Page 86 of Colt
“Then let it stay blocked.” I kissed her forehead. “You don’t need those memories. What happened that night—the people responsible are going to pay for it. But you don’t need to carry it.”
She was quiet for a moment. “There’s something else. Something you’re not saying.”
Not a question.
“I have to go to Louisville. Tomorrow. Club business. I’ll be gone maybe a week.” I held her gaze. “And while I’m away, I want you and the boys at the clubhouse. I already talked to Indira. The boys will think it’s a sleepover.”
Lilac was quiet. “A lockdown.”
“A precaution.”
She looked at me steadily. “Is Death’s Head part of this?”
I considered lying. Considered softening the truth to protect her. But we’d had enough lies between us to last a lifetime.
“Dutch and I have been planning. When the time is right, Venom Riders is going to handle it.” I met her eyes. “They nearly killed you, Lilac. They stole seven years from us. They let me believe—” My voice hardened. “They’re going to pay.”
“Will you be safe?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“I’ll have my brothers with me.”
She pulled back, sitting up to look at me. “That’s not an answer.”
“Lilac—”
“You just asked me to promise I wouldn’t leave. And now you’re telling me you’re planning something dangerous. Something that could get you killed.” Her hands were shaking. “How is that fair?”
Guilt twisted in my gut. “It’s not the same—”
“It’s exactly the same.” A tear slipped down her cheek. “I just got you back. We just found each other again. And you want to risk that for revenge?”
“It’s not just revenge.” I sat up, reaching for her. “It’s justice. For you. For us.”
She was quiet for a long moment, tears streaming down her face. Then she nodded. “Okay,” she whispered.
“Okay?”
“I trust you.” She curled into my side, her head on my chest, but I could feel the tension in her body. The fear. “I trust you to do what needs to be done and come home to me. To us.”
I held her close, breathing in the scent of her hair, feeling her heartbeat against my skin.
For seven years, I’d been a man without a home. Without a family. Without hope. Now I had all three.
Chapter 34
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— Colt —
We didn’t ride out together. That was the first thing we’d agreed on. Twelve bikes leaving Millfield in formation would have been noticed—word travels fast in MC circles, and we didn’t know all of Death’s Head’s eyes. So we went in pairs, spread over a few hours, taking different routes south and east, looking like brothers headed separate ways for separate reasons.
Glitch and three others left first. Saddlebags packed with laptops and contracts alongside everything else they’d need. The Louisville security consulting meetings were real—the meetings had always been real—and if anyone came asking what Venom Riders had been doing that week, there was a paper trail pointing straight to Kentucky. Clean and legible. Glitch had made sure of it.
The rest of us followed in our own time.
Lilac, Betty and the boys had gone to the clubhouse this morning. Indira had called it a family event, a sleepover, an excuse to let the kids run wild together. The boys had bought it. Lilac had kissed me goodbye, told me to come back and hadn’t made it harder than it had to be.
Me and Dutch left last, taking the back road south before swinging east. Three and a half days of riding, most of it on roads nobody was watching. Unglamorous. Designed to be forgotten.
