Page 11 of Silent as Sin
Maul’s brows lifted. “I get it now,” he smirked.
Scyth muttered to Rex, his eyes not leaving her. “Holy shit.”
Rex gave a short, humorless laugh. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
Her silence stretched, and even Rex shifted under the weight of it.
Throttle leaned back further, exhaling smoke toward the ceiling. “Ashen,” he drawled, his smirk tugging slow. “She’s different. You can feel it.” His eyes flicked to her. “Question is, are you ready for what comes with different?”
Heat prickled down my spine. I moved before I thought about it, stepping in close, my body blocking half their view. Her shoulder brushed mine, light as a whisper, but it grounded me. Reminded me she was more than what they saw.
“Eyes off,” Warden growled once more from behind the bar. His voice carried steel. “She’s not here for your entertainment.”
The weight of his words shifted the room, but not enough. The sweet butts whispered near the wall anyway, Holly’s eyes wide, Truly biting her lip, Tabby smirking like she’d already decided the story she’d tell later.
Jewel cut them a glare hard enough to send them scattering like chickens.
Elara stayed close to her other side, murmuring soft words only she could hear. She didn’t answer, still locked in her silence, but her eyes flicked once to Elara, then to Jewel, then finally back to me.
I caught it, the way her chin tilted just slightly, like she was bracing herself beneath the weight of every stare.
Even mine.
Because Christ help me, I was staring too.
Noticing the way her damp hair clung to her cheek, the way her throat moved when she swallowed, the quiet strength in her silence. My pulse pounded, hot and jagged, the urge to reach out—to touch, to shield, to claim—clawing hard under my skin.
I forced my fists to stay clenched, my stance firm.
She wasn’t mine.
But she was under my patch now.
And if any of them looked at her like she wasn’t, I’ll beat them ten feet in the ground.
CHAPTER SIX
THE BATH HADscrubbed the dirt away, but ithadn’t stripped the eyes from me.
If anything, it made them worse.
Before, grime had been armor. A shield that blurred my edges and dulled my shape. Ugly was safer. Ugly was forgettable.
But clean, I was… visible.
The common room stilled when I stepped out. The air thickened, heavy with silence that felt louder than any shout. Men watched. Some with curiosity, some with calculation. Their stares crawled over my skin like heat.
My stomach knotted. My fingers twisted the hem of the shirt Jewel had given me, tugging until the fabric cut into my palms.
Maul’s brows lifted, his beer pausing halfway to his mouth. Scyth leaned against the table, cue stick tapping slow against the floor. Rex muttered something under his breath that made Scyth smirk.
And then there was Throttle.
He didn’t look away fast like the others when Warden barked for them to mind themselves. He leaned back, cigarette smoldering, smirk curved lazy across his mouth. But it wasn’t cruel. Not hungry. His gaze lingered on me in a way that felt… different. Curious. Like he was trying to figure me out, not strip me bare.
I tucked that away. Filed it in the place where I kept everything I noticed.
Because I remembered everything.
