Page 50 of Property of Legend

She nods, but her gaze’s distant.Like she’s pulling away in that quiet way women do right before everything falls apart.

I slide in beside her, wrap my arm around her like I’m trying to hold the world together.

But the silence ain’t peaceful anymore.

It’s the kind that sets off every alarm in your bones.Her fingers curl tighter in the blanket.She’s trying not to cry, I can tell.That quiet strength, the way her lip quivers when she’s pretending it’s fine, that’s when I know she’s breaking.

And for the first time in a while, I’m scared.Not of death.Not of war.But of losing a woman I thought I’d never have.

Chapter 28

Sophie

I should be asleep.I should be wrapped in the afterglow of whatever just happened between us, sweaty, knotted in sheets and whispered promises that feel too big to say out loud.

But I’m wide awake.

And cold.

Not because Legend isn’t here beside me anymore.He came back.He’s lying right next to me, one arm draped heavy over my waist like he’s afraid I’ll vanish if he lets go.But something’s shifted.I feel it.The warmth between us has a crack running through it, letting in a cold chill.

And her name is Becki.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t expect this.Legend’s not some squeaky-clean boy next door.He’s fire and fury wrapped in leather and scars.A biker like him doesn’t come without big saddle bags.But hearing her voice from upstairs, seeing the way he looked when he walked back in?

It wasn’t just some club bunny.She cared.Maybe still does.

And maybe, he did too.

He didn’t smell like her.He didn’t come back with her lipstick on his collar.But he came back changed.His kiss was softer.His hands gentler, like he was trying to apologize for something he hadn’t said out loud yet.That kind of guilt?You can feel it.Like a phantom between us, breathing down my neck.

He thinks he can reassure me with soft words and that rough voice that makes me want to forget everything but him.But I’ve lived in a world of masks and Southern smiles my whole life.I know what it looks like when someone’s still untangling themselves from their past.

I turn slightly, careful not to wake him, and stare at the ceiling.Moonlight slices across the room, casting shadows on the walls, long and clawed, like they’re reaching for me.

I didn’t plan on falling for a biker like Legend.Hell, I didn’t plan on any of this.My life used to be a checklist, ribbons, galas, blue-blood legacies.I used to care more about hat size than horsepower.I was trained to smile through scandal and curtsy through heartbreak.But nothing in cotillion prepared me for the ache of wondering if the man beside me is still in love with someone else.

Now I’m in bed with a biker who kisses like he’s claiming territory and stares at me like I’m the only thing keeping him tethered to this world.

And that scares the shit out of me.

Because I’m falling, fast and hard, and I don’t know how to catch myself if he lets go.

I close my eyes and breathe him in, leather, smoke, and the aftershock of getting all I ever wanted.He’s wrapped around me like armor.But even steel can bend under pressure.And if we crack?We won’t just bleed.We’ll shatter.

I glance at him, half-lit in moonlight, jaw slack and hand twitching like even in dreams he’s fighting demons.He looks younger like this.Softer.Almost breakable.And I hate how much I want to fix what I didn’t break.

Chapter 29

Legend

It's a scorcher of a morning.The kind of Southern heat that clings to your skin and makes everything feel a little more mean.But it ain’t the weather that has my forehead scrunched and my gut twisted.

Heard from Oaks.He didn’t go anywhere.Good thing, too.There’s blood on the south fence line.

Fresh.

Still steaming in the grass.

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