3. Jayne #2
The pressure builds until I stop being able to think about anything beyond him.
When I come, I bury my face against his neck and bite down on the sound.
Colt swears, thrusts hard twice more and follows me.
For a while neither of us moves. His weight settles carefully rather than completely, one forearm braced beside my head. I stare at the ceiling.
“Well.”
He turns his head.
“Well?”
“I didn't prepare an opening line for this either.”
His laugh vibrates against my chest and it feels absurdly good. Then he kisses my shoulder and pushes himself up. I look at the clock on the nightstand and reality returns with all the subtlety of a slap.
“Shit, I have to leave in five minutes.”
His expression immediately darkens. “I've changed my mind.” I laugh at him. “You never agreed in the first place. Remember?”
“Exactly.”
I sit up and reach for my clothes, but he catches my hand.
“Jayne.”
I look at him.
“I mean it. If you walk in there and anything feels wrong, you leave. You don't owe Kane, the club or me anything. Raze gets one chance to run his mouth. That's it.”
“I know.”
I pull my hand free gently. “Colt, I know.” He nods. I dress while he does the same, and neither of us talks about what happens after tonight. Maybe because we don't know and maybe because twelve years is too much to fix between sex and a meeting with a man who wants to kill him.
At the door, Colt puts his cut back on and the sight of it should remind me why I left.
It does, and that's the problem. I still remember every reason and I also remember what twelve years without him felt like.
He catches me looking, but I turn away before he can ask. I don't have an answer for him yet.
Raze chooses a bar on the edge of Ransom where nobody will care about motorcycle cuts as long as the men wearing them pay for their drinks.
I arrive first. Colt told me he'd be close, and I believe him without needing to know exactly where.
Raze walks in five minutes late wearing Perdition colors and the expression of a man who believes my presence confirms something important about himself.
He slides into the booth opposite me. “Knew you'd change your mind.”
“I agreed to one drink, that's all.”
“That's how it starts.” He smiles.
I don't answer, and thankfully a waitress comes over to take our order. I ask for soda because I want every part of my brain working. Raze orders whiskey and looks amused.
“Nervous?”
“No. Should I be?”
I hold his gaze. “See, that's the part I don't understand.” His eyebrows lift.
“You spend a lot of time telling me how dangerous Perdition is. Truly dangerous men usually don't have to explain it this often.”
That provokes the first flash of irritation, though it's gone quickly.
“Chains tell you that?”
“No. I learned it somewhere else.”
His mouth curves. “Colt?” I let the silence answer for me and Raze leans back.
“Your daddy says you were all over that bastard when you were a kid.”
“I was nineteen, not exactly a kid.”
The drinks arrive, saving me from saying more and Raze takes a drink.
“He still thinks he's the hardest man in Kingdom Come?”
“Colt never talked about himself that way.”
“Course he didn't.” Raze looks smug.
I lift my glass. “Exactly my point about dangerous men.” Raze's eyes narrow. I take a sip. He waits and I let it land. It works faster than I expected.
“He ain't shit compared to Perdition.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
I shrug. “You're the one who keeps bringing him up.” A muscle moves along his jaw. “You think he could take me?”
“I think Colt wouldn't sit here asking me whether he could.”
That one lands hard. Raze leans forward.
“Friday night, he won't have the fucking chance.”
My pulse jumps, but I keep my face still.
“Why, what happens on Friday?”
He smiles. “There she is. The woman who actually wants to know what kind of man I am.”
“I agreed to a drink because you said Perdition was different. I'm trying to work out whether that means anything or whether this is all just talk.”
His ego does the rest. “Blackwater Road.” I take another sip. “Never heard of it.” Raze watches me carefully. “Old logging turnoff about six miles east of the river crossing.” My heart starts beating harder and I force myself to look unimpressed.
“And?”
“And Kane rides through there on his way to meet Cyrus.”
“With Colt?”
His smile widens.
“Judge too.”
I look down at my drink because I need half a second where he can't see my eyes.
I have what I came for and I don't need anything else.
I look back up. “You really think my father knows them that well after everything?” Raze laughs.
“Thirty years don't disappear because Kane rips patches off a cut.”
The words sting for reasons that have nothing to do with the ambush. “And Dad gets what out of this?” Raze's expression changes slightly. “Your old man's proving he picked the right side.”
“Is he, though?”
“He knows how clubs work.”
I think about the bare leather cut Dad wore into my living room.
“Then why isn't he wearing your patch?”
Raze's smile disappears. There it is and I know I shouldn't push because I already have what I came for. I slide out of the booth. “Thanks for the drink.”
“We ain't finished.”
“I am.”
His gaze drops over me. “You come all this way for nothing?”
“I came because you wouldn't stop asking.”
I walk toward the exit before he can answer. My hands remain steady until the night air hits my face. Then they start to shake as I unlock my car. Raze suddenly appears and catches the door before I can open it. I turn. He's far too close again. “Move away from me, Raze.”
“You weren't this cold inside.”
“I was exactly this cold inside.”
His hand lands beside my head against the car roof and my stomach turns.
“Your daddy says you always liked bikers.”
“My father talks too much.”
“Maybe you just liked the wrong one.”
“I said move.”
Instead, his other hand catches my hip, and everything inside me goes hard.
“Take your hand off me.”
He grins and then he kisses me. There's nothing seductive about it.
His mouth forces onto mine while his body pins me against the car, and disgust hits before fear gets the chance.
I drive my heel down onto his foot and shove hard at his chest. Raze swears and shifts enough for me to wrench sideways.
My elbow catches him somewhere near the ribs and I don't wait to see how much it hurts.
“Don't ever fucking touch me again.”
His expression changes, and for one second I see the mean man under all that swagger. Then he smiles again, but there is nothing pleasant in it.
“You'll come around.”
“No. I really fucking won't.”
The sound of a motorcycle engine starts somewhere behind him.
Raze's head turns and mine does too. A black bike rolls out of the darkness at the far end of the lot.
I know the rider before I can make out his face.
Colt. And from the way he's coming toward us, I know he's had enough.
Raze sees him too. His smile disappears.
For all the shit he's talked tonight about Colt, he doesn't stick around to prove any of it. He backs away from me, swings onto his bike and fires the engine. By the time Colt reaches my car, Raze is already disappearing out of the parking lot.