Page 23 of Cross’s Reckoning

Kane looks at him. "And the men?"

"Some will follow Cyrus wherever he points because that's what they've always done, but there aren't enough of them anymore. Yesterday cost him. Raze took damage, Granger's shoulder is fucked, a couple more aren't riding properly for a while. If Cyrus brings every available man here tonight and tells them to charge an armed compound over one defector, they'll know exactly what he's asking them to die for."

"Would they refuse?" Judge asks.

Cross considers it. "If Cyrus is standing there alone giving the order? Maybe not. If Raze gives them permission to stop pretending it's club business?"

That is the thing I've been circling since we came in. I look at Kane. "Raze doesn't need convincing that my father can't keep running the club through fear."

"He needs to see something in it for him."

"Exactly."

Judge looks at me. "The chair."

"He's wanted it for years. Not enough to challenge my father while Cyrus had the club behind him, but if my father loses the men..." I shrug. "Raze won't die preserving my father's presidency."

Kane taps one finger against the desk as he thinks this information through. "Who stands with Raze?"

"It's not like that. Nobody's secretly pledged themselves to him."

I force myself to continue. "Deke listens to Raze more than Cyrus. Macer thinks my father should've ended this months ago, but he wouldn't dare say it in front of him. Granger's been pissed since yesterday. Bo will follow whoever looks most likely to still be standing at the end."

Cross gives me a sideways look. "Bo always was a loyal soul."

"I know he's a prick." I shrug.

Kane glances between us before bringing the conversation back. "Weapons?"

Cross gives him what he knows about the men likely to ride, who carries what and how Perdition normally approaches another club's ground. I fill the gaps he can't. Cyrus changed where he keeps spare ammunition after a theft last year. Another brother will come just because he lives on-site and has nowhere else to be.

None of it is dramatic information, but together, it becomes a bigger picture. All the things men said in front of me because I was just Cyrus's daughter. All the grudges I heard at the bar, favors I watched my father call in and arguments that stopped mattering the next morning are suddenly more valuable than a list of guns or addresses could ever be.

Kane lets us finish and thinks before he speaks. "We don't need to beat Perdition."

Judge looks at him. "No?"

"No. We need Cyrus to ask too much of his men," Kane replies. "I don't think we need to stop Perdition. I think Cyrus is doing the work for us."

Kane stands and places his hands flat on his desk. "However, we still prepare like every one of them is coming to shoot."

Outside, the compound has changed. The lazy nighttime rhythm is gone. Men move between the clubhouse and garage. Bikes are shifted away from the front. Weapons appear and aren't as concealed as they were before. Kingdom Come is expecting a war and it's making damn sure it's prepared for one. It's all because of my father, and the thought still hurts. I don't know how long that's going to keep surprising me.

Cross catches my hand before I reach the hallway. "We need to talk."

"That sounds ominous."

I follow him toward his room anyway. The door closes behind us, and he turns to me. "You're staying away from the gates."

There it is. I fold my arms. "No. I'm not doing that."

"Lola. Come on."

"My father is coming here because of you and because he thinks I'm too irrelevant to mention. I'm not hiding in a bedroom while he does it."

"Nobody said hide."

"What would you call it?"