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)
The hum of voices cut when I entered.
“About time,” Edge drawled, taking a knife from his pocket and spinning it lazily in his fingers. “We placed bets on whether you’d show or send flowers and an apology note.”
“Shut up,” Raze muttered, though the corner of his mouth kicked up.
“Maybe he stopped to braid Jana’s hair,” Drift added with a smirk.
I ignored them, shut the door, and crossed my arms over my chest, taking my usual spot leaning against the wall. Granite. That’s what I wanted to project. I was unshakable.
“Take a seat or don’t.” Kane cut the air with a voice that never needed volume to command attention. “Let’s get to it.” Then his gaze locked on me. “Nitro.”
“It’s about Jana.” I didn’t bother with a warm-up. The room sharpened immediately, attention snapping my way. I decided not to beat around the bush. “Her old man’s Broken Skulls. Her brother, too. She cut both off. Years ago.” I used the shocked silence to give them a bare-bones summary of what Jana had told me this morning. They didn’t need the whole damn story.
When I finished, a ripple went through the room—quiet curses and a scrape of chair legs. Fury’s jaw flexed, and Piston’s knuckles cracked one at a time, a metronome for temper. Tyre swore softly in Spanish and went silent again. Wrench stared at a knot in the table, tracing the lines like it would lower his blood pressure.
“Fuckin’ Skulls,” Piston muttered. “After everything those bastards pulled with Kane’s races, we’re just letting one of theirs waltz in here?”
Jax, perched on an armrest with a tablet balanced on denim, spoke before I could respond. “I can confirm she hasn’t had contact with either of them in over a year. Even longer for her father. Her phone, her bank, her socials—they’re clean. There’s no traffic to them. Period. No burner mentions, no coded yapping, no money moving funny. Whatever ties existed, she cut ’em.”
“Does that make you sleep better?” Fury shot back, gaze on me, not Jax. “Because it doesn’t touch the name on her blood.”
Edge let the knife clap shut and pointed it at him like punctuation. “You got skulls rattling around in your head, brother? Or you forget how family gets made in this room? Blood gave us problems. Choice fixed ’em.”
“Fury’s not wrong to be pissed,” Raze put in, voice rougher than usual. “Skulls have taken shots at us before. It’s not paranoia if the bastards really are that dirty.”
“And none of that is on her.” Axle’s voice was calm and steady, the kind of cool water that put out certain fires and boiled others. “She’s here to race. She’s earning. That’s the metric.”
“You sure you’re not letting your dick make policy?” Piston asked me, his tone light, but it was clear he wasn’t entirely joking.
“You asking if I’d throw her to the curb if she was dirty?” I stared at him until the question died. “I’d handle it. But she isn’t.”
Gauge finally shifted, stepping off the wall, voice even. “I’ve been listening. Watching her. She’s here for speed, not for the Skulls. Only one question matters—” His dark eyes met mine. “Is she Redline family?”
“Yes.” I didn’t hesitate.
Gauge nodded once. “Then that’s good enough for me.”
Kane’s eyes cut around the room. “Blood doesn’t make a family. You all know that. Every single man in this room is here because of choice, not accident. Anyone who wants to pretend otherwise can hand me their patch right now.”
Silence.
Edge smirked, but his voice was pure steel. “And if I hear one of you so much as breathe sideways at her over this, Nitro’ll beat your ass black and blue. And then Kane will decide whether you’re worth the leather you wear.”
That quiet held again, thicker and heavier.
Then Blitz, the club secretary, flicked his pen closed. “The ledger’s settled.”
Subject changed. Moving on.
Tyre, our treasurer, tapped the table. “The budget for new shocks is still a mess, but that’s a fight for later.”
Kane leaned back, decision settling in his bones. “We’re done. Keep your heads on a swivel. If the Skulls sniff around for any reason, I want eyes up and hands ready. If they find out about Jana’s connection to us, they might decide to try to use her. I don’t want her dragged into the middle of shit she has nothing to do with. Drift, you coordinate tails if we need ’em fast.”
Drift tipped two fingers. “Copy.”
“Dismissed,” Kane finished, and the room stood as one, chairs scraping and boots beating a steady exit.
Edge caught my arm as I turned, voice pitched low enough to be private. “You break, you tell us before the pieces hit the floor.”
I snorted. “I’m not the one who breaks.”
“Fair,” he conceded, mouth twitching. “Just remember—if you need to put a hole in a man, I call first shot.”