Page 7 of Colt’s Betrayal

“Yes.”

Her face changes. Barely, but I still see it. Jayne spent half her childhood behind those gates and most of her adult life making sure she never went back through them.

“Kane needs to hear it from you.”

“Does he, though?”

“Yes.”

She studies me for a second before looking at my bike.

“I’ll follow in my car.”

“You remember the way?”

Her eyes meet mine. “I remember everything about that place.”

The gates open before I reach them. Jayne’s car follows my bike onto the compound, and I feel the shift before I even kill the engine. Men notice and of course they fucking do. Chains’s daughter just drove through the gate days after Chains used thirty years of trust to take Wilder's wife Lucy out of it. Jayne gets out of the car just as Griz is crossing from the garage toward the clubhouse.

He stops and so does she. For a second I’m looking at something that existed long before me. Her face softens despite everything.

“Uncle Griz.”

Griz has known her since she was born. I remember Griz throwing her over his shoulder when she was ten because she stole his pack of cigarettes and refused to give them back, and her sitting beside him at cookouts, eating off his plate while he complained and kept moving the food closer anyway. She was like a daughter to him too.

He looks at her now like he doesn’t know what to do with those memories.

“Jayne.” That’s all he says, but she hears the difference and I see it land before she hides it.

Wilder comes out behind him. Whatever softness Jayne had left disappears. He doesn’t say hello and after what happened with Lucy, I can’t even blame him.

“Inside,” I tell her.

Kane and Judge meet us in the clubhouse. Wilder follows. Griz comes in last. Jayne tells the story again like she told me. Kane doesn’t interrupt until she gets to the call.

“Exact words you heard.”

She gives them. Judge asks what Chains said before Raze mentioned the route. Wilder wants to know whether they saw her at the window.

“No. I stayed behind the curtain.”

Kane leans back in his chair.

“You think Raze believes you’re interested?”

“No.”

That answer surprises me and Jayne sees it.

“He knows I’m not interested. He just doesn’t think that matters.”

Wilder’s expression darkens and mine probably does too. Then Jayne says, “But he wants me to be.” I look at her and she takes a breath. “He wants to impress me. Especially where Colt’s concerned. He thinks he's so much better.”

“No.”

She hasn’t even said it yet and I know where she's going with this.

“Colt—”