The MC President's Forsaken Wife (Zara and Knox) novel Chapter 176

Chapter 96-1

Time moves differently when you’re waiting for a bullet to tear your world apart.

It doesn’t flow; it drips, agonizingly slow, like cold honey from a spoon.

By two-thirty in the morning, the initial high of tequila and defensive bravado has evaporated, leaving behind a hollow, vibrating ache right in the center of my chest.

Growing up without a mother, and two family members in the Grinning Skulls MC, meant that I learned the unspoken language of this life very early on. I knew it long before Dad ever took over as President.

I knew the specific, suffocating heavy quiet that fell over the house whenever Dad and Mayhem rode out on a high-stakes club run.

I knew what it meant when the living room blinds were drawn before dusk, or when the landline was left off the hook. But back then, I was the baby girl. Dad and Mayhem built an invisible, impenetrable wall around me.

They spared me the grisly details, kissed my forehead, told me they were just “taking care of business,” and kept the blood completely off my shoes.

Now, sitting in the penthouse, that protective veil is entirely gone. I know exactly what kind of violence is waiting for them on Route 9.

The penthouse is silent except for the low, rhythmic hum of the air filtration system and the distant, muted patter of a cold winter sleet against the floor-to-ceiling glass. On the marble kitchen island, the security tablet sits between Jade and me, its dark screen illuminated by three live, crystal-clear camera grids outside the apartment.

Grid one shows the lobby downstairs, where two massive, broad-shouldered Grinning Skulls prospects sit in the leather armchairs near the main entrance, their arms crossed, dark eyes fixed on the street through the glass doors.

Grid two shows the private elevator at the garage level, locked in red standby light.

Grid three shows the roof deck, where a patched brother in a heavy waterproof coat paces the wet

perimeter.

“If you stare at that screen any harder,” Jade says softly, setting her empty glass down on a coaster. You’re going to burn a hole right through the glass.”

I tear my eyes away from the tablet, pulling a quiet, shuddering breath into my lungs. “I keep expecting my phone to buzz. Locke said he’d text the second they made perimeter contact.”

“He won’t text until they’re clear,” Jade reminds me. “Signals can be intercepted on open frequencies, Zara If Knox has scanning equipment on that ridge, a single cellular ping could give away their position. Locke knows what he’s doing. So do Cobra and Mayhem.”

“I know,” I say, wrapping my hands around my mug of warm herbal tea. I abandoned the tequila an hour ago, needing a clear head, though my stomach is still twisted in knots. “I used to sit on the stairs at the old house when I was ten years old, watching the front door until dawn. Dad thought I was fast asleep.

Chapter 96

Back then, I didn’t know anything, but I knew enough to be worried.”

“Ignorance is a luxury none of us get to keep,” Jade says gently. “Damn shame, really.”

Claim

She stands up, her leather boots making soft, deliberate thuds against the hardwood floor as she walks around the island. She grabs my hand, tugging until I stand up with her.

She leads me away from the kitchen, over to the expansive, deep-cushioned sectional sofa in the living room. From here, we can see the dark skyline of the city through the massive windows, the distant city lights glowing like dying embers through the sleet.

For thirty minutes, we try every available simple, mindless distraction.

Jade turns on the big screen TV, flipping through late-night reality shows, obscure cooking competitions, and old movies, but neither of us can focus on the glowing screen for more than ten seconds at a time. Every small creak of the building frame, every rustle of wind against the high glass windows makes our shoulders jump.

Finally, Jade picks up the remote and clicks the screen off, plunging the living room back into the soft, dim ambiance of the city lights outside.

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