Finally, her eyes met mine before they flitted down again to Frankie. She nodded then, swallowing and straightening her shoulders. “I’ll go get my stuff.”

She ascended the steps as I stood in shock at the complete one-eighty she’d done. I didn’t know what had finally gotten through to her—if the thought of more guys like Frankie coming had been the thing to finally snap her out of her defiance or what—but I wasn’t complaining.

While Evie was upstairs, I grabbed my phone and dialed Gage.

“What’s the status?” he answered without pleasantries.

“We’ve got a problem.”

There was a pause, then, “You didn’t get to her?”

“No, I did. But we have company. He slipped in about twenty minutes after I got here.”

“Who?”

I took a breath and blew it out slowly. “Frankie.”

Gage growled a string of curses. “I never should’ve let that fucker go.”

“You know if it hadn’t been him, Max would’ve sent someone else.”

“Why the hell is he back working this now? You said he was scarce after what went down with Madison in the cabin, right?”

“Yeah, I haven’t seen him for months. I was wondering what would bring him back, too. Why this?”

“We’ll have to look into it when you’re both to safety. For now, what do you need there?”

“He’s unconscious, so I’m going to need a pickup and a drop. I don’t want to use one of Evie’s cars to do it, and I just have my bike.”

“I can have someone to the house within half an hour. Just get the fuck out of there. Who knows if others are on their way.”

I glanced up as Evie came down the stairs, a small bag slung over her shoulder. She darted her eyes down to Frankie, then she lifted her gaze, her posture stiff as she walked straight toward me. Mask firmly back in place. Into the phone, I said, “We’re leaving now. Should be to you in a couple hours.”

“Good. See you then.”

I pocketed my phone, then looked at her. “Get what you need?”

She gave a single decisive nod. “Ready.”

Tilting my head toward the back door, I said, “Go wait for me. I’ll be there in a second.”

Narrowing her eyes, she studied me, the irritation pouring off her in waves. I was waiting for her to spew a string of curses my way, but instead she finally relented and walked toward the kitchen. I glanced around, finding an old envelope on the desk off to the side and grabbed it, ripping off a section of it. Uncapping a pen with my teeth, I quickly scribbled a note on the piece of paper, then stuffed it into Frankie’s pocket.

Telling them to try harder next time was akin to waving a red flag in front of a bull, but I was pissed, high on an adrenaline rush, and I wanted to give them the finger in whatever way I could. Sending one of Max’s guys back to him, unconscious, with a taunting note wasn’t quite as physical as I’d have liked my message to be, but it would have to suffice.

I walked over to Evie, putting my hand on the small of her back and leading her out the side door. She glanced back over her shoulder at Frankie. “You’re leaving him in there?”

Shaking my head, I said, “I’ve called for cleanup. He’ll be gone within the hour.”

I felt her body relax under my fingers still pressed against her back. That simple movement caused my mind to go all kinds of places it had absolutely no fucking business going, a film strip of memories flipping through my head from when Evie and I had been together. The first time I saw her, her attitude drawing me in as much as her looks had. Then the first job we ran together, when we’d both been so wound up after, we’d had our first kiss—our first way more than kiss—in a seedy alley, pressed against a harsh brick wall. I could still hear the breathy sounds she made when she was turned on, could still feel the clench of her fingers gripping my arm, urging me for more.

I could still remember the taste of her lips.

Clenching my jaw, I pushed the memories away and guided her down the driveway and around the corner to where I’d parked my bike.

Once we were close to it, she halted in her tracks, her eyes narrowing as she looked at it, then back at me. “I’m not sure how you thought you were going to drag me out of here unwillingly with this thing.” She inclined her head toward the motorcycle.

I pulled the small bag from her shoulder and stuck it in the luggage compartment before grabbing her helmet and holding it out to her. “Yeah, I might’ve been bluffing.”

She stared at my outstretched hand, at the helmet I wasn’t sure she remembered—the one that used to be hers—not moving an inch. Her arms were crossed against her chest, her foot tapping a frustrated rhythm on the sidewalk.

“Time’s a wastin’, baby.” And then I gave her the smile that used to get me out of anything with her—the kind of smile that I’d used more times than I could count when I’d gotten hotheaded and went off on someone because he’d looked at her wrong. She hadn’t had a whole lot of patience for that then, but one smile from me, and she’d melted.

She narrowed her eyes and clenched her jaw before snatching the helmet out of my grasp and putting it on. Quickly, she tied her hair back in a ponytail, producing a hair tie from whatever magical place girls kept them, then climbed on behind me. I tried not to think about what it felt like having her so close again, because I sure as shit didn’t want to get lost in the memories of what her body had felt like when a whole lot less clothes were involved. Even with my reluctance, I couldn’t help remembering what it used to feel like when she’d ride with me.

My first bike had been older, junkier—a pile of shit a buddy of mine had pulled out of the junkyard and miraculously gotten running—but it’d been mine, and Evie and I had ridden it around all over the city. This one was newer, sleeker, the product of working job after job for the past five years, but having her on the back felt exactly the same as it always had. Except she wasn’t as close as she’d always been. Before, she’d climb on and wrap her arms around me, her legs tight on the outside of mine and her chest pressed to my back. Now she held herself away, gripping the handle behind her seat, and there was no fucking way we were driving three hours like that.

Starting up the bike, I revved the engine, then turned my head and said over my shoulder, “Better hold on tight. Gonna be a fast ride.”

Chapter Six

The dark sky gave way to midnight blue, then it seemed like all at once it burst into a ball of fire, streaks of red and orange lighting up the sky as the asphalt disappeared under my tires. The weather, though warmer than usual for this time of year, was still biting as we flew down back roads to get to Gage’s place. After my words of caution, Evie had pressed herself up against me as I’d told her to, wrapping her arms around my waist and clutching me tightly. And she hadn’t moved since we’d left a couple hours ago.

But even with that distraction, I couldn’t stop my mind from churning, going over and over and over the last several hours. And as I did, anger and resentment grew within me with each mile we passed, building until it was nearly all I could think about. There was anger and resentment toward Evie and the lies she told … at the fact that while I’d been mourning her, she’d been off living a life of privilege.

But more than that, more than the anger I felt toward Evie, was this overwhelming fury I felt toward my brother. A fury that was burning up my insides. I didn’t have all the pieces to the puzzle yet, but from what I’d been able to fit together, it was clear he’d known about this—about Evie—for a while. The whole time? That, I wasn’t sure, but regardless, he’d known. He’d known and he’d kept it from me, kept his mouth shut and gone about life as if nothing was unusual. As if the girl I used to love hadn’t been alive the whole fucking time.