I kept my shoulders square as I walked out of the clubhouse for the last time. I had tears to cry, but not now. Dom never came out of the back room. None of the full club members did. Josie leaned against the building, scratching Rufus behind the ears. In her other hand, she tapped the ashes off the end of her cigarette.

“Don’t tell Bear,” she said, snuffing it out.

“Your secret’s safe with me,” I said, smiling. I wanted to be mad at her. I wanted to be mad at all of them. Any way you looked at it, Dom had just thrown me out of his life. Sure, I could tell myself he was doing it to protect me, but it didn’t make me feel any better.

Josie pushed off from the wall and came to me. Gravel crunched and Rufus started to bark. Mama reached down to quiet him. A black Town Car pulled up.

“That’s my ride,” I said. “I called a service.”

Mama cocked her head and peered sideways as the driver rolled down his window. “That’s Claude,” I said.

“Sure thing.”

Moose, one of the prospects, came out of the body shop, wiping his hands on a towel. He nodded to Mama as he walked over to his Harley. Sliding on his helmet, he climbed on and waited.

“Looks like you’re getting an escort,” Mama said.

“Right. You’re going to try telling me it’s for my own protection. We both know Moose is there to make sure I leave town.”

She came to me, putting a light hand on my arm. I wanted to brush her off. “Quinn, how was this going to end for you? I mean, really? Were you going to stop being a movie star? Marry Dom?”

When she said it, it sounded impossible. And yet, the deepest part of me wanted to yell yes at the top of my lungs. She must have seen something flicker in my eyes. The creases around hers deepened as she gave me a soft smile.

“No. I don’t know. It’s just …”

“It’s hard. You don’t have to tell me that. But if you don’t think you can live in Dom’s world and he can’t live in yours, better to go now. The longer you stay, the harder it will be. Believe me, I know.”

“You said he loves me.” I turned to face her. “You asked me if I loved him.”

She touched my face. “And neither one is any of my business, honey.”

“Right,” I said, letting out a bitter laugh. Claude cleared his throat in an unsubtle attempt to hurry me along. The parking lot of the Dark Saints clubhouse was probably the last place he expected to be.

“You’re all right, Quinn. You know that? That’s not something I say about a lot of people. And I’ve never said it about any of you Hollywood types.”

Her smile deepened. “Really?” I said. “You meet a lot of us, do you?” I teased.

“You’d be surprised. I’ve been around a long time. Shit I’ve seen is crazier than any movie plot.”

“I believe that.” The mood had lightened between us and I was glad for it. “And no actress could ever do you justice.” Three months ago, I would have given anything to try. Now my passion for The Club faded. It wasn’t just because of Oliver Ransom. It would hurt too much to try and portray this world the right way.

“Things happen for a reason,” Mama said. “I believe that. And you strike me as the kind of woman who finds a way to land.”

“Maybe they do,” I said. If it weren’t for the turmoil here in Port Az and everything that happened with the Ransoms, maybe I wouldn’t even be considered for this Murphy project in France. Maybe I had to go through this to get to there. A few weeks ago, I would have thought I’d just won the lottery. Now I just felt a hole in my heart.

“What’s next for you?” I asked her.

Mama shrugged. “I’ll keep this place together like I always do. I’ll take care of these boys. For now, I’m on my way to see Wendy. She could use a friendly face.”

“Let me drive you there,” I blurted. Mama was taken aback. “I mean it,” I said. “I feel, I don’t know, responsible for her too, somehow.”

“It really would mean a lot to her. Do you have time?” Mama asked. “I mean, even just five minutes. Pop in, say hi.”

“I do,” I said, my heart lightening. “Come with me. Moose can drive you back. And the two of you can report back to Domino and Bear that I’ve actually left town.”

Mama nodded. “Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Let’s do that. It’ll do Wendy a world of good.”

I felt lighter as we walked to the Town Car. Mama stopped to fill Moose in on the game plan. He didn’t look happy about it, but knew better than to argue with Mama Bear. He pulled the visor down on his helmet and revved his engine.

“You know where Port Azrael-Mercy is?” Mama asked Claude as she slid into the back seat beside me. He met my eyes in the rearview mirror. I nodded.

“Sure thing,” he said. He huffed a few times when he realized the huge biker following behind us was part of the deal. But he peeled out of the drive kicking up more gravel before he hit the highway.

It was just a quick, ten-minute drive to the hospital and Mama stayed quiet. She had a lot to think about herself and I didn’t envy her. I knew she was worried about the very things Dom was, the things that had made him drive me away.

As Claude parked and we got out, I became immediately grateful Mama was there. She seemed to know just about everyone in that hospital, from the receptionist to the security guards to a few of the nurses. Without her, I’m not sure they would have let me into intensive care. But with Josie Bullock, nobody questioned a damn thing.

Wendy looked as if she’d aged twenty years and lost twenty pounds in the two days since I’d seen her. She was conscious, but barely, hooked up to I.V.s and with oxygen running through a tube beneath her nose.

“She’s still on a lot of morphine,” Josie said. She took Wendy’s left hand and leaned down to kiss her. “It’s Mama Bear, honey. I brought somebody to see you.”

Wendy moaned and her lids fluttered. I leaned in close to Mama Bear and squeezed Wendy’s thigh. Her eyes widened and she coughed when she saw me. My heart dropped as the effort of it caused her pain.

“Shh. Oh, Wendy. It’s all right. Just relax.”

“You came?” she croaked. “I can’t believe you came!”

“Well, of course I came. We’re friends now, right? I tend to have a soft spot for people who bleed all over me.” I gave her a bright smile. Wendy met it and her eyes glistened with tears.

“You’re sure everyone else is all right?” she asked. “A couple of the guys and Gina have been here. They said so, but I can’t tell if they’re just saying that so I don’t get upset.”

“They’re telling the truth, honey,” Josie said. “Just a few scrapes and cuts here and there. But I’m afraid you got the worst of it. You’re going to be okay. You know that, right?”

Wendy nodded. Mama moved back a little so I could lean closer. I took Wendy’s hand. She squeezed mine back with a strong grip that warmed my heart. For the first time since that night in the bar, I believed she really would be okay.

“I still can’t believe I know you,” Wendy said. She managed to sit up a little. Mama helped her by pushing some buttons on her hospital bed. When she asked for water, Mama was right there with a striped straw and a plastic cup.

“I can’t believe I know you,” I said. “You’re one strong woman. You had me scared out of my mind the other night. Do me a favor and never do that again.”

“So you’re staying?” Wendy’s gaze went from me to Josie.

I gave her a bittersweet smile and let go of her hand. “I’m afraid not.”

“Quinn’s got to get going, honey,” Josie said. “You understand. She’s got to get back to her life.”

“Right.” Wendy’s voice fell. Another knowing look passed between her and Josie that sent a chill through me. My life. And like it or not, I was now intruding on theirs. Josie was right about something. The longer I stayed, the harder it would be to leave. Even as I thought it, my cell phone started to vibrate in my pocket. I didn’t have to pull it out to know it would be Noreen, making sure I was already at the airport.

“I’m really glad I got to meet you. Both of you.” I wanted to say that I’d see them around. But that would be a lie. Once I got on that plane, I’d never set foot in Port Azrael again. My heart shredded.

Wendy squeezed my hand again. “Maybe if you do make that movie you came here about, if you win an Oscar or something ... maybe you could give us a little shout out.” She meant it as a joke and it did my heart good to see her smiling.

“That’s a promise. I can sure as hell promise I’ll never forget any of you.” I leaned down to give Wendy a light hug, careful not to disturb any of the tubing running out of her arm. Mama Bear put a hand on my back as I rose to leave.

“Come on,” she said. “I’ll walk you out.”

“It’s better if I just go, Josie. I don’t need a scene.”

“I know. It’s just better if you go out the back way. You know, just in case those reporters figure out you’re here. Tell your driver to meet you at the service entrance where they make deliveries. I’ve got the key to the elevator that opens right out to the street.”

“Ah, you think of everything.” I punched in Claude’s number and told him where to meet me. He gave me a gruff answer then clicked off.

“Come on,” Josie said. “Wendy’s already asleep.” She was. She still had a smile on her face, but her lids were closed and she’d slipped into rhythmic breathing.

“Tough kid,” Josie said. “And thank God for it. She just hangs on too tight. It’s why she never would have been good for any of my boys. Not that she didn’t try hard enough.”

We walked down the hallway. A few nurses stared, but they put their noses right back in their charts.

“You think I would have been good enough?” I meant it as a joke. But Mama Bear’s hard eyes sliced right through me.

“You’re one of the good ones, Quinn,” she said. “That was never going to be the problem.”

She walked a little ahead of me and pushed on a big, metal door. I followed her through it. “So you’ll keep looking out for him?” I asked.

Mama turned around. We stood in the stairwell; there was a landing below us. “You know I love Domino like my own son.”

“I do know that.” I wanted to be a bigger person than I was. I wanted to ask her to make sure whoever he did end up with was worthy of him. But fuck all of that. What I really wanted her to do was scratch the eyes out of any woman who came near him. I was about to tell her, hoping she understood I was at least partly joking. But I couldn’t get the words out.

Josie seemed to get it. She winked and turned as she descended the stairs to the next landing. I hesitated for a second, then started to follow. She looked back up at me, smiling, then her face turned to glass. Her eyes lost focus and her legs crumpled. She hit the ground hard, her head bouncing off the last step.

“Josie!” I ran toward her. When I got to the landing, my chest caved in. Moose was on the landing below her, blood blossoming from his chest. He lay at an odd angle with his eyes open. I knew instantly he was dead.

Josie wasn’t moving. I reached for her, trying to find a wound. An ugly purple bruise formed at her temple. A hand came out of nowhere and closed around my throat.

“Don’t scream,” he said. I felt a disconnect, as if I were watching myself on the screen. But this was no movie. This man was real. The gun he held to my chest was real.

He was tall and skinny with a long nose, wild, dirty brown hair and a hawk-like nose. He wore a leather jacket with no patches on it.

“She needs help,” I said. “I don’t know who you are, but Josie needs help. Do you even know who she is?”

He smiled. “Yeah. I came here for her. But you’ll have to do. Get up. Start walking down the stairs. We’re going down to the first floor and you’re going on a little ride with me.”

“D-do you know who I am?”

“Dom’s girl. Mama would have been a better insurance policy, but you’ll have to do. Now start walking.”

He pressed the gun to the center of my back. It was cold and hard, just like his eyes. With each step we took, I felt the descent into hell.