Page 90 of Rook
Stone stepped forward. “Your playtime’s over.”
Spider spat blood. “You can’t stop us.”
Stone smiled, cold, controlled. “We don’t need to stop you. Just slow you down.”
The Saints marched Spider and the remaining Reapers to the county line and cut the zip ties binding their wrists.
The Reapers stumbled, bruised, shaken, stripped of everything that made them look like a club.
Not destroyed. Not eliminated. Just broken enough to retreat.
Exactly what the Reapers wanted the Saints to believe.
Spider turned like he meant to spit something smart.
Stone stepped forward before he could open his mouth. His voice was quiet, the kind of quiet that made men rethink their choices.
“Here’s what you take back to Viper,” Stone said. “He sends boys into my county again, I won’t return them. I’ll bury them. And when I’m done with them, I’ll come for him.”
Spider’s bravado cracked. Just a flicker — but enough.
Stone didn’t blink. “Tell him the Saints aren’t looking the wrong way. We’re looking right at him.”
Spider swallowed, backing up a step before he caught himself. Rook didn’t watch them limp away. He watched them run.
Stone stepped beside him. “It’s done.”
“For now,” Rook said.
Stone nodded once, eyes still on the dark stretch of road ahead. “We’ll keep eyes on them. Ledger willtrack every move they make. We’ll figure out what they’re really planning.”
Rook exhaled, long, shaky, full of everything he’d been holding in.
Avery was waiting for him.
He mounted his bike.
“I’m going home,” he said.
Stone smirked. “To her.”
Rook didn’t deny it.
He revved the engine and tore into the night, one thought pounding through him:
She was safe. She was his. And nothing on earth was taking her from him again.
Chapter 28
Avery
The clubhouse felt different without Noah in it.
Not empty, the place was always buzzing with noise, laughter, music, and the constant shuffle of boots on concrete, but different. Like the air had shifted. Like something important was missing.
Avery sat on the edge of Noah’s bed, knees pulled to her chest, staring at the door he’d walked through an hour ago.
He’d kissed her like he was afraid he wouldn’t get another chance. He’d told her to stay put. He’d promised he’d come back.
