It’s about time, don’t you think?

Staring at the photo of Madison I kept in my wallet, I thumbed the bent corner.

It might’ve been a hallucination compounded by the blood loss from my leg, or her ghost had visited me. There was no way of knowing for sure. She’d been real enough, but letting go was hard…and falling for another woman was even harder.

Taking Fortitude was what Sloane wanted, but I had my doubts. I admitted the impossible after what happened on the train. That I cared about her. That I was ready to move on from what had been taken from me with Madison. I knew what we were getting ourselves into by coming back to Fortitude, but the reality was different to what I was expecting.

Being apart from her… It was tough. It was tougher admitting it, too.

The lights of LA spread out before me, the skyscrapers shining so bright they dulled all but the brightest stars in the sky. Below, I could hear the music and ruckus from the yard behind the compound. The scent of grilling meat wafted up in the sweltering air, calling out to my empty stomach. I was starving but not enough to leave my quiet sanctuary on the roof. No one came up here, which made it the perfect place for me to separate myself from my sentence downstairs.

Leaning back against the air-conditioning stack—which didn’t work and Marini was too cheap to pay to get fixed—I picked up the can of beer beside me and downed a mouthful. It was warm but better than nothing.

The roof door screeched as it opened, and I slid the photo back into my pocket.

Glancing up, I saw Gasket had found his way out to my hiding spot. The old man was a fixture of level-headed composure around these parts. He was as good as a biker running drugs and laundering money and weapons through his ‘legitimate’ business could get.

The only reason he was up here was that he had something he needed to hash out with me. We weren’t the best of friends. We didn’t hang out. We didn’t chat over a beer. We didn’t anything. Whatever he had to say was about club business, meaning Marini must have a job for me.

“How’s the leg?” he asked, standing over me.

“Getting there,” I replied. “I’m a fast healer.”

Gasket snorted and sat beside me, leaning his back against the air-conditioning stack. He screwed up his face as he settled. “I’m getting too old for this shit,” he muttered, rubbing his knee.

“What do you want, Gasket?” I asked, curling my lip.

“I’m worried about Sloane.” He shook his head. “She was always Betty, and now she calls herself Sloane.”

“And why do you think I care?” The words tasted like acid, but this was the game she wanted us to play. She promised me revenge, and I promised I would watch over her. The trick was getting the old man to talk without catching on to the fact I wanted to know about Sloane’s comings and goings.

“That girl was always like a daughter to me,” he said. “After her mother was murdered, she latched onto me for better or worse. Had no one else. Not even her father cared to comfort her. Marini was always too busy with revenge. Now… I don’t know who she is now.”

“Couldn’t say,” I replied blandly. “Two weeks on the road with her was enough for me.”

“Two weeks in a life-and-death situation?” He raised his eyebrows, waiting to see if I would take his bait. He should really know better by now.

“It’s my job.”

“You took a bullet and got knifed for her.”

I glared at him. “So?”

He snorted and shook his head, turning to stare out at the Los Angeles skyline. What a shithole. All glitter on the surface, but one steaming turd underneath. I was sure there were good people out there, but with the way the world was these days, it was every man for himself. Even for the people who actually paid their taxes and had perfect little houses with picket fences. Madison always wanted to live in Pacific Palisades, and I would drive her past the houses by the water so she could dream her dreams, but we’d never been able to afford the million-dollar price tag. The prices had only gone up since. I didn’t know what Sloane wanted, but maybe that was a good thing. No expectations. Only me and her.

“She’s gone and got herself tattooed,” Gasket went on. “Went and beat up Harley, too. Bruised his cock, and broke his nose.”

My face twitched. There was no way he missed it. That was the woman I’d die for.

“I’m going to be straight up with you, Chaser.”

“Here we go,” I drawled.

“You care about her,” he declared. “You and her… More happened out there than you’ve admitted. More than she’s let on, too.”

I snorted and downed another mouthful of beer. Gasket liked to think he was an observant bastard, but he knew nothing. I didn’t care what his relationship with Sloane was, but what was between her and me was not for him to know. Not when she was locked up inside the compound surrounded by guns.

“You might think you’ve fooled Marini, but it’s only a matter of time before he sees right through you.”

“The man isn’t capable of love, so even if it were true, he wouldn’t be able to work it out,” I shot back.

“You used to be such a good liar,” Gasket remarked, tilting his head toward the sky. “A real manipulator. After the Hollow Men killed your wife, the only thing I thought you gave a shit about was revenge.”

“Don’t you dare talk about her.” I snarled. “You don’t get to. Understand?”

He brought his chin down and stared me right in the eye. “Is that what you told Sloane?”

I ground my teeth.

“Does she feel the same way?”

“Will you shut the hell up?” I barked.

“You’re playing a dangerous game, Chaser. Who do you think Marini would believe if it came down to it?”

I narrowed my eyes. I wanted to say it was me, but Gasket was childhood friends with Marini. He’d been with Fortitude before it had even been called Fortitude. I was seven years into the game and brought information and skills the old man didn’t have, but blood ran thicker than power. Though, lately, it was hard to say with the president. He lusted after a lot of things that weren’t loyal to his oldest brother-in-arms.

“Flip a coin. You’d have better luck working it out,” I retorted.

“Right now, she’s downstairs having dinner with him. After a week here, he finally wants to see her.” Gasket sighed. “And it’s not to catch up on seven lost years, either.”

I glanced at him, my stomach feeling unsettled. It was too soon. Way too soon. She’d stepped over the line with Harley even though the bastard deserved everything she gave him and then some.

“Why did she attack Harley?” I asked. “Did he try to jump her?”

Gasket shook his head. “No. She walked in on him beating on Sam.”

I cursed under my breath. There were so many things wrong with how Harley treated his woman, but interfering was the worst thing Sloane could’ve done. No one could break a cycle of abuse that deep with one broken nose. Now she was in a room with Marini getting one of his stock standard talking-tos. There would be no happy family reunions between those two.

“She better watch her back, then,” I muttered, crushing the empty beer can in my hand. “Harley won’t let this slide. Being Marini’s daughter won’t stop him.”

“I can’t watch over her all the time,” Gasket said. “This is where I hope I’m right, and you’re already looking out for our girl.”

“Our girl?” I snorted. I used to be so good at reading people, but this old fucker was impossible. If I misjudged, I was as good as dead. If he was telling the truth…the game had turned in our favor. We couldn’t afford mistakes.

“For once in your life, drop the tough guy act, Chaser.” Gasket’s shoulders tensed, and he lowered his chin. “I wasn’t able to save her from Marini when he tried to sell her off, but I was the one who helped her get out…and the one who stopped him from going after her until now. Who do you think convinced him to send you?”

It was my turn to tense up. Gasket had just handed me enough information to get him a one-way ticket to six feet under.

“Out there, I can’t help her, not with this,” he went on. “On her own, she was done for. They would’ve gotten to her, and I would be sitting by a grave rather than on this stinking roof with you. In here, I can do something. There is no one else.” He eyed me with a look I wasn’t sure I could explain. Did Gasket actually trust me with Sloane? Fuck, stranger things had happened.

“Does she know?” I asked, tossing the beer can aside.

“No.”

“What about Marini? Does he know it was you who got her out the first time?”

“Not that I know of.”

So now we had dirt on each other. It wasn’t quite the stuff alliances were made out of, but when Sloane’s life was at stake, neither one of us could take any chances.

“If you care for her like you say, then you’ll keep your mouth shut,” I said, knowing the game was well and truly up. With Gasket, anyway. “If I need to get her out, I won’t be kind to anyone who gets in my way. Not even her surrogate daddy.”

“That’s all I wanted to hear,” the old man said with a smirk. “I convinced Marini to let her work with me in the garage. Since she can’t leave the compound, I’ll be able to watch her there.”

“If she finds out, she won’t be happy.”

“I expect she’ll be pissed.” Gasket smiled, showing me a side I hadn’t seen before. He cared. He actually, genuinely cared for Sloane. He wasn’t messing around. Not about this. “I don’t want the shit beaten out of me.”

I knew Sloane was more than capable of looking after herself. After seeing how she handled things on the road, I believed in her, but the more people we had on our side, the better. Gasket was a good start. He was second only to the president.

“If Marini tries to sell her again or does anything to hurt a single hair on her head, I’ll kill him myself,” I murmured, the threat rolling off my tongue like silk. “I’ll kill anyone who tries to stop me and anyone who dares come after us.”

“You’d give up your revenge for her? You’d forget about your wife?”

I’d already made that pledge to Sloane before we arrived at Fortitude. I’d told her I would go anywhere with her. If she wanted to run, we would run. If she wanted to fight, we would fight. She’d chosen the latter, so here we were.

The photo of Madison was burning a hole in my pocket. I would never stop loving her, but she was dead and buried. There was a point I would have to let go and move forward. I’d thought I’d done that on the train when I was lying on the floor of that luggage compartment, but here I was still staring at a creased photograph in the dark.

“Madison is dead,” I replied, my heart heavy. “I’ll never forget what we had or what they did to her, but she wouldn’t like what I’ve become. Sloane…”

“Wanted a better life. She obviously saw something in you out on the road. Something you’ve forgotten. She’s a stubborn, foulmouthed little upstart, but she doesn’t trust just anyone. Look at where she grew up.” Gasket gestured at the yard below where the grill out was still happening.

“I was supposed to be one of the good guys,” I said.

“No one’s supposed to be anything,” Gasket said. “The world is gray. There isn’t any black or white. The only thing that’s certain is death. Everything else is a bonus.”

I grunted. He was preaching to the Goddamned choir.

“Love her well, Chaser,” he added, pushing to his feet. “Because the feeling is mutual. I’ll kill you before you hurt a hair on her head.”

“What about Marini?” I threw at his back.

“I’ll kill him, too.”