Page 4 of Colt’s Betrayal

“Cyrus knows he'll come.”

Dad says something I miss. Raze turns slightly. “Kane won't come alone.” My hand tightens around the curtain. Another pause.

“Judge.”

Dad says something. Raze laughs.

“And Colt.”

Everything inside me stops. Dad's voice carries more clearly this time.

“He'll take the same route.”

Raze says something I can't make out, then his next words reach me perfectly.

“Doesn't fucking matter. They won't make it to Cyrus alive anyway.”

The blood drains from my face. One motorcycle engine starts, followed by the other. I stay behind the curtain until they pull away from the curb. I don't know where or when. I don't even know exactly what I heard, but I know what it sounded like and I know one of the names. Colt. I haven't said it aloud in years. I've barely let myself think of him.

I was nineteen the last time I told him I loved him, and nineteen when I told him I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't wait for every late-night phone call to be the one telling me he was dead. Couldn't build a life around a club that terrified me. Couldn't love a man and spend every day wondering whether his patch would be the thing that took him away.

He was twenty-two. He hadn't shouted or told me I was wrong and that almost made it worse. I'd asked if we could still be friends and he'd said yes. But then he'd vanished from my life so completely I spent years telling myself that must mean losing me hadn't hurt him the way losing him hurt me. Before he left, he'd made me one promise.

If I was ever in trouble, I could call him. It didn't matter how long it had been or what time it was. I walk to the kitchen and pick up my phone. My hands aren't shaking, not yet. I open my contacts and scroll. There are some numbers you delete because keeping them hurts, and others you keep because deleting them would hurt worse. Colt. Twelve years.

I stare at his name, then press call.

CHAPTER 2

COLT

“I’m asking once.”

Kane’s voice cuts through the clubhouse without needing to rise. Griz sits opposite him. Judge is beside Kane and Wilder leans against the table with his arms folded, his expression still carrying the kind of hard edge it’s had since we got Lucy back from Perdition. I’m only here because Kane told the patched brothers who were around to stay put.

Nobody’s accusing Griz of anything, but it doesn’t mean the question can be skipped. Not after everything that happened between the clubs. Kane looks at him. “You answer me straight, then we never speak about it again. Did you know what Chains was doing?” Griz doesn’t flinch even a little bit.

“No. I didn't.”

“Did he tell you anything about Perdition? Cyrus? Lucy?”

“Nothing.” His voice is rougher on the last word. “If I’d known he was taking Wilder’s wife through that gate, he wouldn’t have fucking made it through himself.”

Wilder’s jaw flexes, but he doesn’t say anything. Kane studies Griz for another second before nodding. “All right. We’re done.” And that’s it. No speech about loyalty. No asking Griz to prove himself after he already put a gun on the man who’d been his closest brother for most of his life and refused the chance to ride away with him. Kane said he'd ask once and he meant it.

My phone starts vibrating against the table and I pull it toward me without thinking. Then I freeze. A name I haven’t seen light my screen in twelve years is staring back at me. Jayne. Conversation continues around me, but I don't hear any of it. My eyes stay fixed on the name on the screen. The phone vibrates again. I answer before it can ring a third time.

“Jayne?”

Silence. One fucking second of it, maybe less, but I hear her breathing and every year since I last saw her seems to fold in on itself.

“Colt.”

My grip tightens around the phone. Nobody else ever says my name the way she does and it still has the same effect on me after all these years.

“Where are you?”

“I’m at home.”