Page 82 of Legacy

“That feels like a lifetime ago.” A lifetime I should have learned from, but here I am making the same mistakes.

“It was.”

“They all saw her. Tempe, Luna, Reagan…” I trail off.

It’s not a question. I’ll forever live with Reagan’s reaction burned behind my eyelids.

“Yeah. The girls saw her.” Steel swallows hard, clearly no happier about that fact than I am. “And the Iron Sinners will pay for it. But for now, I need to check in with Ghost, and you should probably see how things are going with Patch.”

“I will in a second.” I drop my chin. “I’ve got to make a call first.”

Steel nods, stalking off to meet up with Havoc, Chaos, and Soul, who look like they’re already planning for battle.

Pulling out my phone, I dial Reagan, and she answers on the first ring.

“Hey.” Her tone is light and airy.

It’s a breath of fresh air that hurts my lungs with how hard they’ve been collapsing since I stepped out of the van.

“You back at the house?”

“Yes.”

“Bea?”

“Still sleeping. I went in and checked on her right when I got back.”

That statement wraps around my chest. That her first instinct when she got home was to check on my daughter, even when I was an ass to her and didn’t say a word when we got back to the compound.

“Thank you.” I rake my hair back. “Can you do me a favor and stay upstairs tonight?”

“In your room?” She sounds nervous, and I can picture her biting her lip right now.

“Yeah. Just so someone’s close to Bea if she wakes up.”

“Of course.” There’s a long pause on the other end of the line before she finally adds, “I’m here if you need me to do anything. Or just to talk. Is everything… are you okay?”

She changes her question because she already knows the answer to the first. She saw it. And everything is not okay.

“You don’t need to worry about me.” My tone is colder than I intend, but I can’t help that my throat feels like I’m swallowing ice. “Bea was going to build forts with Austin when she woke up. If you can get her to Tempe’s, I’d appreciate it. But let her know I’ll be back by dinner.”

“Okay. I will.”

“Thanks.” I hang up before I collapse.

I’m caving in on myself.

I’m not okay—not even a little bit.

But I don’t have the energy to deal with another person right now. Especially when that person is myself.

24

Legacy

Wren slides a coffeeacross the bar and offers me a forced smile. There’s tension running through the clubhouse. And even if the patch bunnies aren’t up to speed with what happened last night, they sense when something is off from the eerie silence and the fact that we’ve gone into another lockdown.

“Thanks.” I grab the cup and burn my tongue on the first sip.

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