CHAPTER 6
KRAIT TERRITORY
Lane was still glaring at Kolton like he wanted to break his jaw.
“Are you kidding me right now?” Kolton hissed under his breath.
Kait did not react to Kolton’s outrage. She looked at Don instead eager for the opportunity to prove herself.
He took a long breath, eyes moving from her to the Reyes circle, then gave her the slightest nod.
That was all she needed.
Kait straightened up, rolled her shoulders back and started forward—but Lane’s arm shot out, barring her chest like a gate. His forearm caught her right across the collarbone.
She looked up at him, furious. “The fuck are you doing?”
Lane didn’t look at her. “You’re not fighting.”
“The fuck I am.”
“Shut up, Lokken.” He only looked downward and met her silver eyes glaring like a she-wolf ready to pounce at his jugular.
“Damn, Chido… I knew you were a pussy, but I had no idea how big,” Lane announced.
A few Reyes del Camino members laughed on reflex, then went quiet, remembering Chido was one of theirs.
Chido squared up. “What you say, puto?”
“You’re really gonna fight a girl?” Lane asked, tilting his head like he was bored.
“I just want this shit over with. I don’t wanna be here at no crack of dawn for this bullshit.” Chido rolled his shoulders, eyes sliding back to Kait like she was a piece of meat instead of a fighter.
“So you think you can beat her?” Lane asked.
“I’ll beat her ass and make her like it too,” Chido said, and the Reyes roared again.
Lane nodded like he was agreeing. “I don’t know, man… She may give you a run for your money. And then what? Not only do you lose your club the beach… but the whole town is gonna know you got your ass kicked by a girl. Even if you win, you’ll still be a pussy for picking her. You’ll be the punchline ‘til you fucking die.”
A couple of Reyes snorted at the remark. That got under Chido’s skin. He shifted his weight, jaw tight.
“I don’t give a shit. Let’s go. Get this shit over with. I wanna go back to bed.”
“It’s a bitch-ass move for your club, Alacrán,” Lane said, looking past Chido at the Reyes president. “A T-Dub and you send out your boy to beat on a girl?” He shook his head.
“Man, shut the hell up and let’s go!” Chido barked.
“Chido.” Alacrán’s voice cut through, low and sharp.
Chido froze, looked back. Alacrán didn’t even raise his voice; he just stared at Lane for a long second, then dropped his gaze to Kait and back.
“Reyes del Camino don’t beat on women,” Alacrán said. “Krait or not. We pick the Kount instead. Maybe teach him a lesson about opening his big-ass mouth.”
The Reyes cheered. The air shifted. Chido’s eyes lit up.
He went back to Alacrán and they spoke in low Spanish, words Kait couldn’t quite catch over the surf and the thump of her pulse.
Lane finally dropped his arm from her.
“Kount…” Kait whispered.
“You weren’t even supposed to be here,” Lane said without looking at her. “So make your way to the back before they change their mind. I’ll handle this.”
He stepped into the circle.
Kolton blew out a breath like he’d just come up from drowning. “Fuck. Thank God.”
Kait walked back toward Don, heart pounding, every step heavier than the last.
“Don, I had this … why—”
“Ah, don’t sweat it. It was going to be him anyway,” Don murmured, eyes never leaving the circle. “He’s got this. Watch this shit.”
So she did.
Chido’s whole posture changed when Alacrán sent him back out. He rolled his neck, bounced on his toes, trying to make himself look bigger than he was. Lane stood loose and bored, hands down, like he was waiting in line at the DMV.
Kait’s gaze flicked to the rest of the Reyes. Roque was there, jaw clenched, already shaking his head like he knew how this was going to go. Maybe he was remembering the beating Lane had given him a few weeks earlier.
“Come on, Chido,” Lane said. “I’ll make it fast so you can go back to bed. I’ll make sure you don’t get out of it for a couple days.”
That did it.
Chido swung first. Wild. Big looping punches meant to impress the peanut gallery. Lane slipped them like he was made of smoke, barely moving his feet. The difference was obvious from the first second—cardio, balance, hands up, hands down, it didn’t matter. Chido wasn’t even in the same universe.
The Krait boys got louder with every missed punch.
“Light him up, Kount!”
“Come on, Kount!”
“This is embarrassing,” Diablo muttered. “Alacrán should stop it already.”
“He ain’t stopping it,” Don said. “I wouldn’t. His boy tried to take the easy way out; he’s teaching him a lesson.”
Lane started playing with him. Taps to the ribs, a quick pop to the nose, nothing that would shut it down, just enough to sting and humiliate. Kait watched, jaw tight, as he blocked everything Chido threw and smirked about it.
For a second, Lane’s eyes broke from Chido and scanned the crowd.
He looked for her. He wanted her to be watching him.
Kait had already shifted out of his line of sight, slipping between Kolton and Mack. She hated that he’d stepped in. Hated that he was right about Chido. Hated that she couldn’t show them what she could do.
“Ah, here we go,” Mack said when Chido finally got a good shot in, an ugly hook that clipped Lane right on the jaw.
Lane’s head snapped, and Kait felt the air get colder.
He didn’t stumble. Didn’t wobble. He just stopped, rolled his jaw once, and smiled in a way that made Chido flinch.
Then he swept him.
Chido’s feet went out from under him so fast the sand barely puffed. Lane dropped onto him, all weight and bone, and started raining fists down. No playing now. Just straight, efficient violence. Chido’s head bounced off the packed sand, blood spattering up Lane’s arms.
“Enough,” Alacrán barked. “Don, get your boy!”
“Alright, Kount,” Don said calmly.
Lane stopped mid-swing, hand still cocked. He breathed hard through his nose once, got up slowly, and stepped back. Diablo reached for him, laughing, but Lane shrugged him off and spit a thin string of blood into the surf.
Don walked back into the circle, toe-to-toe with Alacrán. They talked low, hashing out details and finalizing the process.
The first strip of sunrise bled red over the water.
Reyes rolled out first. Alacrán said nothing as he passed; Chido limped, held up by two of his brothers, eye already swelling shut.
“You gonna look just like Roque now,” said Mack as they passed by.”
Roque flipped him off and threw one last look at Lane and Kait and then climbed on his bike.
As Krait headed back to their own row of bikes, Kait made eye contact with Lane. He was fastening his helmet, his jaw a little red. For half a second, he looked like he might say something.
He didn’t.
He swung onto the Sentinel and fired it up.
“Awesome. We have the beach now,” Kolton said, sounding like a kid who just got a new toy.
Kait smirked, but she kept her eyes on Lane. She watched him the entire ride home, the way he sat, the small tilt of his head against the morning wind, the stiffness in his shoulders. Then as he parked, as he walked into the Nest without looking back.
She’d wanted to confront him. Chido wasn’t the only one he humiliated.
Kait woke up before the sun the next morning, her brain still buzzing stuck on replay.
Chido’s ugly swing connecting with Lane’s jaw.
Lane dropping him like nothing.
Lane’s arm across her chest, stopping her cold.
By the time she hit the gym at the Nest, she wasn’t just mad anymore. That kind of anger that flares and fades. This one stayed—low, hot, and waiting.
Sweatpants. Tank top. Tennis shoes. Hair twisted into a messy bun high on her head. No makeup. No armor. Just sweat and breath and the steady burn in her arms while doing push-ups.
Sevendust helped too. She didn’t even hear him come in over Too Close to Hate.
Lane walked into the gym and felt his heart trip on itself for half a second.
It always did that lately, and it pissed him off. It startled him, like she’d jumped out at him from a dark closet. Like he was afraid of her. He was used to being the one people flinched for, not the other way around.
She was in the far corner facing away from the door. That messy bun. He’d never seen her hair like that. He hated that he noticed her more about her each day.
Who the fuck cared about her stupid hair?
He thought about leaving.
Instead, he walked in slow, pretending he’d just now remembered he wanted to lift. He headed for the rack, started stacking plates on the bar like that was all that existed.
He turned back around and almost ran into her.
She was already on her feet. Wiping sweat off her brow, chest slick with sweat, a strand of lose hair stuck on her neck, cheeks flushed. She shouldn’t have looked that good after a workout, but she did. She looked wild and alive and hotter than shit.
“I guess he did get you, after all,” Kait said, nodding at his jaw.
A faint purple shadow had started blooming there.
“Made me bite the inside of my mouth,” Lane said. “Fucking spic.”
“Well, he got a lot worse than that,” she said.
“Yeah.”
He went back to loading the bar.
Kait watched his arms for a second. The way the muscles jumped when he slid plates into place. It annoyed her that her body noticed him at all.
“Why’d you do it?” she asked.
“What?”
“Why’d you step in?”
Lane secured the last plate, then leaned his forearms on the bar, hanging his weight there.
“You weren’t supposed to be there,” he said. “I did you a favor.”
Kait crossed her arms and scoffed. “You really didn’t think I could take on that fat Mexican?”
“I wasn’t gonna risk not getting the beach for us.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
He sighed, tight and irritated. “Well, then if you really want to know—no. I didn’t think you could.”
Kait’s eyebrows shot up. “I would’ve. But you didn’t give me a chance to prove it.”
“Like I said, I wasn’t gonna take the risk. Not only was it unnecessary, it was inconvenient.”
“How is getting more territory not necessary?” she demanded.
“Because it’s not worth it,” Lane said, straightening up. “Why do you think it was only a one-off? That beach is crawling with the Game Warden, it’s a fishing spot. What the fuck is the advantage of having it? Get first dibs during catfish season?”
Kait glanced away, jaw tight.
“You didn’t know that, did you?” he asked.
“Well, I don’t care,” she said. “They’re not gonna tell us where we can’t go.”
“And that’s why I did it,” Lane said. “Now you can go have burgers with Kolton anytime you want.”
The way he said it made it sound cheap.
“I could’ve taken Chido out,” she said.
“Well,” Lane said, racking the bar, “if you ever want their turf where the children’s museum is, you can ask for another Turf War and fight Chido all you want. I’ll be gone anyway.”
“I’m counting the days,” Kait shot back, and walked out.
He watched her go, stomach hot and sour, hating how relieved he’d been last night. Hating that he still felt a little blood on his tongue and it was worth it.
Beach Bites was packed enough to be loud but not crowded. Salt air rolled through the open patio while gulls screamed somewhere overhead and an old ceiling fan clicked uselessly above the picnic tables. Somebody had 311’s Down playing through blown speakers mounted near the counter, the song warbling every time the fryers kicked on.
Kait sat back with one boot hooked on the bench, finishing the last of her strawberry lemonade while Blaze wrestled with a stroller beside the table like it was military equipment.
“You got enough shit in there?” Kolton asked.
Blaze looked down into the diaper bag. “Man, I don’t even know what half this stuff does.”
Kyle laughed from beside him, ketchup on his cheek. “The wipes are for, for when the baby poops.”
“Thanks, buck. I was wondering.”
Kait snorted into her drink.
The baby made a small whining noise from the stroller and Blaze immediately leaned down, his entire face changing.
“There she is,” he said softly. “Hey, Maddie.”
It caught Kait off guard a little. Blaze looked strange doing dad shit. Not bad. Just strange. Like seeing somebody ride a horse into a grocery store.
Blaze carefully lifted the baby from the stroller and bounced her once against his chest.
“You wanna hold her?” he asked Kait casually.
Kait almost looked behind herself to see if there was another woman nearby.
“Oh. Uh…” Her eyes dropped to the baby like it was a live grenade. “It’s okay.”
Blaze grinned instantly. “You scared?”
“No, just…” Kait lied immediately.
“You look scared.”
“I just don’t wanna break it.”
Kolton barked a laugh.
“She handles rifles better than babies,” he said.
“I, no…,” Kait muttered.
Blaze adjusted the little pink cap on the baby’s head. “You ain’t never held one before?”
Kait shook her head once. “I’ve handled more rifles than babies, that’s for sure.”
They all laughed.
She watched the tiny hand grab Blaze’s beard for a second and honestly didn’t know what to do with the feeling. Everybody here had changed while she was gone. People got older. Got married. Had kids.
And there she sat in a kutte with a gun under the table and sand stuck to her boots.
Kyle suddenly jumped up from the bench.
“I finished, Dad! Can we go now?”
Kolton sighed dramatically. “Did I say ten fries or twenty?”
Kyle gasped. “No, you said ten!”
“Fine.”
Kyle sprinted toward the sand before Kolton could even stand fully.
“Hey! Slow down!” Kolton laughed, taking off after him.
Kait watched him run down the beach while Kyle zigzagged like a drunk seagull ahead of him.
Blaze sat back down beside her with the baby sleeping against his chest.
“Crazy seeing him with a kid, huh?”
Kait smirked faintly. “And you too.”
“Yeah, I know,” Blaze said. “Who would’ve thought?”
She watched Kolton finally catch Kyle near the bikes.
“You missed a lot while you were gone,” Blaze added quietly.
Kait looked out toward the water. “No kidding.”
“Shit, that would’ve been yours if you stayed,” said Blaze jerking his chin at Kyle.
Kait’s eyes blew wide in horror at the likelihood.
Blaze rocked the baby absentmindedly. “Funny how things go though. Prince was gonna join the Marines.”
That made her turn.
“Kolton?”
Blaze nodded. Soon as school was over, he was dead set on it. He wanted to fuck off so bad.”
Kait looked back toward the beach where Kolton was jogging after Kyle through the surf.
“What happened?”
“They wouldn’t take him.” Blaze shrugged. “Didn’t pass his medical. His asthma shit.”
Kait stared at Kolton another second while he scooped Kyle up under one arm and spun him around laughing.
“I forgot about that. Loraine took him out of football. That’s right,” she said, as her memory kicked in.
Blaze laughed quietly. “Yup.”
“Hmm…”
“But anyway… forgot how good this place was,” Blaze said looking at the building.
“Yeah… it’s ours now.”
“Damn right, it is.”
Two days later, Krait threw a goodbye party for Lane and Diablo at Loyola Beach.
Now that the beach belonged to them, the whole place felt different.
Claimed.
Bikes lined the slope overlooking the sand, chrome catching firelight while bonfires burned along the shoreline below. Music drifted from truck stereos mixed with laughter, beer bottles clinking, and the steady crash of black Gulf waves. Somebody had dragged coolers and folding tables straight onto the sand. Snakeholes wandered barefoot between groups carrying cases of beer while a few prospects worked the grills like unpaid caterers.
Kait sat on the hood of Kolton’s truck with a beer in her hand and watched Lane move through the crowd.
It annoyed her how easy he looked tonight.
Relaxed. Laughing. Singing along to Mama Tried with Blaze. Even the snakeholes got louder when he spoke. It was strange seeing this version of him—the version that didn’t look at her like she was a problem somebody forgot to solve.
For one stupid second, she wished they could get along like that.
The thought disappeared as quickly as it came.
By midnight the party started breaking apart into smaller groups around the fires. Kolton left to check on Kyle. The burgers from earlier got him sick. The music got lower. Conversations got slower. Half the people were drunk enough to start repeating stories.
She lit a cigarette and walked down toward the shoreline until the noise of the party softened behind her. Then she dropped onto the cold sand near the water, drawing one knee up while the surf rolled dark beneath the stars.
Kait started thinking about him again.
She hated the feeling settling into her chest.
She hated Lane, she knew she did.
And still… she didn’t want him to leave.
That irritated her more than anything.
He was such a great Krait and his absence would be felt.
She was so deep in thought she didn’t hear him approach.
“I don’t recommend going for a late-night swim right now.”
Kait glanced back.
Lane stood a few feet away, cigarette between his fingers, kutte open over a black t-shirt.
Kait scoffed lightly. “So, you’re really gonna go fix Huntsville?”
“Somebody has to.” He lit the cigarette and stared out toward the water. “Whole charter’s shitshow.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“Barry’s fucking off. Brothers are getting lazy. Nobody respects anybody up there anymore.” He exhaled smoke. “They don’t even have a Judge.”
Kait raised an eyebrow.
“Damn. What happened? They patch in a bunch of girls up there?”
Lane snorted despite himself.
“No. Not that bad.”
That tiny reaction irritated her even more because it almost sounded human.
“Well,” she muttered, taking a drag from her cigarette, “at least you won’t have to put up with me for a few days.”
“Likewise. I guess it works out for everybody then,” he said flatly.
Kait opened her mouth to say something smart, then stopped herself.
Instead she just sighed.
“I’m sure you’ll do great there.”
Lane paused.
It was subtle, but she caught it immediately—the way something in him stalled for half a second like a machine catching on bad gears. His eyes lingered on her face too long, trying to figure out if she meant it.
She did.
“Just don’t wreck the rest of my club while I’m gone,” he said finally.
Kait crossed her arms slowly.
“How am I—”
“Kolton hasn’t done fuckall since you got here,” Lane cut in sharply.
“I didn’t ask him to spend all his time with me.”
“No?”
“No. And I didn’t know he was neglecting club business either.”
Lane flicked ash into the sand.
“How could you not know when he’s in bed with you all day?”
“That’s not—”
“You know,” Lane interrupted, “I’ll give you this. You’re smart.”
Kait frowned.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
He looked at her for a long second.
“Say what you wanna say,” she snapped.
Lane took another drag before answering.
“You’re using Kolton to secure your place in the club.”
Kait stared at him.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
She let out a short disbelieving laugh.
“You think my place here is so fragile I need to fuck Prince to keep it?”
“Your words, not mine.”
“You have no idea who I am—or what I can do.”
“No,” Lane said quietly. “I don’t. But it can’t be much considering you couldn’t keep your charter open.”
That hit hard enough she actually felt it in her chest.
She stepped toward him instantly, anger flashing across her face. Lane straightened automatically, solid and immovable.
“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“Your charter folded,” he said coldly. “Nobody stepped up. Not even you.”
Kait took a deep breath through her nose.
“The rules don’t allow me a higher flasher than Fang. You know that.” Her voice shook despite herself. “I couldn’t just take over.”
“There used to be rules about no women too and yet…”
Kait looked away toward the water fast, eyes already starting to sting.
Please not in front of him.
“I know you don’t believe in me, Kount,” she said quietly. “But I will prove you wrong.”
“I highly doubt it.”
Kait nodded once like she’d suddenly understood something ugly.
“Yeah,” she muttered. “And when I do, you’re gonna feel like an even bigger asshole than you already are.”
She turned and walked away fast, the first tear finally slipping free before she could stop it.
“Telling the truth doesn’t make me an asshole,” Lane called after her. “At this rate, you’ll probably be dead before I come back.”
She didn’t turn around.
Lane stood there alone with the surf rolling behind him, cigarette burning low between his fingers while every word replayed in his head almost immediately after leaving his mouth.
His jaw tightened.
“Fuck,” he muttered.
He dropped the cigarette into the sand and ground it out hard beneath his boot.
Then he exhaled sharply and shook his head, already feeling like the biggest asshole in Texas.
The next morning, Kait kicked Kolton out of bed before dawn, and they headed for the port. The Nest was still quiet, the kind of quiet that meant people were already gone.
She paused by the truck and looked toward the garage. The Hardline sat where Lane always left it, dark and unmoving.
She wanted to kick the shit out of it so bad.
She climbed into the passenger seat of the truck, eyes forward, pretending she didn’t wish he would come out just to see him one last time.
Port of Corpus Christi
Customs was easier than Kait expected. One bored guy with a clipboard, another who wanted to talk about Harleys without knowing anything about them, signatures on paper that smelled like carbon. She got the Kriger and her guns released without a hitch.
Riding the Kriger through Texas finally clicked something into place.
This was the missing piece. The Kriger on a Dryden road, the weight of the bike beneath her, the hot wind in her face—it all felt right. She felt focused. Motivated. Ready to really get things going.
No looks of disgust.
No judgement.
No stupid remarks.
Just space to move. Room to breathe and make her mark. She nodded to herself, relieved—grateful, even—that he was gone.
She rolled into the Nest yard and eased off the throttle.
The feeling that stirred in her chest surprised her—sharp, unwelcome, impossible to ignore.
The Hardline was gone.
Lane was gone.
