Where was everyone? Her foot hit something and she stumbled, fell. She bent down, recognized the long blond hair.

“Doreen?” She shook Doreen gently, felt for a pulse. But when she patted her down, blood seeped through Doreen’s clothes.

She fell back with a gasp.

“Evie!” Zane’s voice rang out in the stillness.

“Zane. Over here. I need help.”

Zane emerged from the smoke, ran towards her. Then he froze, his face contorting in horror.

“Help me. She’s not breathing.”

Still, he didn’t move.

“What?” She looked back over her shoulder, pushed herself to her feet. “What’s wrong? Is someone behind me?”

“You.”

Evie put her hand to her face. It came away sticky and red. She touched her nose, winced in pain.

“The air bag went off.” Her vision blurred and a wave of nausea gripped her stomach. “I must have a nosebleed.”

Zane frowned, shook his head. His mouth opened but she couldn’t make out his words. Evie took a step forward, and then she lost her footing and fell into the smoke.

*   *   *

“She gonna be okay?”

Zane nodded from the chair beside his bed as Jagger closed the door behind him. Evie had been asleep most of the day, and save for checking in on Ty and putting him to bed in a spare room in the clubhouse, Zane hadn’t left her side.

“Yeah. She’s bruised up from the air bag hitting her face, and she had a nosebleed and a minor concussion. Took her to the hospital and they said she’d be okay. Doc suggested we stay at the clubhouse since he’ll be here all night fixing up the brothers and he could check in on her. How’s everyone doing?”

Jagger settled on the edge of dresser. His face was lined and worn, and he still hadn’t changed out of his blood-soaked clothes after helping treat all the brothers who had been injured in the raid. “Lots of casualties, but everyone made it out alive.”

“Thank fuck. What happened?”

Jagger scrubbed his hands over his face. “They were hiding out in the hills around the clubhouse. Not sure if they were still hiding from the ATF, or if they knew we were coming, but our scouts missed them. They started shooting just after Evie dropped off Doreen. Looks like they hit her tire and she lost control of her vehicle. Benson thought that was the signal to go so he started the truck, drew their attention. They got him through the window, hit his arm, and he couldn’t get it out of gear. The truck crashed through the gate and they kept shooting at it, triggered an explosion. Damaged the building pretty bad. Took out three Jacks. Benson made it out in time. But T-Rex…”

“He didn’t make it?”

“Sparky and Gunner had gone around to help you with T-Rex. When they didn’t see you, they went through the hole you’d cut in the fence while the Jacks were distracted by the truck. Gun broke the lock on the door to the dungeon. They found…” Jagger choked on his words. “A body. Not breathing. No pulse. They were pretty sure it was T-Rex although his face was so beaten it was unrecognizable, and it was dark. Same color hair though, same size, and Mario said he was in there. They couldn’t find his cut, but they found this.” He held up the medallion T-Rex had always worn around his neck—gift from Tank when T-Rex been patched into the club, along with a special blade.

Zane’s heart squeezed in his chest. “Fuck.”

“They couldn’t get him out.” Jagger’s voice tightened and he looked away. “They tried … but we’d spotted more Jacks on the way. I couldn’t lose them, too. When they called me, I told them to get out of there. He was dead. There wasn’t anything we could do for him.”

Zane felt the news like a fist in his gut. T-Rex had died to save his Evie. It was a debt he could never repay.

“I don’t want this life for her, Jag.” He reached over, threaded his fingers through hers. “I want her to have the kind of life she had before. Safe. Peaceful. I can’t give her that when I’m wearing this cut, and I can’t give it to her as a civilian with a damn warrant hanging over my head.”

“You’d give up the life?” Jagger rubbed his thumb absently over the Sinner’s skull ring on his finger—the president’s mark.

“I’d give up anything for her.”

Jagger let out a long, ragged breath. “She wouldn’t want that. I don’t want it. Before you do anything drastic, you need to talk to her about it first.”

Jagger was right. Evie wouldn’t want him to give up his cut. But he was wrong about the talking. Zane had a plan. He’d already talked to Richard, the club attorney, and worked out the details. If he stayed, Evie might talk him out of it. If he left, it would be done and they could move on.

“I want to give her the option.” He scraped a hand through his hair, and it came away black with soot from the fire. “As long as I’m a wanted man, I can’t give them a normal life. And I’ll always be looking over my shoulder, waiting for the day Viper or someone like him goes to the cops. But it’s not just that. I’ve lived my whole life in hiding. I’ve lived in the shadows. Evie brought me to the light. I don’t want to hide anymore. I want the truth to come out. The truth about what happened the night I left Stanton. The truth about how I feel.”

He shrugged off his cut, folded it carefully, and handed it to Jagger. “I talked to Richard. He says if I go up to Stanton and turn myself in they’ll process me and stick me in the slammer for a coupla days, maybe a week. He’ll be there for the interview and to arrange bail.”

“Fuck.” Jagger scrubbed his hands over his face. “Don’t do this. You know we’ll protect you.”

“I gotta do it, Jag. It’s the only way.”

“The club will bail you out then,” Jagger said. “Whatever the cost.”

Zane nodded his appreciation. “Richard said the bail conditions usually include not associating with known felons or criminal organizations. I’m guessing he means the club. I’ll be there for T-Rex’s funeral unless something goes wrong, but I’ll stay away from the brothers. He says our big chance is the preliminary hearing where we try to show the judge there’s not enough evidence to go to trial. Best-case scenario, I walk. Worst-case scenario, I spend the next twenty years in jail for something I didn’t do.”

“That won’t happen. If it gets to that we’ll break you out.”

Zane laughed. “I thought you were gonna say you’d hire a better lawyer. But, yeah, break me out. I’d go fucking crazy if I had to spend twenty years staring at the same four walls. Grand gestures are only good if there’s someone to appreciate them.”

“She might not take you back if you leave her again,” Jagger warned.

Emotion welled up in Zane’s throat. “This time I’m not leaving her alone or unprotected. And this time I’m not running away. I’m trying to come home. Make sure she understands that.”

He brushed his lips over Evie’s cheek and then he and Jagger clasped shoulders. “Look after her and Ty until I get back.”

“Like they were my very own.”

Zane stood in the doorway and drank in the sight of Evie, her hair fanned over the pillow, her face restful in sleep.

After all he’d been through, he had come full circle. He loved her. And yet he had to leave her again.

TWENTY-THREE

If your repair doesn’t work, don’t give up, Go back to the beginning and start again.

—SINNER’S TRIBE MOTORCYCLE REPAIR MANUAL

Evie squeezed Connie’s hand as the biker procession entered the cemetery. Although there was no body to bury, the Sinners had erected a tombstone in their dedicated plot at the Conundrum Cemetery and invited support clubs and local friendlies to honor T-Rex’s memory. T-Rex’s parents had declined the invitation to attend the ceremony, saying that T-Rex had been dead to them for many years and they had already mourned his passing. Jagger had smashed the phone after that conversation and added T-Rex’s family to his blacklist, to be punished at a later date.