Elysia waved her hand. “It’s fine, Lilah. I wondered the same about you.”

Elysia sighed and focused on the sunrise, as did I. “Something happened to me years ago, when I was seventeen, that put me in danger. I’ve been living here ever since.”

“I am sorry to hear that,” I said sincerely. I could tell by the expression on her pretty face that whatever it was still played on her mind.

“Thank you,” Elysia replied quietly.

“Why do you not go to the compound?” I asked.

Elysia looked over to me and said, “Ky and I had different upbringings. I’m kinda separate to that life. Hell, no one knows about me but Styx.”

“Tell me. Please…” I asked, desperate to know about Ky’s past and Sia looked out unto the dawn.

“Our mother broke it off with our father when she’d just found out she was pregnant with me. None of the other brothers knew. She was sick of getting cheated on, of our father’s unfaithfulness with an endless string of club sluts, so one day she up and left. But my father found out she was leaving and wouldn’t let her take his son. He said Ky needed to be brought up around the club. Said Ky needed to eat, sleep, and breathe the life of a Hangman.

“My mother moved us out of town, not too far from here, and nine months later, she had me. My father agreed to let my mom keep me, but away from the club. The Hangmen were always at war with someone it seemed, and he wanted to keep us safe. That meant not telling anyone of our existence. Ky knew, of course, and would come over when our father went on runs, but as time passed, I saw less and less of my big brother. He was getting in deeper and deeper with the club. Same ol’ same.”

Elysia dropped her head and I held my breath, knowing whatever she would say next was going to be hard to hear. “Anyway, my mother got sick of not seeing her son and one day, when I was still only a toddler, left me with a friend so she could confront my father. But an old prison enemy and gang rival of my father’s was waiting outside, and when she came to the gate, he fired a shot. It hit my mother and she was immediately killed.

“That man was a Diablo, a biker rival, and it seemed for years after, the two clubs were at war. I was brought up away from the club with an aunt across town, and Ky would come and visit me again, becoming the brother I always dreamed of.”

Elysia sat forward and pressed her fingers to her temples. “Something bad happened to me a while back. I was in a relationship with a guy and… I’m sorry, but I can’t talk about it.”

“Please, don’t apologize,” I replied. “I know how that feels.”

Elysia cast me a grateful smile and said, “Anyway, Ky and Styx helped get me back without involving any of the Hangmen. But I was in a bad way and some dangerous people were still looking for me… still are looking for me.”

My eyes widened and I drew in a breath. Elysia noticed and gestured to the ranch. “Ky bought me this ranch, where no one would find me, and I’ve been here ever since.”

“And your father?” I asked.

Elysia shrugged. “Him and the old prez, Styx’s dad, were killed last year in yet another Diablo war. In a way, their deaths, along with that of the Diablo prez and VP, produced a truce among the new officers of the clubs.” Elysia sat back in her chair and began rocking. “There’s only me and Ky now. He has the club; I have this place, rearing horses and running my ranch in solitude.”

I rocked in my seat, reeling from what Elysia had told me. Poor Ky and poor Elysia, coping with so much loss.

“My father, Ky’s father, wasn’t a great man, Lilah,” Elysia abruptly said, casting a glance back inside the cabin, I supposed checking Ky was not nearby.

Happy everything was quiet, she added, “He brought Ky up in the outlaw life and filled his head full of ‘ideals’ that were stupid. The biggest one being that women were nothing more than holes to be fucked.”

I gasped at the crudity and Elysia cringed in agreement. “Fucked up, ain’t it? But that was Big Poppa Willis. Pussies are to be licked good and fucked hard—never worshipped, and I’m afraid to say it, but Ky has lived exactly that life. I thought he was still living that life…” Elysia leaned over and touched my hand, my eyes staring into hers. “Until he brought you here yesterday, and I see how entranced he is by you.”

My stomach flipped at what Elysia was saying.

“You’re different for him, and I’m so fuckin’ happy about that.”

“You are?”

“Yeah, darlin’, I am. Ky has this ‘live life to the full’ attitude, but I knew he wasn’t always gonna stay that way. In outlaw life, without a good woman by your side, you become jaded, bitter, and in the end, fuckin’ miserable or dead. I never wanted that for my brother. But I worried he wasn’t ever gonna settle down.” Elysia freed my hand and commenced rocking once again. “This morning was the first morning I woke up and didn’t feel that immediate sense of dread wondering if he was okay.” She threw me a smile. “That’s because I know he now has you.”

Warmth spread through my body and I could feel my face blush. “And who do you have?” I tentatively asked.

Elysia lost her smile. “No one yet, and maybe no one for a while, but one day, I hope to have a man that loves me, protects me. Makes me feel safe.” As Elysia said each of those words, love, protect, and safe, Ky immediately came to mind.