Page 13 of Steel

If that’s what she is.

For all I know, Tempe came up with this plan to get vengeance for her father’s death. She plays the victim well, but it could be an act.

Tears.

Fear.

Her shaking hand when she grabbed my arm and begged for my help.

It all means nothing when I’ve seen those tactics used as weapons before.

“She came back clear, Prez. I’m telling you, I checked.” Ghost pulls out his phone and types something in before holding it up to show me a picture of her driver’s license. “Tempe Evans, twenty-two. She’s worked at Dirty Drakes for the past year while putting herself through school for physical therapy. She volunteers at a local clinic on the weekends. There’s not one tie to Helix. He didn’t even have her number saved in his phone. She checked out.”

I can trust Ghost. If anyone is thorough, it’s him. But doubt is all I have lately, and Tempe is just another reminder of why.

It’s a rot running through me. Making me question my brothers when they’ve given me no reason to. This isn’t their fault—it’s mine.

Helix’s betrayal and my inability to see it in time are my mistakes to bear.

My family’s blood runs through this club. We founded the Twisted Kings. Failing them is a desecration of my bloodline.

“Steel, I’m telling you she’s clear.” Ghost tucks his phone away.

I rake my hair off my forehead. “I hear you.”

“Then you know as well as I do that if she’s not involved, she’s not safe.”

I nod.

“What do you plan to do about it?”

What am I going to do?

I scratch the back of my neck, wishing I could go back to the point in the night where my biggest problem was a couple of Iron Sinners and pissed off strippers. “I don’t fucking know yet. But she’s not leaving the compound until I figure it out.”

If Tempe were anyone else in danger, I’d send her home and put a prospect on her doorstep for the night to make sure she was safe. But she isn’t anyone else. She’s the blood of my club’s traitor, and as good as Ghost is at his job, it’s my responsibility to my club to be certain he’s right about her.

I glance at the closed door that leads to my room. I hate that she’s in there, pacing back and forth, filling it with the scent of cherry blossoms. A scent that invaded my senses the moment I was near her. A scent so sweet when this girl is anything but.

Tempe is feisty as fuck. She kicked me in the shins and tried to knock me out in my own damn clubhouse—my own fucking bedroom.

The girl is a fighter.

I’d be impressed if I wasn’t so pissed off about it.

My phone rings, and I dig it out of my pocket to see Havoc’s name flashing on the screen. He and Soul took a couple of prospects to check out the situation at Tempe’s house and confirm her story.

After she mentioned her brother, everything hard about her demeanor crumbled, so it was difficult to get much else through her tears. But she said her brother was supposed to be hiding and that the men didn’t know he was there. With any luck, they still haven’t found him.

“Talk to me.”

“Well, she wasn’t lying.” Havoc sounds out of breath. “Four guys were ready and waiting when we got here.”

“Who are they?”

“They scattered before we could get a good look at them. Their lookout must have tipped them off because they bolted the second we pulled up.”

I look over at Ghost. “Pull the traffic cam footage in that area, see if you can trace any plates or figure out what direction they went. And let me know once you figure out what’s on the flash drive.”

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