It wasn’t the best plan I had ever come up with, but it was all I had. I drove as fast I could back to my house, packed a bag as quickly as I could, and had Scarlett in my truck, driving north to Vilas.

Exhaustion and pain took over and within thirty minutes of driving on the highway, she was snoring softly in the passenger’s seat. I had made the five-hour drive to and from Atlanta so many times, I was on autopilot.

Once we were more than halfway to our destination, I shot off a text to Ryder.

Heading your way. Minor emergency. Will explain at Crickett’s in two hours.

It only took Ryder a minute to send a message back.

Make it the bar and we’ll be waiting.

I didn’t need to respond. The read receipt would be enough for him to know I got and understood the message.

Right as I was about to dial Jaxon’s number, he was calling.

“I’m two hours out from the bar in North Carolina,” I said in as low a voice as I could.

“What the hell is going on? No one here can give me a straight fucking answer to save their damn lives. All I know is there is a dude named Jasper calling the sheriff in our damn parking lot.”

“He’s Scarlett’s husband. He figured out she was with us or saw her motorcycle, I have no damn clue, but he needs to be dealt with. He was the one that ran Scarlett off the road that night.”

“Fuck. All right. Consider it handled. Stay up there for at least five days.”

“I’ll call you tonight.”

Scarlett rubbed her eyes as she shifted in the leather seat. I reached for her hand, but she yanked it back.

“Where are we?” she barked.

I pulled off onto the shoulder. I knew I needed to have a conversation with her, and we both needed me to not be driving while it was happening.

“You need to tell me what happened that night.” I turned the truck off along with my cellphone.

“You need to tell me where the fuck we are first,” she bit back. I could see her fight mode taking over as fear started to course through her veins.

“Scarlett, I’m taking you to a safe house. We’re a little more than three hours away from Atlanta, and we have about an hour and a half left to go. There’s a small town up in the mountains called Vilas where another chapter of the Unaccpetables is located. They already know we’re coming.”

Her chest was heaving as she sucked in sharp breaths. “Did he follow us?”

“No. My guys have eyes on him. He’s still at the garage. I just got off the phone with Jaxon, and he confirmed that information.” I put my hand on hers. Thankfully, that time she didn’t pull away.

Scarlett told me everything she remembered from that night, from walking in carrying grocery bags and hearing her husband fucking her friend, all the way to blacking out after being thrown from her motorcycle.

“That’s what I was going to tell you this morning before you got that call.” She wiped tears from her cheeks with the bottom of her tank top.

“I am so sorry I let myself get distracted from something that was so important, darlin’.”

She sniffled. “It’s all right. You had no way of knowing.”

I ran my thumb over her damp cheek. “Next time, make me listen. You can tell me no. You’re allowed to be strong around me. I want you to be—fuck, I need you to be. If there is going to be anything in our future or even in our present, you need to speak your mind and break through my thick skull from time to time. Club business, at some points, can wait when it comes to something as important as what we are dealing with. Your safety will always be at the forefront of my mind and my top priority. I will protect you. I will always keep you safe.”

She pursed her lips before they slowly twisted into a smile.

“What is it?” I asked before leaning over to kiss her forehead.

“I’m that one girl for you, aren’t I? The woman that can be your old lady?”

I nodded while turning my phone back on and letting the diesel engine of my Denali grumble to life. “Let’s get through the next five days, sweetheart, but I have a sneaking suspicion you’re right.”