Page 75 of Joy Ride

“You just escaped!”Joy begged her, “Please don’t go back.They’ll hurt you like they hurt Mom.”

“They didn’thurther, Joy.They murdered her.And they should pay for that.”She practically snarled.“All I’ve ever wanted was to make them pay for cutting her life short and ripping us apart.Jordan, put me back in.But this time with a chance to actually make a difference.”

“Nothing you do will bring her back,” Joy said gently.

Sevan sighed.“I realize you can’t understand my decision, but I would hope now that you’re independent, you understand what value there is in making your own choices.Respect me enough to trust me to decide on my own.I will gladly live with the consequences.”

Joy opened her mouth, then shut it before nodding.“Okay, Sevan.If that’s what you want.But come back soon, okay?My offer never expires.There’s a place for you here, with us.”

Sevan had to get the hell out of there before Joy talked her out of what she knew she had to do.She looked to Jordan.“So?”

“I’m not going to lock you out of this,” he promised.

Sevan slipped her hands free of Joy’s clutch, hugged the woman hard but briefly, then crossed to Levi’s side.She tried to ignore the heat pouring off him and the scent of his leather jacket, which instantly reminded her of the night he’d had his tongue halfway down her throat.“When do we leave?”

“Right now,” he said, and held his hand out to her.“I promise I’ll take care of you as best as I can.Ransom will too.I thought you were cute as a boy, but damn.”

Both of them eyed her from the tip of her toes to her long crow-black hair, pausing only to inspect the very subtle yet still-there curves at her hips, waist, and chest.That kind of attention was exactly what she’d have to avoid where they were going.

“I can take care of myself.”Sevan whipped off her wig, exposing her short-cropped natural hair, and marched to the bathroom.She scrubbed the pretty makeup and fun colors from her face so hard her cheeks were red when she finished.Then she took her wicked-sharp knife from its holster in the small of her back and sliced her nails off one by one.They’d have to stop for more shapewear and Ace bandages so she could mold her body into her alternate form.

As much as she’d enjoyed the glimpse of the woman she might one day become, this was who she was and who she would remain until Angus had gone down for good—an unassuming, easily forgettable errand boy who fixed bikes for the important members of Wildfire.

Rivet was back.

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