Page 27 of Kane's Kingdom

"I'm not asking you to give up your club," I continue. "I'm telling you I can't let it decide anything else about my life."

"Where are you going?"

"Home."

"Your house isn't secure."

"Then put someone outside if you must."

And he will. Even while I'm walking away from him, he's still thinking about how to keep me safe. For one terrible moment, I want him to order me to stay. I want him to take the decision away from me so I don't have to live with making it.

He seems to know, because instead of blocking the door, he steps aside.

"I'll take you myself.”

Kane carries my bag to the bike. We don't speak on the way to my house. I keep my arms around his waist. At a stoplight, he covers one of my hands with his, holding it there until the light changes.

When we reach my house, he checks every room before he allows me inside. He doesn't argue, apologize or ask me to reconsider; he's a protector down to the bone.

After he leaves, a bike settles beneath the trees across the street. The brother isn't Kane, but I recognize a Kingdom Come cut in the fading light.

I close the curtains, then stand alone in my kitchen and finally let myself cry for the cafe, my father and the man I've just walked away from.

SIX

KANE

By the time I leave Bella's house, the rage has settled into something useful. It doesn't make me reckless. My father's anger did that. King would tear through a room because somebody bruised his pride, then leave the rest of us to work out what his temper had cost.

I don't want noise; I want an answer so complete that nobody mistakes it.

A brother stays beneath the trees across from Bella's house while I ride back to the compound. Another takes the road behind it.

The clubhouse is awake despite the hour, every brother who lives off-site called in. The room beyond them is full.

"Fenn?" I ask.

"Cash found him at the river motel," Judge says. "He gave us Dekker's location."

"Easy?"

Cash rubs his knuckles. "Eventually."

Judge opens the church door. A map is spread over the table. Dekker has taken over an old freight depot upriver, a concrete box beside a disused loading dock. Two trucks, four cars, nine men that we know about, and enough product stored inside tomake the river route worth fighting over. He came prepared to build an operation, and the rock was only the first brick.

"Power comes in here," Judge says, tapping the map. "Wilder can cut it from the service road. Back gate's chained, but Cash says the lock's nothing."

"North side?" I ask.

"River."

"Boats?"

"One tied at the dock."

"Tank takes it."

Tank nods. Around the table, men listen without speaking. Nobody questions my decisions. Whatever else they think of my presidency, somebody came into our town, attacked a woman under our protection, and set fire to her business while she was still inside. That part is simple.