She looked around, imagining awful men hiding in the bushes. Thinking back to last night, she said, “There was a third guy with them last night. Remember?”

“I’m tracking him down.”

“How? You haven’t left my side.”

The muscles in his jaw bunched. He didn’t respond as he guided her up the walkway.

Bullet fell into step beside them. “You okay, Trace?”

She nodded, although she was holding herself together with Scotch tape.

Diesel took her keys and opened the door. “Stay here.”

Bullet stayed with her on the porch as Diesel checked out the house. It was like they had been doing this type of thing forever, and she was pretty sure they had.

“Do you think they’re going to send someone after me? Diesel said he’s tracking down their friend from last night, but he’s been with me this whole time. Did he say that just to make me feel better?” Granted, she’d been too rattled to pay attention to Diesel’s conversations with Booker, Biggs, Bullet, and the rest of them, but still. Tracking someone down seemed like a big job when you have no clue who that someone was.

Bullet shook his head. “Diesel doesn’t waste his breath. He gave directives; the brotherhood is carrying them out.”

“You sound like the mafia.”

Diesel appeared in the doorway and nodded to Bullet as he came to Tracey’s side.

Bullet turned to walk away, and Tracey touched his hand, stopping him. “Thank you. Please tell the others I appreciate their help. I feel bad keeping you guys from your families.”

“You are our family,” Bullet said, and headed down the walk.

Those emotions she’d been holding back lodged in her throat as she and Diesel went inside. He locked the door behind them, taking up the entire entranceway, making the house seem even smaller. Tracey didn’t know what to do with herself as he followed her into the living room, and she noticed he’d closed all the curtains. She thought she’d feel safer there, but after what Diesel had said about those guys possibly watching her before last night, with the curtains drawn like she was in a safe house, she felt like a victim, and she hated that feeling.

“You don’t have to stay. With all those guys out there, I’ll be fine.” As soon as the words left her lips, she wanted to take them back. The second she’d seen him in the darkness, she’d known those men couldn’t hurt her anymore. She’d never felt safer than she had in his arms, but that brought more confusing feelings, and it pissed her off that she’d needed saving at all.

He crossed his arms, stepping closer. “I’m not going anywhere, baby girl.”