Page 70 of The Vigilant

“No, he wouldn’t.” I heard her small smile even though I didn’t look up to see it. “The Vigilantes are a motorcycle club, but their prey…are the predators in the criminal world.”

Vigilantes. It was even in the name.

“That sounds like something he would do.”

She made a sound of agreement. “Sometimes, the law isn’t enough to mete out justice.” She returned to her corner of the jacket.

“No, sometimes it’s not.” I pulled more of the jacket toward me. “And you’re one, too?”

“More and less,” she replied, turning the phrase to suit her as her eyes found mine. “Then again, don’t we all look to right the wrongs done to us?”

As she spoke, her hand went to the necklace around her throat. To be honest, I hadn’t noticed it before, the chain was so fine, and the pendant on the end of it, well, it wasn’t a pendant. It was a ring. A thin, simple gold band that rested hidden in her décolletage until she threaded it out and spun the band between her fingers.

“Apparently Tynan likes to right the wrongs done to others more than himself,” I muttered.

“Well, he’s always been the most self-sacrificing.”

“It’s annoying,” I said without thinking, realizing how disingenuous I sounded, but what was I supposed to say—to think?

The man had almost bled out today because he was protecting me from a problem that wasn’t his.

“In my experience, men are rarely what they present themselves to be.” She let the ring fall from her fingertips, and before I could reply, added with a tone that felt too flippant, “For better…or for worse.”

I went to the sink and wrung out the cloth. That was the problem with Tynan. Every other man had exceeded my expectations for the worse. And then Tynan had swooped in for the better.

It was more than annoying. It was untenable. The guilt I felt—the wanting I felt—it would only get worse when he found out the truth.

“You said you were taking care of the bodies at the house?” I asked over my shoulder, forcing my voice to stay steady.

If they called the police…

“Not me personally, but some of the other guys, along with some former military friends who work for another local private security firm.” She waited until I was dipping my cloth back in the detergent before she answered and then clarified like she knew why I’d asked. “No police.”

I turned the sleeve of the jacket, noting how the worn leather had stretched and creased where it had fit over Tynan’s bicep, the strength of which I’d experienced firsthand when he’d held me down on the bed.

“Do you know the men who did this?”

I stilled, the bloodstains blurring in my vision. “No.”

“But you have an idea.”

My first instinct was to lie. To keep secrets. To keep my business my own. But she was too like me,and it made me both comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time.

“I’m assuming they were members of the Wah Ching.”

Both of her brows rose. “And why would you assume that?”

I went to the sink and rinsed my cloth, my breaths coming in short bursts. What was I doing, trusting her? Telling her? I needed to fix this on my own. I just needed my phone. Needed to figure out a way to find that user.

But then I found myself back over the leather jacket of the man who’d protected me with his life, and it was like I was cleaning the blood from his very skin and his chivalrous armor.

Even angry, he hadn’t hesitated to be my gladiator. To fight for me. To die for me.

“Because Tynan and his friend, Creed, were helping me look for my missing friend, and the Wah Ching might be involved.”

Rob folded her arms. “I see. And who is your friend?”

“Her name is Mara Chen.”

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