Gasket was nowhere to be found the next day. At least, he wasn’t in his room when I woke up.

I must’ve drifted off in the early hours, but it wasn’t a restful kind of sleep. It was the kind full of dreams that made little sense and left my head feeling fuzzy and my eyes clogged with grit.

When I opened my eyes fully, I realized I wasn’t alone, after all.

Chaser was sitting on the floor, thumbing through a motorcycle magazine. The light dappled across his legs—black jeans that were torn across both knees—and the tight muscle tank he wore clung to his pecs just so. His hair was overgrown and hung over his forehead, much like the five o’clock shadow on his jaw was getting into beard territory. How many o’clock’s was that?

Realizing I’d never had a chance to stare at him like this, I smiled. Damn, he looked tough. Tough, dangerous, and completely fuckable. I would totally crawl over there right now and suck his cock, and he wouldn’t even have to ask. I would suck, then grind him until he begged to be inside me. I hadn’t heard him beg yet. Wouldn’t that be something?

“I know you’re awake,” he said, turning a page and tilting his head to check out a photograph.

“Where’s Gasket?”

“That’s what’s on your mind?” He glanced at me, cocking an eyebrow.

“After last night…yeah, it is.”

“Dealing,” was Chaser’s only reply.

He was doing that thing again. The thing where he told me with the tone of his voice he didn’t want to explain and I better not nag him about it.

“What did I do to deserve the pleasure of your company?” I rolled onto my back, thoroughly pissed off, any juice I’d had building between my legs drying up. I was the one who’d been attacked, but it didn’t seem like a priority to tell me what was going on with Harley. I was dying to know how Marini had reacted. Pardon the pun.

“I’ve been ordered to keep an eye on you,” Chaser said with a half-smile.

“Good.”

“Yes and no.”

“Do you have to always burst my bubble?” I grumbled, burying back into Gasket’s stinky sheets.

“Your father already suspects I’ve got a soft spot for you. This is just another of his tests.”

“Typical…” I bit my bottom lip. “I’d really like to—”

“Sloane.”

I laughed, more out of frustration than triggered by any kind of joy. We were in the shit big time. Nothing had gone to plan from the moment we’d met. Everything from matters of the heart, including the bits between my legs, to knowing which enemy to fight first. Even when I saw Chaser as the enemy, it hadn’t gone right, either. It would be a comedy if the stakes weren’t so high.

“What did he say?” I asked, rubbing my eyes. By now, my makeup was half up my face, and my eye shadow had migrated to make me look like a panda. Probably.

“He wasn’t happy.”

“You’re not convincing me.”

“This isn’t working.”

I knew he was talking about my convoluted plan to take Fortitude. He’d said my father already suspected our relationship, which meant he wasn’t buying a single word I’d said since I’d arrived. We would have to make a bold move soon, but not straight away. Harley’s attack had bought us some time.

“Where’s Harley?”

“Locked up, waiting for his punishment.”

“Which is?”

Chaser shrugged.

“Sam?”

He shrugged again.

“You just left her?” I exclaimed, sitting up. “You just left her alone with no idea?”

“My priority is you,” he said, staring at me blankly. “You and this plan you’ve cooked up. Our revenge. Our future.”

Once, it would’ve made me wet hearing him say that, but not now. Sam was vulnerable, broken, and completely open to… To what? Nothing good.

“I can’t believe you,” I said, kicking my feet onto the floor. Picking up my boots, I dragged them on. “You know how Harley treated her. Now she’s the woman of the man who attacked the president’s daughter. I’m afraid… Whatever happens to Harley will happen to her.”

“I heard she didn’t want your help.” Chaser put down the magazine and pushed to his feet. For so long it had been just him, and now here I was with my big ideas wanting to save everyone despite the promises I’d made. Maybe I was giving him whiplash. Who knew?

“She didn’t want my help then, but I haven’t given up on her.” I glared at him and stood. “Get out of my way, Chaser.” He placed his hands on my shoulders. “I mean it.”

“Wait.” Lowering his head, his nose brushed against mine.

He kissed me then, his mouth pressing against mine. I melted, opening my lips and allowing his tongue to sweep along mine. Fingers moved from my face into my hair, tightening around my messy locks. Chaser moved his head to the side, deepening his embrace, and I let him devour me. My knees weakened, and my nipples hardened, sending bolts of desire between my legs.

There were more pressing matters, but right then, all I wanted was to lock us in a room someplace and fuck like animals until we collapsed. There hadn’t been a night Chaser wasn’t inside me from the first moment we’d tempted fate, not until we’d arrived at Fortitude. Well, not since I found out his truth on the train, really.

Still, I worried about Sam.

“Go,” Chaser said, his lips brushing against mine. “I’ve got your back.”

“Chaser…” I hesitated. I had a feeling this story was changing him more than it was me.

“I didn’t want to be in this life,” he said. “I’ve seen her… She doesn’t want it, either.”

“How do you know?”

He shrugged. “Don’t push her.”

I knew all about that, so I nodded, opting for a gentle approach.

The compound was oddly quiet as I made my way from Gasket’s room to Sam and Harley’s room. Word was getting around, and everyone was keeping their heads down. Or so I assumed, anyway.

Glancing up and down the hall, I knocked on the door. “Sam?”

Nothing moved. I pressed my ear against the door, but all I could hear was the whoosh, whoosh as my heart pumped blood through my body.

“Sam?” I pushed off the door and knocked again. “It’s Sloane. If you’re in there, please open the door. I’m alone.”

The door opened a crack, and Sam’s blue eye peered at me through the gap. A chain rattled, preventing the door from opening any further.

“What?” she murmured, her voice husky. She’d been crying. Her eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks all splotchy.

I placed my palm against the wall and leaned in close. “You know what happened?”

She nodded.

“Can I come in?”

“I…” She sniffed.

“Please, Sam.”

Her gaze lowered to the floor, but she didn’t shut me out. Not yet, anyway. Then she closed the door in my face. For a moment, I was stunned, then the chain rattled, and the door opened again.

I slipped through the gap and turned as Sam locked us inside, putting the chain back in place.

The room was decorated to Harley’s taste with framed photos of motorcycles and sports teams on the walls. It also reeked of cigarettes and stale beer. Sam had done her best to tidy. The bed was made with the sheets all tucked in with five-star hotel crispness, the table was free of rubbish, and the floor was spotless. I would bet my life the bathroom sparkled like a teenage vampire in direct sunlight.

“Nice place,” I said, narrowing my eyes at a poster of a naked woman draped over a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

“Sloane… Your neck…”

I raised my hand and pressed my skin. It must be bruised again. Like an out of control merry-go-round, it was always something with me. Bruised and beaten but still standing.

“Don’t worry about me,” I said. “I’m worried about you. Harley’s locked up downstairs.”

Sam shook her head and bit her nails. The poor woman looked like she was a hair’s breadth away from curling up in the corner and rocking back and forth.

“Has anyone hurt you?”

She stopped her nervous chewing and shook her head.

“But someone came?” I prodded.

“Yeah. Rocket.”

I curled my lip in distaste. Rocket was a class A asshole. It wasn’t a secret he loathed me, and knowing what kind of guy he was didn’t make it any easier to swallow. I could only imagine what he’d said to Sam.

“I didn’t know,” she wailed. “I didn’t know he would try to hurt you like that. I promise!”

“I know.”

“I… I…” She sobbed and turned her back to me, hiding her tears behind a curtain of tangled blonde hair. “You must think I’m pathetic.”

“No, I don’t,” I said firmly, stepping around her.

“It’s not meant to be like this. I know it isn’t. But… I always thought he’d change. If he got what he wanted, he’d be happier, and things would be like they’re supposed to. Harley wasn’t always like this.” She glanced up at me, completely lost. “Fortitude did this to him.”

I didn’t know what to say to make it better. Words were nothing but a temporary Band-Aid. Hell, I didn’t know if there was a solution.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to start all this. I saw him hit you, and… I couldn’t let him hurt you, Sam.”

“It was our business.”

I bit my bottom lip and glanced at the ceiling. What was I supposed to say to a woman suffering at the hands of a maniac? What was the right thing to do in this kind of situation? I wasn’t a therapist or an expert. All I’d ever done was run away, read a couple of books on Political Science, and write a few papers that came back with miserable grades.

There was one thing I did know. Sam was in big trouble if things went south for Harley. Rocket had already been here harassing her, and before long, she would be thrown down, and… I shook my head.

“You have to think about yourself now, Sam,” I said. “You know what Marini will do to him. You have to do what’s right for you. For your life.”

“If they…” She sobbed and wiped at her puffy eyes. “What’ll happen to me?”

Nothing good, but I wasn’t about to tell her that.

“I’ll look out for you,” I reassured her.

“I don’t need your pity.”

“It’s not pity.”

Sam sniffed and sat on the sofa, rubbing her eyes as she crumbled against the pillows.

“It would’ve happened eventually,” she murmured. “With or without your help. I just…”

“You had hope,” I said, sitting beside her. “That’s not a bad thing.”

“Yeah, it is. I love him… I… I mean, I loved him.” She buried her face in her hands and sobbed. “I don’t know what I feel anymore.”

I placed my hand on her back and rubbed soothing circles, knowing I was doing a terrible job of making things better for her.

“How do you know when to give up on love?” she asked. “This. Harley and I… It was hopeless long before you showed up, but I don’t know what to do without him. I have nowhere else to go.”

“We’ll figure something out,” I said. “I promise.”

She looked at me with such hope in her eyes, I almost broke apart. I hoped it was a promise I could keep. God knew I wasn’t doing a great job of keeping the ones I’d made with Chaser.