When I woke up, it was to the sound of Dante’s alarm going off well before sunrise. My wrists were untied, and I was clean and dressed in a pair of Dante’s old sweatpants and a t-shirt. My heart clenched at the realization—he’d taken care of everything while I was dozing off.
He always took such good care of me.
He groaned and shut off his alarm, and then when he saw I was awake, he rolled over and gave me a sweet, brief kiss on the mouth. “I gotta head into the bakery,” he said. “Go back to sleep.”
“Okay,” I murmured. “I—” love you. I almost said it. The words were right there, in my half-asleep state. “Thank you.”
Dante’s expression softened. “You did so good, sweet boy.” He carded a hand through my hair, kissed me briefly, and then climbed out of bed to start his day.
A few hours later, I woke up again to the sun slanting through the windows of his apartment. I showered and dressed—God, I felt so comfortable here. Welcome. Like I belonged here just as much as Dante did. It was a thought that warmed me—but it scared me a little, too. Scared me with how easy it was for me to feel this way about him. But I pushed the fear out of mind. I’d already gotten so much from Dante—I didn’t need to start wanting more. I’d only make myself crazy, and what we had was already so much more than I ever could have hoped for.
I dressed in a hurry, already close to being late for my shift. When I descended the stairs, Tru was awake and puttering around the kitchen. He grinned at me like he wasn’t surprised at all to see me. “Heya, Kid.”
I ducked my chin in greeting. “Morning, Tru.”
“Fun night?” He shot me a knowing little smirk.
I was sore all over—I had bruises on my hips, hickeys on my chest, and I knew I was in for an interesting ride back to Elkin Lake with the sweet soreness between my legs. “Pretty good,” I said. “I’ve got to get to work.”
“I know.” Tru tugged his leather jacket on. “Dante asked me to escort you.”
“You don’t need to do that,” I said immediately. It was such a routine drive back to Elkin Lake, and there were so many patrols going on that I was sure I’d be fine. And Tru wasn’t even a Hell’s Ankhor member—he didn’t need to take time out of his day to deal with me. So far only Dante or another Hell’s Ankhor member had taken on the duty.
“I know,” Tru said with a grin. “Now come on, let’s go.”
Tru rode just behind me the entire drive, and managed to endear himself to Jonah at Custom Ankhs in approximately two seconds by following me into the shop and cooing over Grace. He stayed for a few minutes, peering at illustrations and talking shop with Maverick. But after Tru left, I felt every single one of the minutes inching by, and I was nearly crawling out of my skin.
Finally having sex with Dante hadn’t relieved me like I’d thought it would—it’d only made me want it more. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I was so visibly distracted that Maverick booted me out of Custom early, and I ended up back at the clubhouse with nothing to do, which was even worse.
“Just a short ride by myself. It’ll be fine,” I said, leaning over the clubhouse kitchen counter like a kid begging for a cookie. “Seriously. They haven’t been seen anywhere. It’s just been the emails since that day on campus.”
“True,” Gunnar said, “But Raven hasn’t been able to trace any of the emails—and they’re still coming in. That makes me nervous.”
“Just because they haven’t been seen doesn’t mean they aren’t out there,” Coop agreed. “If Crave taught us anything, it’s that.”
Despite the Liberty Crew and Hell’s Ankhor being on high alert looking for Ryder, Baxter, and Trip, it’d still been crickets. After the first week of unsuccessful hunting, even Rebel had put out a be-on-the-lookout for them with the local police departments. With so many eyes looking, I couldn’t believe we hadn’t found them by now. But maybe that just meant they were content to get their rocks off sending those stupid emails, trying to intimidate me a bit after what’d happened on campus. Besides, it’s not like they should be able to slip through our patrols.