Page 23 of Colt’s Betrayal

Jayne's voice has been in my head since the gate closed behind us. “Come back,” she said. She didn't ask me to stay, even though I saw how badly she wanted to. She looked at the gun in my hand, faced the same fear that drove her away at nineteen and let me ride anyway because she finally understands something neither of us managed to understand back then.

Kingdom Come isn't something I can take off for her and she isn't something I need to give up for Kingdom Come. The old logging turnoff appears ahead and so do the bikes blocking it just as we expected. Kane slows. Judge and I follow him down until the three engines settle into a low rumble beneath us. Raze steps onto the road first.

There are four Perdition men visible behind him, then another two come out of the trees as we stop. Guns are already in their hands, which tells me everything I need to know about how Cyrus intended this sit-down to end. Chains walks out last.

For thirty years, that leather cut told everyone who he belonged to and now only his name remains. I wonder whether that bothers him as much as I hope it does. Raze smiles at us. “Kill the engines.” Kane does it first, then Judge and I follow until silence settles over the road. Chains looks pleased with himself. “Told you.” Raze glances at him. “He always bring these two?”

“For something like this.” Chains's gaze moves over Kane, Judge and me. “He thinks they're his strongest.”

Kane rests both hands on the handlebars as if the rifles pointed toward us are mildly inconvenient. Raze's smile fades slightly. “Cyrus offered you a sit-down.”

“Yet Cyrus isn't here.” Kane makes a show of looking around.

“He don't need to be.” That answer says more about Cyrus than Raze probably intends.

Kane looks past him at Chains. “Still doing other men's work, then?” Chains's face hardens and a Perdition brother to my right adjusts his grip on his weapon.

I don't move and nobody else does either. This is the part that feels wrong even when you know exactly why you're doing it. Every instinct I have says to get off the bike, get behind something, get my gun out before the man opposite me decides he's done talking.

Instead we wait and Raze takes another step toward us. “You really thought you could change everything King built and nobody would make you answer for it?” Kane's expression barely shifts. “If Cyrus wants an answer, tell him to come ask me himself.”

“Maybe he figures dead men don't answer much.”

Every Perdition weapon is visible now. Every man who was hiding has stepped far enough onto the road to believe the three of us have nowhere left to go. Kane raises his left hand from the handlebar and closes it into a fist and for half a second, nothing happens. Then the woods wake up.

Motorcycle engines erupt from both sides of the road, close enough that Raze spins toward the sound. More start behind Perdition, followed by the deep roar of bikes coming up the logging track they thought was empty. Kingdom Come pours out around them, not arriving but revealing they were already here, waiting for the ambush.

Wilder appears first from the tree line with his weapon trained on the road, Griz beside him. More brothers close from behind while two bikes block the only clear way back toward Ransom. Raze's face changes as the count turns against him. Kane gets off his bike and Judge and I do the same.

“Guns down,” Kane says.

Raze looks around as though another handful of Perdition men might magically appear if he waits long enough. They don't.

“Don't be fucking stupid,” Judge tells him. “Look around.”

One of the Perdition men lowers his rifle first, and then another follows. Raze swears, but there's nowhere for the anger to go. He puts his weapon on the asphalt and the rest begin doing the same. Kingdom Come doesn't relax. Two brothers move forward only after every gun is down, kicking rifles and handguns across the road while the men behind them keep cover.

That's when I notice the Perdition brother near the trees. CROSS is stitched across his chest. He lowers his weapon without any of Raze's posturing and steps away from it. Instead of watching the brothers clearing the guns, his attention stays on Kane for a second longer than makes sense. It isn't friendly or anything I can put a name to. He's just watching until his gaze shifts and the moment is gone.

Kane looks over the men who expected to kill us. “This hasn't gone the way you planned, has it?” Raze spits onto the road and Chains, amazingly, still looks like he thinks he can talk his way into this becoming a victory. His gaze finds Griz. “Brother.” But Griz doesn't answer. Chains steps forward until Wilder raises his gun a fraction and stops him.

“You don't belong over there, Griz. You know you don't.” Chains gestures toward Kane. “We spent thirty years doing this the right way. You think King would've stood for any of this shit?”

Griz stares at him. Chains keeps going, “Cyrus knows what men like us are worth. He ain't throwing thirty years away because some kid gets handed a gavel and decides everything that came before him was wrong. I'll get my colors, I'll have a place in Perdition. You come with me, I'll make sure you do too.”

Something crosses Griz's face but it isn't temptation. It's pain. That makes what follows worse for Chains as Griz glances at the bare spaces on his old friend's cut. “You gave away the colors you had before you made sure anybody wanted to give you new ones.” Chains flushes dark. “That's not how it is.”

“Looks like it from here.” Griz shrugs.

“I told you, Cyrus is testing⁠—”

“I don't give a shit what Cyrus is doing.” Griz's voice stays calm. “You asked me once already. Answer's still no. I'm Kingdom Come.” Chains looks like Griz struck him and for a moment neither man says anything, and thirty years of friendship ends without a speech big enough to carry it.

Raze ruins the silence. “Whole fucking club's gone soft.” His attention lands on me and I see it happen. He knows the road is lost. Knows the guns are gone and the only thing he has left is his mouth. So he reaches for the one thing he thinks will still move me.

“Your girl didn't seem too worried about Perdition last night.”

Every muscle in my body tightens and Kane speaks without looking at me. “Colt.” I know what he means: not yet. One brother is still dragging the last handgun clear. Another is checking the tree line beyond Raze. I stay exactly where I am and Raze grins because he thinks restraint means he found the nerve.