Chapter 53. Smoke in the Bones

Engines sat dead where they’d been dropped, tanks hissing faint, metal hot to the touch. A few riders limped between piles of wreckage, shirts tied around arms or heads, muttering curses that didn’t carry far. Nobody raised their voice tonight. The fight had taken it out of them.

Riven sat on the hood of a wrecked car with her jacket peeled halfway off, fabric stiff with soot. Her palms throbbed beneath fresh layers of gauze, fingertips still tacky where the blood had bled through. Every breath stung, smoke lingering in her lungs.

Axel stood near the fence, hood low, one hand pressed against his ribs where a bruise was spreading deep purple under the leather. His pipe leaned against the wall behind him, dented from the fight. His eyes kept drifting toward Riven, then away again, like he wasn’t ready to close the distance.

Riven finally slid off the hood. Her boots crunched gravel as she crossed to the shed, crouching beside the papers.

Kenzie blew smoke out s