Chapter Twenty-Three

Fallon

Yarder slammed his fist onto the table with a deafening thud. “Are you fucking kidding me?” he roared, his face twisted in fury. “You had his fucking phone number, and you didn’t goddamn tell me?”

I shrank back slightly and instinctively tightened my grip on Compass’s hand. Yarder’s voice was booming and filled with the anger he had a right to feel. Russ could be in serious trouble, and here we were, scrambling with scraps of information we should have given when we first got it.

The crazy thing was that Compass, despite everything, was taking the blame for it all. He hadn’t thrown me under the bus. Not once. He said he knew the moment Russ told us to stay quiet, and he kept it from the club because Russ had asked us to.

If I hadn’t already loved the man by now, I sure as hell did in that moment.

“Why the hell am I the President of this club?” Yarder’s voice cracked with frustration. “None of you fuckers listen to a damn thing I say. You do whatever you want, and I’m just supposed to clean up your messes.” He ran a hand over his face and collapsed back into his chair with a sigh.

“We didn’t have a choice,” Compass said, his voice calm but firm. “Russ told us not to call before we did. He didn’t want the club to get any more mixed up in this than we already are.”

Yarder shot up again and slammed his fist down on the table. “We’re up to our fucking eyeballs in this shit, Compass! It don’t get much deeper than that!” He threw his arms in the air and paced. “And now Russ might be fucking dead, and all you two can tell me is ‘look out for O’Hara.’”

“That’s more than we had before,” Aero pointed out, trying to cool the fire a little.

“We could’ve had a whole lot more if we’d done something with that phone number,” Yarder spat. “We could’ve called the fucking thing and traced it. Instead, we did nothing!” He ran his hands through his hair. “I cannot believe this fucking shit. We could have had Russ in our fucking hands, and we didn’t do it.” He slammed his hand down on the table again, making everyone flinch. “We didn’t do the fucking thing we should’ve.”

“The name means something,” I finally said. “I can help figure out who it is.”

Yarder turned his piercing gaze on me, and for a moment, I thought he was going to rip me apart with just a look. “You can bet your ass you’re going to help figure out who the hell it is,” he barked. “Use every last one of your brain cells, and think of every person Russ has ever spoken to. I want a fucking list of people we can talk to by the end of the week. We’re not going to fuck around anymore.” He stood, eyes still burning with fury. “And if Russ so much as calls and hangs up right away, I want to be the first fucking person to know.” His glare was now locked onto me. “You fucking got me?”

I nodded, not daring to look away. “I got it. You’ll know everything.”

Yarder huffed, letting out a final, frustrated sigh before storming out of the room. The door slammed behind him with a force that echoed through the silence of the clubhouse.

Everyone else was quiet. The guys seemed unsure of what to say or how to feel. I couldn’t tell if they were all as pissed off as Yarder had been or if they just didn’t know how to process the mess we were in.

“Let us have it,” Compass sighed. “Get it out of the way.”

Throttle, ever the level-headed one, shrugged. “I mean, I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing.”

“We all would have done the same thing. Yarder included,” Smoke added with a shrug. “We at least have a name now, though. That’s something.”

The others agreed. They weren’t mad. They were just trying to make sense of the situation. They knew that Compass and I had done what we thought was right, and though Yarder was pissed, they didn’t blame us. Not really.

The tension in the room started to loosen as everyone filed out. It was clear that they all wanted to move past this and get back to what needed to be done.

When the room was finally empty, it was just me and Compass left. The door creaked as it swung closed behind the others, and we were alone. The silence between us felt different now. It wasn’t the tense quiet from before; it was more... comfortable, almost like we could finally breathe again.

“Did that go better than you thought it was going to?” I asked.

Compass took my hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it. His eyes softened as he looked at me. “We’re both still breathing, so I think it went good,” he said with a crooked grin.

I giggled softly, and he chuckled, shaking his head.

“Babe,” Compass muttered. “You gotta stop giggling when shit is serious.”

I slid out of my chair and moved to sit on his lap. He stiffened slightly but then relaxed as I snuggled close.

“If Yarder walks back in here and sees us like this, we’ll be dead,” Compass warned, his voice low and a little rough.

I sighed and rested my head on his shoulder. “I mean, I don’t think we can get on his shit list anymore, right?”

Compass pressed a soft kiss to my temple. “You’re probably right,” he murmured and pulled me closer.

“Thank you for covering for me,” I whispered, my voice small as I looked up at him.

He squeezed me tighter, and his voice was strong as he spoke. “I wasn’t going to toss you to the dogs, babe. I’ll always take the brunt of the hit.”

I closed my eyes, letting his words settle in my heart. “Just like my dream,” I whispered softly, my breath catching in my throat. “Thank you, Compass.”

“Anytime, babe. Anything for you.”