“Don’t.” I don’t want Sasha involved in any of Lucy’s lies. I don’t want her getting dragged into this mess. Rav will lose his fucking mind.

“Why?”

I peer up at the ceiling, asking the universe for strength. “Lucy ain’t Lucy.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“She’s been lying to us all. You need to keep away from her. She calls and asks for help, you don’t give it, you got it?”

There’s a long as fuck pause before she says, “Nox, you’re not making any sense.”

I hate to be the one to give her this, but there’s no other choice. I can’t risk Lucy calling her and asking for help. I can’t risk Sasha getting dragged into this mess.

“Lucy’s real name is Natasha Blackwood. She’s been lying to us all.”

“What?” The shock in her voice cuts a path through my chest. I don’t blame her disbelief. If I hadn’t heard the truth from Lucy’s mouth myself, I wouldn’t believe she was capable of living a double life either. “What the hell?”

“You need to stay away from her until we get this shit straightened out.”

“Lucy lied?”

I hear the pain in her words and it’s an axe to the heart. Lucy means the world to Sasha. They’re practically family, closer than sisters. Knowing she kept this from her is going to destroy her.

“I’m sorry, Sash.”

“Why’d she pretend to be someone else?”

“That’s a long as fuck answer.” I give her the condensed version of what is happening and when I’m done talking there’s silence down the line.

“Sash?”

“I need to speak to her.” The steel in her voice doesn’t surprise me. Sasha is tough as hell and she’s not the kind of person to give up on someone either.

I peer out the window, but nothing moves outside. My stomach should be twisting with apprehension of the fight to come, but I feel oddly relaxed, calm.

“No, you need to stay the fuck away from her until we figure this shit out. Do not call her,” I hiss down the line, my stomach twisting. Rav is going to kill me. I should have kept my mouth shut.

“She’s my best friend.”

“She’s also a fucking liar.”

“Nox…” There’s disapproval in her tone, but I haven’t spoken anything that isn’t true.

“She fooled us all, played this perfect role that none of us saw through. You don’t owe her any loyalty.”

There’s silence for a moment, then, “I owe her everything. She saved me. She pulled me out of the hole I was sinking into after Sin. She helped me raise my daughter, put food in our bellies when I didn’t have the money to do it myself. I don’t give a fuck who she was. All I care about is who she is. And if she lied about who she was there’s a fucking good reason for it. Never known Lucy be anything but truthful.”

Her words stick in my throat like barbs and I can’t swallow past them. Lucy has done all that, and more for Sasha and Lily-May. I can’t deny how important she is to me either, but she also lied and put the club—and me—in a terrible position.

“I’ve got to go, Sash, but stay away from Luce. At least until this shit blows over, yeah?”

She sighs loudly down the line. “She calls me asking for help, I’m not going to turn her away.”

I wouldn’t expect anything less, so I say, “I know.”

“Stay safe, Nox. And please keep Tyler in one piece.”

“You know I will.”

I hang up and pocket my phone, my gut rolling. I hate this shit. I hate that Lucy caused this. Things were so perfect between us, now it’s soured by what she’s done.

I peer through the window and see something happening at the gate. There are cars pulling up and men stepping out of the vehicles.

Itchy fear prickles along my skin as I pick my gun up and move towards the side door. I’m not leaving Kyle to deal with this shit alone.

As I cross the tarmac, the wind skimming through my kutte, I see my brothers out of my peripheral vision closing in on the gate, each moving with their guns raised.

Moving to Kyle’s side, the sun glinting off his own raised weapon, a suited man steps out of one of the cars, adjusting his tie. His dark hair is slicked back, his clothes clearly expensive and definitely tailored. His shrewd eyes skim around his surroundings, a lazy glance, as if the guns pointing towards him don’t even register.

I’ve never met him, but I know who he is immediately. Isaac Blackwood. He carries himself with the air of a man who has stared death in the face and laughed.

He’s not the only one. I’m not afraid to die. I came into this life knowing I would probably leave it young. I’m prepared to, but even so I feel some of the tension leech from my bones as my brothers close in around me.

Men crowd around Blackwood, their guns raised, ready for action. My eyes slide to Leon and Elijah who have their weapons trained on us, their mouths quirked into a macabre smirk that grates on my nerves.

Rav comes last, pushing through the brothers and moving to the front of the gate.

“You lost?” he demands, his eyes roaming over Blackwood.

He examines his nails, his stance bored. “You have something of mine.”

“Told your boys and I’ll tell you, we ain’t got nothing.”

Isaac’s cruel mouth turns up into a smirk and his eyes blaze. Rot fills my belly at that look. If he ever directed that at Lucy, I can see why she fled. The man is a scary motherfucker, but so am I, and so are my brothers.

“I don’t appreciate being lied to,” Blackwood says.

“Ain’t lying. So why don’t you get back into your car and fuck off. I won’t ask you again.”

I watch as Isaac’s tongue moves over his teeth and I see a crack in his perfectly controlled emotions.

“You bring her out or I’m coming in, and if that happens, I’ll burn your little bike club to the ground.”

Rav growls and rattles the chain link fence. “You want to think about who the fuck you’re threatening. This ain’t no weekend riders’ club. We ain’t weak. You want us to rain down hell on you, just say the fucking word, because we will bring the fucking devil.”

Titch shifts behind me and I hear his own growl of frustration. I feel it too. This guy is an obnoxious fucker.

“I just want what’s mine.”

I want to scream at him that she’s mine, not his. I’ve claimed her, but I hold my tongue, barely.

“Stop!”

My stomach sinks as I twist to see Lucy running across the tarmac, Whizz on her heels, trying to stop her, but she’s quick, darting like a rabbit towards us.

Fuck.

Fear licks a path up my spine as my girl moves to the fence line, her eyes focused forward. She doesn’t give me her eyes, which scares the shit out of me. What the hell is she doing?

I risk a glance at Blackwood, who looks smug as fuck and I want to wipe that fucking look off his face. My heart starts to gallop in my chest as clawed fingers squeeze the muscle. Lucy should have stayed hidden, but now the devil knows she’s here and that puts us in a worse position.

I reach out without thinking and snag her hand. She peers down at our joined palms for a moment before tearing out of my grip like I’ve burnt her skin.