Page 8 of Colt’s Betrayal

“I said no.”

Kane’s gaze moves between us. “Let her finish.” I look at him. “You don’t know what she’s about to suggest.”

“I think I do.”

Of course he fucking does. Jayne folds her arms. “Raze wants me to have a drink with him. One drink. It can be somewhere public.”

“Still no.”

This time Kane ignores me. Jayne continues. “He already thinks getting me interested would prove something about Colt, about this club. If I let him think I’m curious about Perdition, or about whether they’re really as dangerous as he says, he might tell me enough to fill in what I missed.”

“Absolutely fucking not.”

Her eyes snap to mine.

“I wasn’t asking you, Colt.”

That gets a couple of looks. Wrong answer, sweetheart, but also exactly the answer I should have expected from Jayne. Kane straightens. “It's a nice idea, but I’m not sending a civilian into anything.”

“I’m volunteering.”

“There’s a difference between volunteering and understanding the risk.”

“I understand Raze better now than I did this morning.”

“So do I,” I say. “Which is why you’re not sitting across a table from him.”

Jayne turns fully toward me. I can see the argument coming and don’t intend to have it in front of half my club. Kane apparently agrees.

“Jayne, give us a few minutes.”

Her mouth tightens and not because she thinks she belongs in whatever comes next. She grew up around enough MC rules to know better. She looks at me once before walking outside and the door shuts behind her. Wilder speaks first.

“You’ve lost your fucking mind if you’re trusting her.”

I turn on him.

“Careful.”

“No. You be fucking careful.” He takes a step closer. “Chains wore our patch when he took Lucy out of that gate.”

“I know what he did.”

“Do you? Because his daughter walks in here and you’re acting like it means nothing.”

“She came here to warn us.”

Judge cuts in before I answer harder than I should. “And that matters. It isn’t the same thing as proof that every part of this is straight. But we have to listen.” I look at Kane. He’s watching me rather than Jayne through the window.

“You think she’s working with Chains?”

“I think you think she isn’t.”

“That’s not an answer, Prez.”

“It’s the one you need.”

I feel my temper climbing and then Griz speaks from behind me.