They came back at 3:17 AM.
I know the time because I'd been staring at the clock on the medical room wall for four hours, and by the end I could have drawn every c***k in its plastic face from memory. The sound of five engines cut through the silence like a blade through skin — one moment nothing, the next moment everything.
I was at the door before the first bike killed its engine.
Kael dismounted first. His shirt was dark with something that wasn't sweat. Tank followed, moving slower than usual, his left arm held at an angle that said pain. Wolf's grin was gone — replaced by something younger, rawer, the face of a man who'd seen something he wasn't old enough to process. Jax came last, and he was the only one who looked exactly the same as when he'd left. Maybe a little more relaxed.
