She was going to be on the back of my bike for a ten-hour ride.

Talk about fucking torture.

I hadn’t touched her before, but I couldn’t say that I hadn’t ever had the urge. Skylar was beautiful. Blonde hair, blue eyes, striking features and an incredible body.

What normal man wouldn’t want what she was offering?

It was the pain I saw hiding inside her that kept me at a substantial distance. She harbored something deep inside. I’d heard the rumors floating around the clubhouse about her sister’s return and the story of her escape from some cult-like religion. Just the thought made my muscles tighten all through my body, and I fisted my hands, clenching them tightly.

If it were true, and that was the place where Skylar had grown up, I couldn’t imagine what she’d gone through as a child or what she’d had to endure in order to escape. It was also a testament to her strength as a woman, to be able to fight their brainwashing ways and have her own mind and thoughts come out on top.

I’d seen those places on the news, with leaders who claimed to be saviors. Stories of abuse and underage marriage sent chills up my spine, especially as I looked around and saw the children that over the past few years had begun to fill the club.

If anyone tried to do anything to hurt these kids, they’d find themselves in a shallow grave before they could get their dirty fucking hands on them. Every single man and woman in this place would make sure of that.

While I wasn’t entirely sure whether the place where Skylar grew up was anything like that at all, or simply a place that pushed religion to the limits, I still couldn’t understand how parents could put their own children in that kind of position. If what Skylar and her sister had been through was anything remotely like what I’d seen and read about in the media, and she’d managed to come out the other side as a strong, confident woman, then there was nothing that could stop her.

“Hey, Eagle.”

I turned to see Hadley advancing on me with a bright smile and Macy hooked on her hip. She pulled me in for a hug and Macy immediately wiggled in her arms, reaching out for me.

I opened my arms and took the small child without reservation and tucked her against my chest. She lay her head down, her little fingers playing with the patches on my cut.

“We’ve missed you around here,” Hadley said with a smile. “How long are you back for?”

“As long as I’m needed,” I answered cryptically making her frown in disappointment. Macy giggled and squirmed in my arms as I tugged on one of her tight curls and tickled the underside of her chin.

“So forever then?” Hadley asked with a playful twinkle in her eye, making me smirk. She was the only woman at the club I’d found myself getting close to. After Slider died, we’d formed a bond as she fought to get her head right and push back the guilt that had overwhelmed her.

We often talked about how she was doing, and just like me, she had her good days and her bad days. My brother had done well finding someone with her heart and strength to have by his side.

“Leo misses you,” she continued when I didn’t reply, knowing that the comment would hit its mark like she wanted. Leo and I had been through hell and back together. Four tours, unpleasant memories, prominent scars and the loss of our entire team—it had been rough, not something I would wish on anyone.

Leo was the reason I found the club. We’d prospected together, but after becoming full members, my itch to keep moving had me going Nomad. I came and went as I pleased, moving between the clubs throughout the states. I was welcomed at every single one but was always drawn back to Athens.

“I’ll be around for a while,” I told her gruffly, ignoring the way her face lit up. “Can’t keep missing out on this little girl growing up.” Hadley’s smile morphed into something softer as she eyed both me and Macy.

“And I’m gonna need a best man for my wedding in a couple months,” Leo said, coming up behind me and slapping me on the back.

“Is that you asking me to be it? Aren’t you meant to make some grand speech about how amazing I am, and how you’d never be where you are today without me?” I teased him before a thought came to me, and I narrowed my eyes. “Wait, you gonna make me wear a fucking tux or something stupid like that?”

He laughed and shook his head. “It’s like you don’t know me at all. You think I’m gonna wear a damn tux, asshole?”

Relief settled in. “Guess I could stick around then.”

I could tell Leo was ecstatic with my admission, but I just rolled my eyes as he started going on about the things he’d demanded for the wedding while Hadley stood beside us quietly rolling her eyes and letting her man think he was going to get away with all his demands.

I smirked. Hell no, she was running this shit, and while he might be able to get away with not wearing a tux, there were going to be things he was going to have to give in to because Hadley carried his balls around in a glass jar.

“Hadley?”

We all turned our heads to see Skylar standing behind us quietly, obviously waiting until Leo was done with his rant before she interrupted.

Patient and respectful.

Something any man would appreciate.

I clenched my jaw and took a step back. Those were thoughts I didn’t need to be having right now.

Her eyes met mine for a brief second, and she smiled shyly before turning her attention back to Hadley. “You think you could check over an essay for me really quickly before the boys start drinking and duty calls?” she chuckled softly, but tension pulled across my shoulders.

Skylar was unashamed of her job here. She held her head high and knew her place, and you would also never mistake her for a woman who just wanted to get her claws into a brother. She was always the first to offer to help out when many of the other girls would just laze around and do as little as possible.

“Sure,” Hadley replied happily before looking over her shoulder at Leo. “Can you watch Macy for a little bit?”

The corner of his mouth pulled up, and he nodded. “No problem, I’ll run diversion if the boys come searching for you,” he said to Skylar with a smirk.

Skylar giggled, the sound soft and sultry, making my stomach twist. “Thanks, Leo, it shouldn’t take too long.”

Just as I thought she was about to turn and walk away, she stepped forward and leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to Macy’s cheek, her face just a breath from my chest. I inhaled, her scent sweet and fresh like a spring breeze in a field of flowers. I couldn’t tell if it was perfume or maybe her shampoo because it was so subtle, but it was enough to have me leaning forward as she pulled back, searching for more.

She looked up at me with a cheeky grin on her face and nodded to Macy. “Looks like she’s found a comfortable place to sleep.” Looking down, I found the four-year-old snoring softly against my chest, a small amount of drool leaking from her mouth onto my cut.

When I looked up again, the girls were gone, and my best friend was staring at me with a smug smirk. “You got a thing for Sky?”

I snorted, hooking my other arm under Macy and boosting her a little higher. The kid was getting heavy. “I don’t have a thing for anyone. You of all people should know that.”

I didn’t get to know women, I got what I needed and walked away. It was one of the reasons I didn’t use the club girls. It was too personal for me, having them constantly in your space all the time. Attachments, whether small or large, weren’t something I needed, and I also didn’t want to deal with being psychoanalyzed.

“She’s cute… just saying, Knight,” Leo said with a shrug, but I saw the look in his eye. Hopeful.

My body unconsciously shuddered at the use of my surname. During deployment, that was what we were known by, but I wasn’t that fucking man anymore. For a second, I felt my lungs seize. Another reminder, a trigger they called it.

Don’t freak out.

Just fucking breathe.

“Next time, don’t say Jamison,” I growled, my jaw clenched tight as I tried to breathe through the pain that was stabbing into my temple.

“Come on, man,” Leo groaned as he followed me over to the bar, his child like a dead weight in my arms. Macy was growing fast. I hadn’t been lying when I said I wanted to be around more to watch her grow up. When Leo’s wife died and left him suddenly as a single father, it was Macy that brought him back when I felt like I was suddenly losing the only other person on my team who had managed to survive the accident.

The little girl had no idea just how important she was, how much she had impacted his life and mine too.

Leo had been my rock for a long time, my best friend, the one who knew how much I struggled with memories and moments where I felt like I was back there. While he managed to make it out of that situation almost unscathed, the occasional nightmare haunting him, the survivor guilt that I harbored was second to fucking none.

Why the hell was I left breathing?

There were people there with kids they would never see grow up. Families that relied on them to put food on the table, and keep a roof over their heads.

Yet, I was the one chosen to walk out of that accident with my life.

When Hadley had experienced the same thing after Slider’s death, I’d told her it was because she had a purpose. For her, I knew it was because Leo never would have made it if he had lost another woman he loved and Macy needed her daddy.

For me, though, I had to wonder whether it was really true.

Was there a reason I was still here?

Because at this point, it seemed like the universe may have just slipped and pointed at the wrong person.