Page 19 of Viking
Our fingers brushed as I took the coffee, the brief contact sending an unwelcome current through me.This was Kris’s sister, for Christ’s sake.She was grieving, vulnerable, in danger.The last thing she needed was me developing feelings that complicated an already impossible situation.
“Thanks,” I muttered, taking a deliberate step back.
“So what happens now?”she asked, leaning against the counter.“We just… hide out here?Hope they don’t find us?”
“We’re not hiding,” I corrected.“We’re strategizing.Wire and Atlas are digging deeper, trying to figure out exactly what Kris was involved in and who might be coming after you.Once we know that, we can take more specific action.”
She nodded, sipping her coffee.“And Athena?What about her future?She’s already lost so much, and now she’s living in a biker compound with strangers and danger and…” Her voice caught, and she took a steadying breath.
“Hey,” I said, setting my mug down.“One day at a time, remember?Right now, Athena is safe.She’s got you.And you’ve got us.”
“Us,” she repeated, her lips curving in a sad smile.“The Dixie Reapers.Not exactly what I imagined when I pictured raising a child.”
“We’re not so bad,” I said, attempting to lighten the mood.“Some of the guys even know how to use napkins now.”
That earned a small laugh, the sound hitting me somewhere deep.“I’m sure they’re lovely,” she said.“But this isn’t… normal.None of this is normal.”
“Normal’s overrated.”
She looked up at me, really looked, like she was seeing past the cut and the beard to the person beneath.“Were you and Kris still close?At the end?”
The question caught me off guard.“No,” I admitted.“Not like before.”
“But he still trusted you with us,” she said softly.“That says something, doesn’t it?”
I had no answer for that.The weight of Kris’s trust pressed down on me.And now, standing in my kitchen with his sister, I was fighting feelings that felt like another betrayal entirely.
She stepped closer, close enough that I had to grip the counter behind me to keep from reaching for her.“I’m scared, even if I don’t want to admit it.”
“I know you are.”And I did.But despite her fear, there was a resilience in her that I recognized -- the same steel that had been in Kris, hidden beneath charm and easy smiles.
From down the hall came a small cry, Athena’s voice thick with sleep and confusion.Karoline immediately moved away, heading toward the sound.
“We’ll finish this later,” she said over her shoulder.“But I mean it, Viking.No more filtered versions.I need the whole truth.”
As she disappeared down the hallway, I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.The whole truth.If only I knew what that was.And if I did know, would I have the courage to tell her everything -- including how watching her with Athena was making me feel things I had no business feeling?How the thought of anything happening to either of them filled me with a fear I’d never known before?
Some truths were better left unspoken, at least for now.First, I needed to keep them safe.Everything else could wait.
* * *
The clubhouse was quiet at 2 AM, most of the brothers had passed out at tables, or back at their homes.I’d left Karoline and Athena sleeping, checking the locks twice before slipping out into the night.The message from Wire had been cryptic but urgent:Found something.Need you here now.I moved through the darkened main room, past empty bottles and abandoned card games, toward the blue glow leaking from beneath the tech room door.Whatever Wire and Atlas had discovered, it had them working through the night -- and that couldn’t be good news.
I pushed the door open without knocking.Wire was hunched over his keyboard, glasses sliding down his nose, empty energy drink cans scattered around him.Atlas sat at the adjacent terminal, his posture perfect despite the late hour, his eyes reflecting the data scrolling across his screen.Both looked up when I entered, Wire with an almost manic energy, Atlas with his usual calm focus.
“You got something?”I asked, closing the door behind me.
Wire grinned, the expression incongruous with the gravity of the situation.“Oh, we got something all right.Tell him, kid.”
Atlas turned his monitor toward me.“I accessed a secure server containing classified mission parameters,” he said, his voice steady and matter-of-fact, as if breaking into government systems was as routine as checking email.“Operation Ghostwalk.Your friend was part of it.”
I moved closer, studying the screen filled with documents marked with various security classifications.“How the hell did you get into this?”
“They changed their encryption protocols last month,” Atlas explained.“But they didn’t update all their legacy systems.Created a vulnerability.”
Wire barked out a laugh.“What my son means is that these government types got sloppy, and he’s a fucking genius who made them pay for it.”
I’d never understand half of what Atlas could do with a computer, but I trusted his skills implicitly.“What’s Operation Ghostwalk?”
