Page 16 of Cipher

Church ended as soon as every man understood his assignment. Chairs moved back, phones came out, and the office filled with low voices as the brothers began activating contacts before they reached the hallway.

I closed the laptop and stood, but Stryker’s voice stopped me before I reached the door. “You moving her tomorrow?”

“First thing.”

His gaze held mine, taking in the certainty beneath the answer without wasting time asking whether I intended to keep my distance after she entered my house. “Good.”

The ride back took less time than the trip to the compound, but it still didn’t feel fast enough.

When I entered the house, Bex sat on the living room couch with one bare foot tucked beneath her and a blanket draped across her lap. Relief brightened her hazel-green eyes so quickly when she saw me that the reaction reached deeper than the lust that always seemed to be grinding through my body when she was near.

I wanted to cross the room, lift her from the couch, and take her upstairs to a bedroom. But Bex’s father stood beside the fireplace with the expression of a man who had already spent too much of his evening watching me touch his daughter.

“Everything okay?” Bex asked, unfolding herself from the couch as I approached.

“This shit’s bad enough that the club’s involved.” I wrapped one hand around her waist when she came within reach, checking the windows beyond her before letting my attention settle fully on her face.

Bex looked over my shoulder toward her father, and the reluctant acceptance in Raines’s face answered the question she hadn’t asked. He had spent his career believing the department existed to put help between vulnerable people and whoever wanted to hurt them, only to discover someone might have turned his own systems into a weapon. If the Black Crowns getting involved meant saving more lives, he wasn’t gonna stand in our way.

Bex crossed to him and wrapped both arms around his waist, giving him the same warmth she offered to anyone she found in need of comfort.

Raines held her for a moment before pressing a kiss to the top of her head and looking at me over the blond knot in her hair. “You boys going to interfere with my case?”

“Judge will keep the lanes separate.” I didn’t promise the Black Crowns would limit themselves to whatever punishment a courtroom could deliver, and Raines knew better than to ask for a lie. “You’ll get clean evidence. What happens outside your case stays outside it.”

His mouth flattened, but he gave a nod before releasing Bex and checking the time. “We should get some sleep. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I’m staying.”

Bex turned toward me, surprise widening her eyes before warmth began spreading through them. Raines’s expression hardened for an entirely different reason, but he glanced toward the dark windows and reconsidered whatever argument had started forming. He knew the men outside were capable, but I could see that he was coming to understand that no one in Sable Canyon would protect his daughter the way I would.

“Couch pulls out into a bed,” he finally offered.

“Have work to do.” I lifted the laptop slightly before carrying it toward the dining table positioned beside the bottom of the stairs.

Raines looked from the table to me, then at Bex, who was trying to hide a small smile behind her hand.

She started toward the staircase, pausing beside my chair with one hand resting lightly on the back. “You need anything? Food? A blanket?”

“You asleep.”

She shook her head with a small smile. “I don’t believe that was one of the available options.”

“Doesn’t change my answer.” I caught her wrist before she could move away and let my thumb pass once over the pulse beneath her skin. “Go to bed, baby. You need rest.”

The contact colored her cheeks, but she didn’t pull free. “Good night.”

“Lock your door.”

She opened her mouth to argue, took one look at my face, and apparently decided the disagreement was useless. “Bossy.”

“Get used to it.”

The smile she carried upstairs stayed with me long after her bedroom door closed. Raines remained in the kitchen for another ten minutes, drinking the last of his coffee and studying me as though he could determine my intentions by watching long enough. He eventually told me the alarm code I already knew from securing the panel, warned me that his gun was within reach, and went upstairs after I reminded him mine was closer.

The house settled around me, but I never mistook quiet for safety. I worked through the audit records while exterior camera tiles ran across the second screen, tracking every movement by my brothers, passing vehicles, and animals shifting along the tree line. My awareness remained divided between the digital trail and the staircase beside me, where my woman slept one flight above my head.

Bex came downstairs shortly after two in the morning wearing soft sleep shorts and an oversized white shirt that fell off one shoulder. Her bare legs caught the low light from the dining room, and my cock hardened.