Page 144 of Priest

He stared at me for a beat too long. “She say why Lena was there?”

There was no clean way through it.

“Joker said Lena was never the main plan,” I said carefully. “Said she was a bonus. He said the intel she gave wasn’t worth much by itself, but that wasn’t what he wanted from her.”

Ledger’s eyes sharpened. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“It means Dead Man’s Hand had another way into our house,” I said. “Sadie was feeding Joker directly. Lena was another breach. Different level, different information, but still a breach.”

Ledger surged to his feet so fast the chair scraped hard across the floor. “She betrayed the club?”

I didn’t soften it. He deserved better than that.

“Yeah,” I said. “Looks like she did.”

His face twisted.

I stepped closer, lowering my voice. “Blue said Lena thought it was her fault. Said she never meant for it to go that far.”

Ledger laughed once, short and broken. “That supposed to help?”

“No,” I said honestly. “But it’s what I know.”

His anger broke wide. He turned and kicked the nearest chair hard enough that it slammed into the wall and clattered sideways across the floor.

A nurse appeared in the doorway almost instantly, lips pressed into a hard line. “This is a maternity ward. If this cannot be brought under control, I will have security escort all of you out.”

I turned before Ledger could say something that made everything worse. “He just got bad news,” I said. “He’s grieving. Give him a minute.”

Her expression stayed skeptical, but after a long look around the room, she gave a clipped nod and stepped back out.

When I turned around again, Ledger was breathing hard, hands flexing at his sides like he didn’t know what to do with them.

“Brother,” I said, stepping closer. “I’m sorry. More sorry than words. We’re gonna do everything we can to get you and Cage through this. Maybe you ought to go home and get that journal. Get your answers.”

His head whipped toward me.

“Fuck that journal,” he said. “Fuck Lena’s answers.”

The whole room held still.

“She was a rat,” he spat. “She betrayed the club. She betrayed her son. She betrayed me.” His voice cracked once, and somehow that was worse than the shouting. “No amount of answers is gonna excuse that. No amount of answers is gonna fix this.”

Then he turned and stormed out of the waiting room before anyone could stop him.

Ghost moved first.

“I got him,” he said, already going after him.

I nodded once.

The door swung shut behind them, and the silence they left behind felt bruised.

No one said anything for a moment. Deacon looked tired in a way that had nothing to do with blood loss. Ink stared at the floor. Even Rook had nothing sharp ready.

I dragged in a breath and forced myself to shift the room before grief swallowed the rest of the night.

“I have a son,” I said, my voice rougher than I intended. “Jackson Ace Adams. You boys wanna meet him, now’s the time.”