Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 37846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
He was behind his custom, hand-carved, solid walnut desk, arms folded, eyes sharp enough to make weaker men sweat.
“Interrupting?” I asked.
“Only Edge’s story about how he once scared a raccoon to death,” Kane replied, voice dry.
Edge didn’t even blink. “Wasn’t scared. Heart attack. Difference.” He spun the blade between his fingers and grinned, sharp and white. “Thing took one look at me and cashed out. Efficient.”
My expression didn’t change as I stepped in and shut the door behind me.
Kane’s eyes zeroed in on me—steady and unblinking. “Nitro. What’s on your mind?”
“Jax found something on Jana.”
That got both their attention. Kane’s brow arched, and Edge’s knife paused mid-flip. I explained about Jax running the background check, and the alias being clean, but the breadcrumb trail led straight to the Broken Skulls. Jana’s father. Her half brother. The distance, the lack of contact, but the concealment all the same. I added no filler and gave no excuses. Just the facts.
Silence stretched for a beat too long. Then Edge let out a low whistle, slow and mocking. “That’s a hell of a skeleton to drag into our garage.”
Kane’s eyes didn’t move off me. “How long have you known?”
“Just now,” I answered, steady. “Jax came to me first.”
“And you’re standing here instead of telling her to pack her shit.” Kane’s voice wasn’t accusing. It was testing.
“Because I don’t think she’s with them,” I growled. “Think she’s running from them. The way she flinches, the way she avoids MC men like they’re poison—doesn’t look like loyalty. Looks like survival.”
Edge flicked the knife shut and pointed it at me. “Would explain why she’s so skittish…if it’s not because she’s feeling guilty for hiding shit.” He smirked. “Also why she looks at you like you might bite but half wants you to?” Then his expression sobered, his eyes going hard. “Question is, Nitro, you hiding her from us or you hiding us from her?”
I shot him a look sharp enough to cut steel. “Neither. I’m trying to give her a chance to breathe before this blows up in her face.”
“And if you’re wrong?” Kane’s question cut deep, not cruel but merciless. He couldn’t afford compassion, not with club business.
I didn’t flinch, though the words lit a fuse in my gut. “Then I’ll handle it.”
Edge arched a brow. “If she’s not running? If she’s working an angle?”
My jaw clenched. I didn’t want to picture it, but I forced myself to. “I said, I’ll handle it.”
Edge’s mouth curved in that crooked line of his. “Handle it, huh? You planning to string her up yourself if she turns out dirty?”
“Don’t think I’ll have to,” I grunted. “My gut says this is why she’s so slow to trust anyone. Why does she keep herself locked down? She’s been burned by MC blood before.”
Kane leaned back in his chair, studying me. His green eyes were calm, calculating, weighing more than my words—my conviction, my edge, maybe even the pulse pounding at my throat. “You want time.”
“Yes. She’s softening. Slowly. If I push, she’ll panic.”
Kane’s voice was rough. “You're asking me to sit on Broken Skulls intel? That’s not a light ask, Nitro.”
I braced my hands on the back of the empty chair opposite Edge. “Not saying bury it. I’m saying hold it for two days. Let me see if she trusts me enough to come clean on her own. I want it to be her choice, not a corner we forced her into.” My fingers clenched. “If she’s running from them, forcing it might send her straight back into the dark. And I’m not losing her to those bastards.”
Kane’s silence was heavier than a gavel. “And if she’s concealing for another reason?”
I didn’t have an answer that would make sense to them. The truth was brutal in its simplicity—I wasn’t letting her go. Not even if her past came wrapped in Skull colors. My silence stretched too long.
Kane saw it. He always did.
His gaze sharpened. “This isn’t just personal shit, Nitro. Broken Skulls makes its club business the second their name’s in the mix.”
“I know,” I admitted, my throat tight. “But I’m telling you, this is different. Give me two days. If she doesn’t talk, I’ll lay it out myself.”
Edge smirked. “You hear that, Kane? Our boy here’s volunteering to take a Broken Skull-shaped bullet for his new flame.”
Kane shot a look at Edge that clearly told him to shut the fuck up. To me, he asked, “You trust your gut?”
“Always.”
He studied me with that leader’s patience that had made men twice my size fold. “You tell me this is serious—the kind of serious where I order a vest the second you walk out of this office—then I’ll give you two days.”
I didn’t blink. “Make the call.”
Edge let out a rough laugh. “Shit! Didn’t even hesitate. Thought he might at least pretend he wasn’t balls deep already.”