Page 12 of Savage

I turned to look at him, flashing him a small smile.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Relief swept through me so fast, it nearly made my knees buckle. But there was guilt mixed in with the feeling. “You don’t have to stay just for me. I’m sure you have other stuff you should be doing.”

“Cleared my schedule.” His eyes narrowed slightly. “You’re mine to protect.”

I wasn’t sure what to say, but my breath caught in my chest at the possessiveness in his tone.

The kitchen emptied out gradually, voices fading down the hallway until only Talon and I remained. He just stood there, arms crossed, watching me.

Finally, he said, “Come on.”

I followed him through a short hallway and out a heavy metal door that led to a small patio. A few chairs sat around a small table overlooking the trees.

The air smelled like pine, and the breeze cut through the lingering tension in my chest.

Talon pulled out one of the chairs for me, then took the one beside it, stretching his legs in front of him and bracing his hands on his thighs.

“We’ve been digging into what you found.” He jumped straight to it without any preamble. “Normally, I wouldn’t be able to share much about club business, but since you brought this to us, I can tell you some of it.”

“Like what?”

“We traced the file trail to a shell corporation based in Chicago. They’ve been funneling money into medical programs in smaller towns, mostly mobile clinics and experimental outreach efforts.”

My stomach twisted. “And?”

“Best we can tell, they’re running illegal biotech trials.” His jaw flexed. “Using underserved communities as guinea pigs. Minimal oversight. Shady consent protocols.”

I blinked, bile rising in the back of my throat. “The patients I couldn’t find…they were test subjects?”

He nodded once. “Looks like it.”

My fingers tightened around the armrests. “I knew something was off, but I didn’t think it was that bad.”

“You don’t mess with people’s health.” He shook his head, eyes fixed on a distant point in the trees. “Not for profit orconvenience. And sure as hell not because you think no one will notice.”

A long silence stretched between us, broken only by the wind rustling through the leaves. He didn’t look at me, but I felt the shift in the air between us.

There was so much fury behind his words—but none of it was aimed at me. His anger cracked something open inside me.

“I lost my mom when I was fifteen,” I said softly, my gaze fixed on the trees too. It made it easier to get the words out. “She’d been having weird symptoms for months, but the doctors at the community clinic kept brushing her off. Said it was just stress. That she needed to rest more. Eat better. They barely ran any tests.”

Talon didn’t speak, but I felt the tension in him. How he stilled.

“She collapsed in our kitchen one morning,” I continued, my throat tightening as I remembered how scared I’d been back then. “By the time we got her to the hospital, it was too late. She had cancer. It was stage 4. If any of the doctors had taken her seriously before it had progressed that far, she might’ve had a chance.”

My voice wobbled, but I didn’t cry. I couldn’t, or I’d never stop.

Luckily, Talon remained silent. If he showed me even an ounce of sympathy, I would fall apart.

“My high school had a CNA training program. I signed up for it and earned my certification before I graduated.” I shrugged and flashed him a sad smile. “I want to be able to help people more, but I can’t afford to go to nursing school yet. I’ve been saving up for it ever since I got my job.”

After another beat of silence, he murmured, “That’s why you looked into it. Even when you knew it might put a target on your back.”

I nodded, my throat too tight to answer.

His fingertips brushed over mine where they gripped the armrest. The contact was fleeting, barely there, but it sent butterflies swirling in my belly.

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