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Ghost shook his head. “Stop.”
“What?” she asked.
“Stop deciding for us.”
Angel stared at him. “You both should get to decide if this is too much for you.”
“It is.” Her heart sank, and Ghost continued. “Way too fucking much.” Jackhammer laughed, and Ghost looked at her. “And I'm still here.”
Angel's throat tightened as Jackhammer touched her cheek. “So am I.”
“You barely know me,” she reminded.
Hammer smiled. “You keep saying that.”
“Because it's true,” she insisted.
“Then we've got time to get to know you, honey,” Hammer said. Time. She hadn't planned in terms of time for years. She planned exits because time meant staying and she couldn’t stay in one place for very long.
Angel looked at Ghost. “Did you really mean it?”
“Mean what?” he asked.
“When you said the pact wasn't just about sharing a woman,” she reminded.
Ghost's expression changed, and Jackhammer went quiet. “We promised that when we found her,” Ghost said, “we'd keep her.”
Angel's heart hammered. “That's a terrible way to phrase it.”
Hammer smiled. “We're bikers. We're not poets.”
Ghost shrugged. “I thought it was romantic.”
“You wouldn't recognize romantic if it bit you in the ass,” Hammer grumbled.
“Depends who's biting,” Ghost teased. Jackhammer groaned, and Angel laughed. There it was again—that strange feeling of being warm and safe. It felt like home. She hadn't understood how badly she'd missed it until she found it again. She didn’t find it in Raven's Hollow, or at Viper's house, or even inside the Nomad Knights clubhouse. Her home was with them.
A vehicle approached outside. Every Toxic Monster immediately reached for a weapon. Angel sighed. “Does that ever get old?”
“No,” Ghost said.
Monster walked toward the barn doors. “Mayhem?”
“Here,” Mayhem answered from outside. Monster relaxed as Mayhem entered the barn.
“The bike we chased was dumped two miles away,” Mayhem reported.
“Was the rider with it?” Monster asked.
“No, the rider was gone,” Mayhem said.
Ghost frowned. “Any clue who the rider was?”
“No idea,” Mayhem said.
“Any tracks?” Monster asked.
“Yeah. It looks like a vehicle picked him up,” Mayhem said. Monster swore. Angel felt the tension return. It was a loose end, and maybe that was okay. Not every ghost from the past needed to be caught tonight.
