Maddox's P.O.V.

I used to know exactly how to get a reaction out of Sienna. Call her Peaches. Steal her fries. Pull her ponytail.

Tell her she was too short to do something and wait three seconds for her to prove me wrong out of pure spite. It had been one of my favorite hobbies.

The woman sitting in the back of my SUV didn't react to anything the way the girl I remembered had.

She sat behind Judge with Butter's carrier braced between her boots and one hand wrapped around the strap of her duffel. Her eyes tracked every turn I made. Not casually. Counting. Remembering. Planning. I hated it.

"You know I'm not taking you into the woods to murder you, right?"

Judge turned his head slowly. Sienna looked at me in the mirror.

"That's exactly what somebody taking me into the woods to murder me would say."

I almost smiled. Almost. There she was. Then she looked back out the window, and the little spark vanished. That bothered me more.

"Peaches—"

Her eyes snapped to mine.

"No."

One word. Flat. I tightened my hands on the wheel.

"You used to like it."

"I used to be thirteen."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know what you meant."

Judge stared out the windshield like he wanted no part of this. Coward.

I tried again. "It's a nickname."

"It's a name you gave a girl who doesn't exist anymore."

That shut me up. The road hummed under the tires. Butter made a low, miserable sound inside the carrier. Sienna immediately bent down.

"Hey. I know. We're almost stopping."

Her voice changed for the cat. Softer. Still guarded, but soft. I remembered that too. Sienna had always collected things that needed help. Hurt birds. Stray dogs. Kids nobody else sat with at lunch. Us, probably. That thought landed wrong.

I cleared my throat. "How old is he?"

She glanced up. "Why?"

"It's a cat, Sienna. I'm making conversation."

"Maybe a year and a half. The vet guessed he was around six months when I found him."

I nodded. "Right."

"Good job with the math."

Judge coughed into his fist.

A tiny curve touched her mouth. Victory. Then she caught herself and looked away. The smile disappeared so fast it pissed me off. Not at her. At whoever taught her smiling around us was dangerous. At least, that was what I wanted to blame. Blaming somebody else was easier. Kai had already made that harder. **She said she was taken.** Those words had been stuck in my head since the diner. I remembered the day she left. I remembered what we had been told. I remembered how furious I had been when she didn't answer. I also remembered saying things I couldn't take back. That part had nothing to do with anybody else. The motel sign appeared ahead.

Judge pointed. "There."

I turned in. Kai was waiting near a dark rental SUV with two coffees in his hands and a laptop bag over one shoulder. Sienna went rigid the moment she saw him. I parked but didn't lock the doors. That was deliberate. She noticed. Of course she did. Judge got out first. I stayed behind the wheel. Sienna didn't move.

"You getting out?"

"Eventually."

I bit back the first response that came to mind. Old me would've told her not to be dramatic. Old me was apparently an asshole.

"Take your time."

Her eyes narrowed.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"That sounded like something."

"It wasn't."

She studied me for another second, then opened the door herself. Butter came with her. The duffel too. She wouldn't leave either inside my vehicle. Fair enough. Kai walked over slowly.

"Hey."

"Hey," she said.

He held up one of the coffees. "I didn't know what you drink now."

"So you bought me coffee?"

"I bought Judge coffee."

Judge took it from him. Kai looked annoyed. Sienna almost smiled again. There. Gone. Fuck. Kai opened his laptop on the hood of the rental.

"I've got the tracker isolated. Whoever owns it thinks it's still moving south."

Sienna's eyes sharpened. "How?"

"I put it on another vehicle."

"Whose?"

"A club truck heading toward Kansas."

"You tell the driver?"

Kai looked offended. "Yes."

"Good."

I watched that exchange. She wasn't impressed by his computer shit. She wasn't grateful just because he'd done something useful. She wanted to know who had consented. Who knew. Who had control. Judge saw it too.

"Black SUV?" he asked.

Kai turned the screen.

"Stolen plate. Vehicle description matches one tied to a motel camera forty miles from here three nights ago. Can't prove it's the same crew yet."

Sienna folded her arms. "And the biker?"

"Nothing."

"So you don't know who's following me."

"No."

"You don't know why."

"No."

"You don't know if there's more than one group."

Kai paused. "No."

She nodded. Not happy. But satisfied that he had actually said what he didn't know. That was new too. The old Sienna would've trusted Kai if he told her the sky was green. This one wanted sources.

Judge leaned against the hood. "We need to decide where we're going."

"I already did," Sienna said. "Not the clubhouse."

Here we go.

"The compound is the safest option," I said.

Her eyes cut toward me. "For you."

"For anybody."

"My father's house had locks, cameras, and men with guns."

My mouth closed. Judge had told me she'd said something like that at the apartment. Hearing it myself was worse.

Sienna shifted Butter's carrier to the other hand. "Safe for the people controlling the doors isn't the same thing as safe for the person inside."

Kai looked down. Judge didn't.

"What do you need for it to be safe enough for one night?" he asked.

I stared at him. One night? He was negotiating with her like she was a hostile chapter president. Maybe she was. Sienna didn't answer right away. Then she started counting on her fingers.

"My own room. A lock on the inside. I keep the key. Nobody enters without asking."

Judge nodded.

"My phone stays mine. Kai doesn't clone it, track it, or install anything without asking me."

Kai nodded too.

"Butter stays with me."

"Obviously," I said.

She looked at me.

I raised both hands. "Sorry."

"No surprise family reunion."

That one hit.

Judge's jaw tightened. "Your mom lives near the compound."

"I know."

"Rook too."

"I know."

"They'll find out."

"Finding out isn't the same as showing up in my room."

Judge nodded slowly. "Fair."

Sienna looked at him like she still expected the trap.

"And I can leave."

"Once we know the road is clear."

Her expression hardened.

Judge held up a hand. "Meaning I tell you if there's an active threat at the gate. I don't chain you to the floor."

"Very comforting."

"I try."

I snorted. Both of them looked at me.

"What?"

Sienna shook her head.

"I'll do one night."

Judge went still. Kai blinked.

I said, "Seriously?"

She turned to me. "Do you want me to change my mind?"

"No."

Too fast. Her eyebrow lifted.

I corrected myself. "I mean, no. One night is fine."

"Glad I have your approval."

There she was again. Sharp. Mean. Familiar. It should've made me happy. Instead, I realized how badly I had wanted proof that some part of the girl I knew was still there. That wasn't fair. She didn't owe me thirteen-year-old Sienna. She definitely didn't owe me the version from before we fucked everything up. We transferred the bags into the rental SUV because Kai had confirmed it clean. Sienna inspected the back seat herself. Checked the handles. Checked the child lock. Checked the floor. I pretended not to notice. Then she looked straight at me.

"If you say one word about me being paranoid, I'm taking your bike."

I laughed. A real one this time.

"You still can't ride."

"Who says?"

That stopped me.

"You can ride?"

She smiled. Not warm. Not soft. A challenge.

"Guess there are a lot of things you don't know about me anymore."

She got into the SUV. That one hurt. Probably deserved it. Judge drove this time. Kai took front passenger.

I sat in the back beside Sienna, with Butter's carrier between us like a tiny furry border patrol. For the first twenty minutes, nobody talked. Sienna watched the road. I watched her when she wasn't looking. There was a pale line near one wrist. Another small scar along the edge of her hand. Nothing dramatic. Nothing I could ask about without being told to fuck off. So I didn't. That was new for me too. At one point, Butter shoved a paw through the carrier door. Sienna slipped a finger through and rubbed his paw. I remembered her doing that with my hand when we were kids. Any time I got hurt, Sienna acted like she was the doctor and I was dying.

Once I scraped my knuckles on pavement and she made me sit still for twenty minutes while she cleaned them.

Then, two years later, I had watched her walk past us at school and said something cruel enough to make her eyes fill. I had told myself she deserved it. I couldn't remember the exact words anymore. I remembered her face. That was worse.

"You keep staring at me," she said.

I looked away. "No, I don't."

"You were never a good liar."

"Neither were you."

Her expression changed. Just a fraction. I immediately knew I'd hit something. Old me would've pushed. I didn't.

"Sorry."

That surprised both of us. Sienna stared at me.

"For what?"

"That."

"What part?"

"The part where I said something without knowing what the hell it means to you now."

She looked out the window again.

After a long silence, she said, "That's new."

"What is?"

"You stopping."

I swallowed.

"Yeah."

She didn't say anything else. But she didn't move farther away either. Small win. I would take it. The first sign for Inferno territory appeared forty minutes later. Sienna saw it. Her whole body changed. Shoulders tight. Hand on Butter's carrier. Eyes fixed forward. Judge noticed in the mirror.

"We can turn around," he said.

Kai looked at him. I did too. Sienna's face stayed blank.

"Can we?"

"Yes."

No hesitation. She looked at the road ahead. Then at the phone in her hand. Then down at Butter.

"One night."

"One night," Judge agreed.

The compound gates came into view. Same black steel. Same flaming demon emblem. Same place that used to be her second home. The gates started opening. Sienna whispered something so quietly I almost missed it.

"I'm not coming home."

Judge heard her too. His hands tightened on the wheel.

"I know."

The SUV rolled forward. And for the first time since we found her, I understood something I should have understood years ago. Finding Sienna was the easy part. Getting her to stay would have to be her choice.

Maddox's P.O.V.

The compound gates closed behind us, and Sienna didn't look back. That bothered me. Not because I expected some dramatic homecoming. I wasn't that stupid. Mostly.

But this place used to be hers almost as much as it was ours. She knew which porch board squeaked

Sienna's P.O.V.

The clubhouse smelled the same. That was the first thing I hated. Leather. Coffee. Beer that had soaked into old wood sometime during the last century. Motor oil carried in on boots. The faint bite of whatever industrial cleaner somebody used on the floors