Her First Ride, His Last Lie

Junie Barrow has been saving herself for a man who stood her up at prom, and she's humiliated by how little she's changed. When Coy Vega rolls back into Beaumont with the Iron Serpents and her uncle's scrapyard as his new base of operations, Junie swears she won't look at him twice. She lasts one night ride. Then one diner shift. Then one trailer bed, where she finally gives him the only thing she's held back for twenty-four years. Six hours later her phone lights up with a photo of Coy in a supply closet with the club's newest dancer. Junie drives to Savannah in her uncle's truck and doesn't look back. Three weeks later Coy walks into her bar with his cut off, asking for a chance to explain — and he's willing to work for it. Six weeks of hard labor, a signed lease, Tuesdays outside her class. He tells her the truth. She believes him. And then Junie does the thing neither of them expected: she still leaves. Because broken trust doesn't heal just because the man was innocent.