Quinn was mine. For three blissful days, I planned to take her away from the vultures circling around her and treat her like the queen she was. We would head out to Lake Corpus Christi. Bear owned a cabin there. It was quiet, surrounded by lush woods and had three hundred feet of lake frontage. No television. No fucking photographers. No internet.

Bear built the place for Mama Bear when she came back from her tour in Kuwait as an army medic. Though she never talked about it, we knew she’d seen some bad shit. It all happened just before Shep was born and after the last big club war between the Hawks and the Saints.

As soon as we were airborne, Quinn fell into a deep sleep. I kissed her on the forehead and went to the front of the plane. Quinn slept on a little bed we had in the back. If she woke, she wouldn’t be able to hear me from way back there.

I checked in with Roc, our pilot. “About three hours, Mr. Dormer,” he said. He was a solid guy, big and burly. Ex-navy. “Should be pretty smooth. There was a storm system over Phoenix but it’s clearing now. Your lady should be able to sleep soundly.”

I thanked him. My lady. Quinn was my lady. I sure as hell liked the sound of that. We hadn’t talked about anything permanent, but the more time I spent with her, the more I wanted it. Except I knew our worlds would never mix long term. If I could just help her make hers better before she decided she’d had enough, I’d have no regrets.

I slid into one of the cabin seats and whipped out my phone. Axle answered right away. “You make it back all right?” I asked him. He should have just touched down in Port Az about an hour ago. He’d brought Toby and Machop with him. The four of us had paid a visit to Oliver Ransom’s office earlier this afternoon.

The whole thing had gone down too easily. It seemed Ransom was still highly interested in making this biker gang movie and thought the Saints were willing to help. When Axle got through and told him who we were, he cleared his damn schedule to see him. The fucker had lived so long as king of this hill, it never occurred to him he could be challenged.

I made it short, sweet, and drove home my deadly point.

“You ever put a hand on Quinn again, they won’t find a trace of your fat ass,” Axle told him. I stood at his shoulder, looming over Oliver Ransom’s desk. The fucker was fat and haggard-looking for someone supposedly so rich. He had the red eyes and mottled skin of a long-time drinker. His lips quivered and reminded me of purple worms as he pushed his chair back.

“You have any idea who you’re threatening?” he’d asked.

I’d turned the nameplate on his desk around then threw it hard against a shelf on his wall. It knocked over three Oscar statues like bowling pins.

“You have any idea who we are?” I said. “Ask around, mother fucker. And I don’t give a shit who you are. Quinn’s off limits. You touch her. You try to fuck with her … you won’t see us again. You’ll just disappear. You think we can’t get to you? Like I said, ask around.”

“As far as that goes,” Toby said. He slipped behind Ransom and put him in a headlock against his leather chair. Whoa, Toby, I thought. Taking some real initiative. Also, the kid had real menace in his voice. I knew his old man liked to tune up his mother so this shit got quickly personal. “If I ever hear about you laying hands on another woman ... I don’t care if it’s your wife, your sister, your side piece … we’re going to know about it. And it will be the last thing you ever do.”

Toby let go of Ransom, but not before he patted the guy’s bald head. I had to hold back a laugh as he left a handprint. Nice touch, kid, I thought. But I wanted to do so much more. I wanted to leave a mark on him ten times worse than what he’d done to Quinn.

“I get it, I get it,” Ransom said, quivering. Sweat dripped off his fucking ears. He was a mess. His color like ash, I wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t have a damn heart attack right here in the office. “You’ve got the wrong idea about me,” he said. “I’d never hurt Quinn. She’s ... money.”

Before I knew what was happening, I had my hands around Oliver Ransom’s throat. “Say that again, fucker.”

He put his hands up and choked out his answer. “No. No. I don’t mean ... you got it. Okay? I don’t want trouble. This is a misunderstanding. My fault. My fault. I’ll make sure not to have another one. We’re clear, fellas. We’re good.”

I let him go. Axle and Toby stood at my shoulders. We formed a wall of fury and Oliver Ransom’s eyes had flicked between us, taking it all in. I knew what pukes like him saw. Muscle, ink, patches, and guns. He was lucky he hadn’t pissed himself before we were through.

“You think it worked?” I now asked Axle, looking back toward the private cabin. Quinn was still asleep.

“Yeah,” Axle said. “I’ve dealt with a million assholes like Oliver Ransom. I hope the shit doesn’t backfire on your girl in a different way, but I don’t think you’ve got to worry about him ever coming near her again.”

“Good,” I said. “And thanks, man. I know you have plenty of other shit on your plate.”

“Dom,” he said. “This was important. We all get why. Take care of Quinn, okay? She seems like she’s worth it. And it also seems like she maybe doesn’t have too many people willing to look out for her.”

“Yeah,” I answered, but my voice trailed off.

“See you back at the clubhouse,” Axle said. “You sure you don’t need anything else?”

“I’m good,” I said. “Quinn’s good. Or at least, she will be. You know how to reach me if you need me.”

“It should be fine,” Axle said. “I talked to Bear. He’s not thrilled about you being gone for a couple of days. He’s getting weird like he does. Like he feels something in the air. It’s making everybody jumpy. Mama’s about to kill him. Just keep checking in. Bo hasn’t come back either.”

Bo had gone off the grid a few weeks ago. Nobody knew why except for Bear and he wasn’t talking. I felt shitty for leaving the club one more man short, but it would only be for three days.

“Thanks Axle. And I’m not all the way off the grid. You call if anything happens,” I said. Then we hung up.

Two hours later, Roc landed the plane at the little private airstrip Bear had built just a mile from the cabin. We kept a Jeep waiting in the hangar. Roc came out of the cockpit and lowered the stairs.

“Your girl sleep through all of that?” Roc asked, smiling.

“She needs it,” I said. My girl. Axle had called Quinn that too. I liked the ring of it. My girl. My old lady. Shit. I couldn’t dare to hope for something like that with her. But maybe for the next couple of days we could both just forget our worlds and enjoy each other.

“Hey,” Quinn said, her voice groggy with sleep. She yawned and stretched then rubbed her fingers beneath her eyes.

“Morning,” I said, though it was almost evening. Quinn blinked wide and came to me. She slid beneath my arm and tucked herself against my side. She fit there. It felt as natural as breathing.

“Looks like you’re going to have a great weekend,” Roc said. “Weather’s supposed to stay in the upper eighties. Clear skies. Bear’s got me flying the bird out on a special trip, but the Jeep in the hangar’s all gassed up. You can go anywhere you want.”

“Mmm.” Quinn smiled. She still wasn’t fully awake yet.

I thanked Roc and wished him well on his next trip. He’d been discreet in front of Quinn. We had a new arms shipment coming up from South America. Roc would fly Shep and Zig down to Miami in a few days to meet a cargo ship. Next time, it would be my turn. For now, I got to have a weekend of paradise with Quinn.

I shook Roc’s hand and we stepped down the ladder to the little tarmac. Quinn cocked her head to the side, her smile widening. I hadn’t told her much about where I was taking her. I wanted it to be a surprise.

The Jeep waited in the hangar, just like Roc said. I opened the passenger door and helped Quinn step up. Then I drove her out, taking a wooded dirt road to the north. Bear’s cabin was only a mile up the road. It sat on a little hill. He’d built it for Mama Bear with his bare hands. A real log cabin with a wraparound, screened-in porch overlooking the lake.

“Is this place for real?” Quinn asked, gasping. I parked and she got out, her jaw open. “No one would ever know it’s here?”

She was right. A perfect hideout. She went straight for the water. Bear built a small dock but he kept no motorboats here. Just a canoe and a small fishing boat. The sun had already begun to set, turning the sky brilliant orange. It reflected off the water and a swan glided into view. Its massive wings beat against the air with the force of a baseball bat. It took no notice of us as I came behind Quinn and put my arms around her.

“It’s beautiful,” she said. “I’ve never been anywhere like this. Just sets built to look like it.”

“Yeah?” I said, kissing her neck. “Not even at summer camp when you were a kid?”

She stiffened beneath my touch. “No summer camp for me. Just trailers and back lots.”

“Well, then you need me to build you a fire. It’ll get chilly as soon as that sun disappears. Have a seat by the fire pit over there. Give me a minute to get it going.”

Quinn reached back to touch my cheek then walked to the fire pit. There were four logs cut into benches around it. She sat on one and rubbed her arms, already starting to feel that chill. I grabbed some firewood from a stack near the house and got to work. Within a few minutes, I had a good blaze going and went to Quinn. I straddled the bench behind her, fitting her snug between my legs. She leaned back and put her head on my chest. The embers cracked and I felt her muscles go slack. She was relaxing. Maybe for the first time since I’d met her.

“You’ve really never been somewhere like this?” I asked.

“No. There’s just never been time. I’ve worked since I was ten.”

“Well,” I said. “That’s a damn shame. Never made smores? You ever fish or jump off a rope swing?”

She laughed. “Smores, yes.”

She had an odd tilt to her head and I realized the problem. “Wait. They weren’t real. You did it for a movie or some shit?”

“Crosspointe.” She laughed. “Season three. Heather, my character, got her first kiss in front of a fire like this one. Then there was a very special episode a few weeks later when her boyfriend tried to go all the way and made fun of her for wanting to save herself for marriage.”

“You were how old?”

“I was fourteen. My character was fifteen. Come to think of it, that was my first kiss too. Sort of.”

“Shit,” I said. “That doesn’t count. And that’s fucked up.”

“Tell me about it. But it was very popular with the viewers. That was the first internet frenzy that ever got started about me. God. It was fucked up. Some asshole blogger started a countdown clock to my eighteenth birthday. The day it would be legal to ... you know. They even made an app for it so people could have it on their phones. I heard he made a fortune off of it. We were up for contract negotiations. My management told me that stupid countdown clock made me worth twice what the network would have otherwise had to pay.”

Anger bubbled inside of me. It made me want to form a shield around her. I would smash anyone who tried to come near her. Tried to touch her. Quinn felt the change in me. She reached back and touched my face. She had the power to calm my heart and she knew it. Quinn turned until she had her legs draped across my lap.

“I’m okay, Dom,” she said. “That was a long time ago. I got through it.”

“I don’t want them to hurt you like that ever again. Someone should have stuck up for you. They shouldn’t have used that shit to make a bigger buck. You were just a kid.”

She kissed me. “It’s my world. It’s just ... always been my world.”

I wanted to say a hundred other things. I wanted to ask her if she’d ever leave it. God. I wanted to ask her to come into mine. We sat frozen, staring into each other’s eyes. I didn’t have to say a damn thing. She knew. She was thinking the same thing. But we were both too scared to give voice to it.

Because she didn’t live in my world. She lived in the furthest thing from it. I couldn’t leave mine for her any more than she could leave hers for me. And so we turned our gaze toward the fire and watched the sun go down.

Later, I took her to the house and laid her down on the feather bed Mama Bear had made Bear build for her. Quinn stretched long. Fully naked, the moon bathed her in blue and she reached for me.

I went to her. Sliding into her silky wetness. It felt like home. That night. That weekend. The world was perfect and we were the only two people in it. If I could have cast some spell and kept it that way, I think I would have.

As the sun rose the next morning, I finally understood why. I could almost hear Mama Bear’s lilting laughter across the lake. I knew exactly what she’d say.

Domino. Baby. Haven’t you figured it out yet? For the first time in your life, you’re in love. Just try not to fuck it up.