Page 40 of Crow's Haven
As evening spins out without drama, the laughter grows louder, the music softer, while lights twinkle gently overhead. The boys eventually collapse on the grass, exhaustion finally catching up to their endless energy. Crow lifts Chase easily into his arms, Scout trailing behind sleepily.
“Time to go?” I ask softly, smiling gently as I stroke Chase’s soft hair.
“Yeah,” Crow replies warmly, voice tender. “I think we wore them out.”
We head towards his bike, and he wakes Chase up to buckle him into the sidecar. Once his eyes are open, it’s like he got his second wind. I help Scout in beside him, and buckle him in.
I pause briefly, looking back at the clubhouse, lights warm in the darkness, laughter still drifting softly. The leather cut rests comfortably around my shoulders. I run my fingers gently over the patch, pride swelling through me. I’m part of something bigger now, something good and real. Let’s just hope I can hang onto it when I tell Crow the truth.
Crow’s arm slips around my waist, pulling me close against his side. He kisses my temple gently, lips warm and lingering. “You ready?”
“Yes,” I whisper, heart full, my voice steady. “I’m ready.”
We get comfortable on his bike, and he rides off with all of us in tow.
I know our path forward won’t always be easy. There will still be shadows, moments of fear, and truths to confront, but right now I feel like anything is possible.
Chapter 11
Crow
I’m in the garage, hands buried in the guts of a carburetor, when I realize I left my torque wrench inside. Wiping grease-stained fingers absently against a rag, I step through the back door into the laundry, leading into the kitchen. Ain’t fully shook the list of things I need to fix from my head yet. Ladybug’s voice stops me dead in my tracks.
She’s in the kitchen. Instead of washing dishes, she’s speaking quietly, but there’s a trembling urgency in her tone, enough to keep me rooted to the spot. Something in her words makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, prickling with cold unease.
“I can’t thank you enough,” she whispers, voice trembling. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without your help. Using your identity has gotten me through some tough times.”
I go still, my heart thudding hard against my ribs. She’s been using someone else’s name. A fucking alias. That means she’s been lying to me about who she is. Ice shoots through my fucking veins.
There’s silence for a minute, then she speaks again, her voice lower now, thick with suppressed fear. “Yes, the warrant is still active. They’re still looking for me.” Her breath catches sharply, and my stomach clenches. “They think I intentionallykilled that boy and I don’t know what to say to convince them otherwise.”
The words killed and boy jump out at me. They slam into my brain with brutal force, knocking the air from my lungs. They think she killed a child. Who the fuck is ‘they’?
“I know you believe me,” Sharon says, desperation leaking into her words. “But the police… there’s no way they’ll listen. It was my shift. My patient. My responsibility. And now they think it’s murder. A former co-worker called me. She said they were even thinking I might be a serial killer and tried to get me to turn myself in.”
A damn murder charge. Jesus fucking Christ. I’m not gonna ever think about the possibility of her being a serial killer. Hell no. My fists tighten so hard my knuckles ache. Everything I thought I knew about Sharon is clearly a lie.
Is she even really called Sharon?
I knew she was running from something. Figured it was an abusive boyfriend, or a messy situation. But murder? That was never even on my radar.
Her voice drops even lower, words cracking under the weight of her fear. “They won’t stop looking. I know it. I don’t want to run again, but I’ve got no choice. If they find me here, it’ll ruin everything. Crow doesn’t know. And God, I love the boys too much to put them through that. I think that I should just run before I drag all my problems to their doorstep. They’re good people who don’t deserve that kind of heat in their lives.”
Her words gut me. The pain of betrayal is white-hot. Rage builds, raw and unstoppable, tempered only by shock. She’s wanted for murder and never said a thing. I don’t give a damnhow sorry she feels right now. She sat across the table from me, smiling at my boys every damn day, knowing the law was looking to pick her up on a murder charge. She pretended to be a good woman and let me trust her, and let my boys get attached to her, knowing full well her past could tear our lives apart in an instant.
I’m shaking. Anger and fear are clawing for control inside me. I take a step back slowly, careful not to alert her to my presence, the wrench I initially came for forgotten on the dryer. My heart pounds so violently I’m worried she’ll hear it.
I slip back outside, circle around to the front door and head up to my room. I can hear the boys playing in Scout’s room as I walk by. I tread softly, slip into my bedroom, and shut the door behind me. My chest is heaving and nausea twists my gut. All the sweet, tender moments we shared shatter around me. Every kiss, whispered promise, and gentle touch, is now tainted by the knowledge that it was all built on lies with a woman accused of murdering a child.
No fucking wonder she was sleeping in her car when I found her. She was on the run from the cops. That explains why she took off at Patch’s office when she saw the deputy. And all that shit she said to her friend about loving us? Guess that was just a smokescreen. Me and my boys were just cover, a damn disguise so she could hide in plain sight.
I pace my room like a caged animal, torn between confronting her immediately and ensuring the boys are safe. Finally, reason cuts through the fury. I can’t risk Scout and Chase finding out the woman they want to be their new mommy might have spilled a child’s blood. They can never know, not now, not ever.
I snatch up my phone, my hands shaking from white-hot rage, and punch in Evan’s number, tension vibrating through every muscle in my body.
He answers on the second ring, casual and relaxed. “Yeah?”
“Need a favor. Right away.”
