. “Fuck. This is such a mess.”
I sit across from him, waiting. When he finally looks up, his eyes are tired. “What do you want, Shannon?”
The question I’ve been asking myself all afternoon. “The same thing I wanted last night,” I say simply. “You.”
“But?”
“But I also want you safe. I want you to keep your patch, your brotherhood, your family.” I reach across the table, touching his hand. “You’re a good man, Reyes.”
“No, I’m not.” The denial is automatic, fierce.
“Yes, you are.” I squeeze his fingers. “I’ve been with bad. I know the difference. You’re good all the way through, even when you try to convince yourself otherwise.”
Something shifts in his expression as he understands what I’m really saying.
“You’re going to leave with Rector.” It’s not a question.
“Yes.”
Pain flickers across his face. “Because it’s the right thing to do.”
“Because it’s the unselfish thing to do.” I stand, moving around the table until I’m in front of him. “But I have five days. And I’ll be damned if I waste one of them.”
Before he can respond, I pull him up from the chair and kiss him. Hard, desperate, pouring all the want and the time we don’t have into the press of my lips against his.
This time, he doesn’t resist. His arms crush me against him as he kisses me back with a hunger that makes my knees weak. This isn’t the careful, controlled kiss from this morning. This is raw need, desperation, the acknowledgment that we’re running out of time.
