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She breaks off.

I grin, unapologetically and dangerously. "Nothing to be sorry for."

Her mouth opens in a retort, but nothing comes out. She makes as if to flee back inside, but I can't bear the thought of this night ending. So I come back to the question that led us down this path, "How did you escape?"

I'm not asking out of idle curiosity. Nobody leaves the MC. Not for good. Not alive. Not after spending a couple of years with them.

"It wasn't that hard." Audra sighs, settling her weight against the railing, content now to stay outside with me again, although an occasional glimpse at me through her lashes tells me she's expecting me to pounce on her, give in to the desire my cock announced without question. I won't, but I won't lie either by saying I'm not enjoying watching her squirm, torn between running inside and staying.

"Razor never knew where I lived," she picks her story up, "at least not that I knew of. He might have followed me. But it was always me who came to him."

I frown. "He never drove you home?"

She lets out a humorless snort. "No."

Fuck. I run an exasperated hand through my hair, pulling a few hairs out with my Rolex by accident, but the pain feels good, grounding in a way I need right now. I don't want a repeat of what happened earlier. I don't want her to think that I hold any of this against her in any way. But the thought of that asshole allowing a girl like Audra to walk alone through the city… I don't want her to see how fucking furious I am right now, just thinking about all the shit that could have happened to her.

I must be masking my emotions well, because after a quick scrutinizing look, she continues, "Anyway, I just decided I wasn't going back there. And I didn't. I was paranoid, of course. Paranoid, he would come after me. Every time I heard a bike, my heart jumped out of my chest. I… dyed my hair. I changed the way I dressed…"

She drifts off for a moment, caught up in her past. I wonder where her mother had been in all that. She must have noticed the changes. Hell, even she couldn't have missed Audra coloring her beautiful red hair. Hair, that right now is caught in the lights of one of the ever-present laser beams, which only intensifies the impression of fiery flames.

As if reading my mind, Audra lets out a quiet chuckle, "Mom noticed the bad job I did with my hair and took me to a real hairdresser to fix the damage. Which ended in me losing ten inches, which… honestly, in my mind, helped with the whole new persona, new identity thing."

I tilt my head. "Something tells me that's not the whole story."

The look she gives me pushes the stiffness in my dick to a painful level. If she had squeezed my balls right now, the effect would have been pretty much the same.

"Oh yeah?" she replies, almost flirtatiously.

Fuck. What would it be like to really have her flirt with me? I don't dare to imagine.

"Yeah," I lean against the railing too, closer to her now, resting my chin on my fist.

A mischievous grin lifts the corners of her lips. "You want the whole story?"

"I want to know everything about you, Audra. I already know you sleep on your right side," I say quietly. "And that you ruin your coffee with an ungodly amount of sugar and creamer. That you make this… sound right before you fall asleep." My gaze drops to her mouth. "And that your smile makes me want to kill anyone who takes it away." I lean in even closer. "Audra… there's nothing about you I don't want to know. I want to know if you prefer showers or baths. If you'd rather go on vacation somewhere in the snow or by the ocean." I pause. "I want to know how you look when you stop trying. I want all of it. The small things. The things you don't think matter. And I want the time it takes to learn them."

I stare at him,open-mouthed. For a moment, I think my heart actually stops, not a skipped beat, not a stutter. Just… nothing. Like my body forgot how to function under the weight of what he just said. Because his words… they sound like mine.

Like the girl I used to be. The one who believed in impossible things, like skiing in the morning and standing barefoot in the ocean by sunset. Like being known. Completely. Effortlessly. My knees go weak. It's subtle, but I feel it, the slight sway, the way my fingers tighten around the railing just to stay upright. Like gravity shifted and forgot to warn me.

This is dangerous.

Not him.

This.

The way he looks at me.

The way he sees me.

"You're staring," Gabe murmurs, softer now, like he's aware something just changed between us.

I swallow, but my throat is dry. "You just—" I shake my head slightly, trying to find my footing again. "You say things like that so casually."

"Nothing about that was casual."

His voice drops, and there's something in it now, something heavier. Truer. Something that makes my stomach flip.