Silence. No one wanted to throw another brother into the fire.
I slammed my palm against the table. “Then it’s Keno. All in favour?”
Hands rose, one after another, steady as a tide. Majority ruled.
“Done,” I said. “Keno, you carry the Enforcer’s weight now. You fuck it up, you end up where Gage is.”
Keno’s face was stone, but his eyes burned. He nodded once, sharp, and pulled Gage’s chair towards him like it had been waiting all along.
I brought the gavel down hard. “Church adjourned.”
Chapter 32
Lucy
From the bar I’d watched them, shoulders bent under the weight of hammers and grief. Boxer should’ve been there, cursing louder than anyone as he swung a hammer. Instead, the space he left felt louder than the noise of drills and nails. They didn’t talk about Boxer, didn’t curse the Fangs, didn’t even look at me. They rebuilt, fast and furious, like every nail driven into the wood was a promise that the Dead Knights would not fall.
In that moment, I understood that the place wasn’t simply walls and locks. It was blood, bone, and loyalty stitched together. If it burned, they’d burn with it.
Jay had stormed into church, leaving me outside. Even from the bar, I could hear the chants, louder than the jukebox, echoing through the walls like thunder. The clubhouse buzzed behind me with low voices, the weight of decisions still hanging heavy in the air. In the bathroom, I splashed cold water on my face, but it did nothing to ease the heat inside.
Out on the porch, the night swallowed the noise. Cold seeped through my jacket, sharp and steady. Jay was already there, sitting on the creaky wooden bench like he carried the wholegoddamn world on his shoulders. I hesitated before stepping closer, fingers curling around the edge of the bench.
He looked up as I settled beside him, eyes dark and tired.
“I guess the club made its choice,” Jay finally said.
“For Boxer, for Diesel, for Caleb,” I whispered. “For you.”
Jay exhaled slowly. “Doesn’t make it easier.”
I shifted closer, letting the chill fall away where we met.
“It never does,” I said.
The quiet between us was strange, a calm after chaos that felt almost sacred. I reached out, letting my hand find his.
“Do you ever wonder what Caleb would say if he were still here?” I asked, barely more than a breath.
Jay squeezed my hand. “He’d tell us to stop carrying him like a weight that’ll break us. To fight smart, to keep the family alive.”
I swallowed hard. “And if we don’t?”
Jay’s eyes found mine, raw and real. “Then we lose more than just this club.”
Fear settled between us, thick and undeniable. But there was something else, too, fierce and unspoken.
He tilted his head towards mine. A thousand thoughts raced through my head, but the moment his lips brushed mine, every one of them vanished.
Jay’s tongue traced the seam of my lips, and when I parted them, he deepened the kiss, never breaking contact as he hauled me into his lap. He kissed me until I was breathless, until I had to pull back just to remember how to breathe. Our foreheads met in a quiet touch, a shared promise against the dark.
“No matter what’s coming,” he said, “we face it together.”
A small smile tugged at my lips, tired but true. “We’re not done yet.”
Beneath the bruised sky, I believed we might make it through.
Jay’s body was warm against mine, a tether in the dark that kept me grounded. The stars above felt cold and distant, but right there, on the porch, I felt something fragile, hope.
