Chapter 9 #2
Kane studied me across the desk then, going quiet in a way that made the whole room shift. I didn’t bother masking my expression. When it came to Saylor, there wasn’t much point. My feelings were probably written all over me in permanent marker.
He finally asked, “Saylor is it for you?”
No pretending the answer needed thought. “Yes.”
It came out of me as clean as a throttle opening on a straightaway, because the truth had settled the second she turned around in The Burnout and every nerve in my body recognized the difference between her and her sister. She was mine.
Kane nodded. “Figured.”
Edge leaned back in his chair, his eyes amused again. “You figured before or after he looked like he was going to gut half of Brake Point because somebody said the wrong thing to her?”
“Before,” Kane clarified. “Which is why I already ordered her vest.”
I stared at him for half a second, then shook my head because I shouldn’t have been surprised. “Thanks.”
Kane shrugged. “Saved time.”
Jax snorted. “That’s Kane’s love language. Preemptive logistics.”
Kane ignored him. “Saylor belongs to a Redline King, which means she has the full backing of the club. Brothers and prospects will keep eyes on her quietly. Nothing that interferes with her work unless it needs to. If you decide she needs more than that, do what’s necessary.”
I already knew I didn’t need permission to protect my woman, but hearing my president put the weight of the club behind her mattered.
The Redline Kings weren’t casual about who we claimed.
Old ladies sure as fuck weren’t left standing alone when trouble came sniffing.
Saylor didn’t know it yet, but when she became mine, she became ours.
“If ‘what’s necessary’ turns into kidnapping her to a safe house, I won’t lose sleep over it,” Kane added. “Seems like a convenient place to start working on getting your woman knocked up.”
Jax looked up from the laptop. “Can we not schedule breeding retreats while I’m operating on six minutes of sleep?”
Edge grinned at him. “You’re just bitter because your newborn is unionizing.”
“My newborn is a terrorist with tiny socks.”
Axle rubbed a hand over his mouth, failing to hide his laugh. “You’re all making safe houses sound like vacation rentals with restraints.”
Shifter’s eyes narrowed slightly at Axle, a smirk playing at the corners of his lips. “That your kink, brother?”
“Need to know,” Axle quipped.
I laughed despite the situation because there were only so many ways a man could stay tense with this group of assholes around him. “I’ll keep the safe house option in mind.”
Kane’s stare cut back to me, his humor fading. “Do.”
I sobered fast. “I don’t think she needs a bodyguard hovering over her every second. She’d notice, and she’d hate it. But I want discreet eyes on her whenever she isn’t at school, here, the clubhouse, or with me.”
“Done,” Kane agreed immediately.
“I’ll set a rotation,” Jax added. “Prospects on loose coverage. Brothers close enough to move if needed. I’ll also put alerts on her car, her apartment, the school perimeter, and any camera that captures her usual routes.
Not invasive enough to piss her off if she finds out, but useful enough that if the Serpents breathe near her, we’ll know. ”
“One more thing.” Kane looked at me, and whatever dark amusement had been there a minute earlier disappeared behind the man who’d built an empire and kept every brother in it alive.
“The rival MC comes first because they’re an active threat.
Once that’s handled, Saylor is family. If she decides she wants Sutton handled, helped, hidden, turned over, or left to rot in whatever mess she made, we’ll do it her way. ”
I held his gaze, my throat tightening with something I wasn’t going to name in front of a room full of men who would never let me hear the end of it.
I hadn’t expected anything less from Kane, but that didn’t mean hearing it didn’t land.
He wasn’t offering mercy to Sutton. He was offering loyalty to Saylor.
That was different, and it meant everything.
“Thanks.”
Kane nodded, accepting my gratitude without making a thing of it. “You’d do the same.”
“Yeah.”
Edge rose from the chair, stretching his shoulders as if the meeting had been casual instead of a line drawn around my woman. “Good. Now that we’ve agreed Century’s going to impregnate a teacher in a secure location, can we go back to ruining the Serpents’ week?”
Jax closed his laptop. “Month. Week feels small.”
Axle opened the door. “Year has a nice ring to it.”
I followed them out, my mouth curving despite the heat still burning under my ribs. “You assholes done?”
“Not even close,” Edge replied over his shoulder. “But we’re pacing ourselves. Family men now. Need to protect our energy.”
Kane gave him a look. “You’ve never protected anything you didn’t intend to sharpen.”
“Exactly. Energy’s a weapon.”
I shook my head and let them file out ahead of me, the weight of the meeting settling into me as I returned to my custom bay.
There was still a threat breathing too close to Saylor, a missing twin with a gift for creating disasters, and a rival MC dumb enough to think the Kings could be studied from the outside and exploited.
But now the club was moving. The Diesel Serpents had no idea what they’d stepped into when they cornered Saylor. They thought they were chasing intel. They were about to learn they’d touched the edge of something a lot sharper.