“Please, just pretend you’re hugging me,” a terrified eight-year-old boy whispered after crashing into me on a rain-soaked Chicago sidewalk and wrapping both arms around my leather vest.

(Word count: ~1,520 words)

The gunshot echoed across the concrete pier, drowned out instantly by the roar of the hovering FBI helicopters overhead.

Richard Sterling gasped, his eyes widening in shock, as his silver pocket pistol clattered harmlessly onto the wet concrete pavement.

He dropped to his knees, clutching his shoulder, blood seeping through his expensive gray overcoat.

Ten feet away, Marcus lowered his sidearm, a thin wisp of smoke curling from the barrel. He had fired a single, surgical shot straight through Sterling’s right shoulder before the coward could pull his trigger.

“Nobody touches my President,” Marcus said coldly, stepping forward and kicking the silver pistol into the murky river water below the dock.

Federal tactical officers descended down ropes from the hovering helicopters, while a dozen marked FBI vehicles and Chicago police squad cars screeched onto the pier, their blue and red lights flashing wildly through the thick fog.

Special Agent Miller—a tall, stern federal investigator in a dark suit—stepped out of the lead vehicle, holding a thick stack of federal arrest warrants.

“Hands on your head, Sterling!” Agent Miller ordered, stepping up to the kneeling corporate mogul and snapping heavy steel handcuffs tightly around his wrists. “Richard Sterling, you are under federal arrest for human trafficking, corporate fraud, grand embezzlement, and first-degree murder in the death of Sarah Whitman.”

Sterling groaned in pain as he was lifted to his feet by two federal agents. His cold, arrogant demeanor was completely shattered. As he was dragged past me toward a waiting squad car, he looked at me with bloodshot, defeated eyes.

“You won’t win, Whitman...” Sterling rasped out through bloody teeth. “You’re just a low-life biker...”

I leaned in close to his ear, my voice cold, steady, and filled with ultimate victory.

“My wife beat you from beyond the grave, Sterling,” I whispered. “And my son is going to grow up free, wearing my name, while you rot in a federal cage for the rest of your miserable life.”

Sterling was shoved roughly into the back of the police cruiser, the heavy door slamming shut behind him.

Agent Miller walked over to me, looking up at the eighty Black Ravens standing tall around their motorcycles. He glanced at Marcus, then at Grizzly, and finally turned his eyes to me.

“Andrew Whitman,” Agent Miller said, adjusting his coat. “The evidence file your contact transmitted to our terminal was extraordinary. Sarah Whitman was a hero. She saved dozens of children before her death.”

“She was the bravest woman I ever knew,” I said softly, looking up at the gray rain falling from the night sky.

“We raided St. Jude’s Annex twenty minutes ago,” Agent Miller added, his tone softening slightly. “The facility has been shut down, the corrupt staff arrested, and all the children are being transferred to safe, state-monitored protective care. Your son, Ethan... his legal custody papers have been processed directly under your name by order of the federal magistrate.”

A massive cheer erupted from eighty bikers behind me. Grizzly slammed his heavy hand onto my back, nearly knocking the breath out of me, while Jax laughed loudly, shaking his fist toward the sky.

“He’s legally yours, Andrew!” Marcus grinned, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. “He’s a Whitman!”

Agent Miller handed me a stamped federal release document. “Go home to your boy, Mr. Whitman. We’ll take care of the rest of these bastards.”

I took the document, my hand trembling slightly as I looked at Ethan’s name printed clearly beside mine under the legal custody section.

I turned to my brothers.

“Ravens!” I called out, my voice booming across the wet pier. “Back to the Clubhouse! We’re bringing my son home!”

Eighty engines roared to life once more, but the menacing edge was gone from their sound. As we rode back through the streets of Chicago, the rain finally stopped falling, and the thick fog began to clear, revealing a bright blanket of stars shining high above the city skyline.