جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 40

They left before sunrise, like the dark could hide them better than daylight.Engines rumbled low as they took the South route, the road wide and empty ahead. Nolan led, shoulders tense. Jax followed close, silent behind dark shades. Ace laughed once in a while. Cole rode last, calm and steady.Ashley sat behind Nolan, her hands light around his waist. Every time she blinked, last night replayed in fragments—the way he said her name, the warmth of his skin, the guilt that came after. She didn’t dare look at the others. When they stopped for gas, no one spoke. It was all routine—fill up, pay, and move on. Jax’s glare lasted too long when Nolan brushed past him. Ace joked about needing coffee; no one laughed. Cole swore softly and glanced at the clouds.Behind them, two black cars slowed at the same exit, then blended back into traffic.Nolan saw it. The flash of a fake license plate in his mirror made his gut tighten. He gave a small hand signal—two fingers down and right. The others

The sun had just started to rise when Nolan called for a lockdown.No one said much. The smell of smoke and gunpowder still clung to their clothes, mixed with the damp smell from last night’s rain. It had been a long, bloody night.Cole stood outside the clubhouse, leaning against the railing. His knuckles were scraped, his eyes red from no sleep. Briggs was barely alive in the hospital, and every breath the man took felt like time running out.Inside, Nolan stood at the table. His burner phone lay in front of him like a weapon. The last message he got kept echoing in his head;Delgado thanks you for the distraction.They’d walked right into a trap.Jax paced the room. “So while we were blowing up their stash, Delgado made his move.”Ace poured another drink. “The cartel played both sides. The Fangs took the hits, they took the win.”Ashley stood in the doorway, arms crossed ti

Ashley sat on the back steps, knees drawn up, staring at the yard where chaos had nearly swallowed them while just hours ago. The ground was still scarred from the fight—burn marks, bullet casings, shattered glass glinting in the moonlight. Her hands wouldn’t stop trembling.She should’ve felt proud—she’d helped save them all. But instead, all she felt was the aftershock.She heard footsteps unhurried behind her.Ace.He stopped a few feet away, hands shoved in his jacket pockets. “You shouldn’t be out here alone,” he said.“I needed air,” she murmured. “Can’t breathe in there. Too much noise.”Ace nodded slowly and sat beside her without another word. They both stared out into the dark.Finally, Ace exhaled. “Hell of a day.”Ashley let out a shaky laugh. “Feels like a lifetime.”“Never seen Nolan that quiet,” he said. “Or Jax keeps his mouth shut this long.”Ashley turned her head toward him.

The news came before sunrise. A convoy of black SUVs came through the old road—territory no one touched without permission. By the time word reached the clubhouse, the damage was already done. The gates to the Fang compound had been blown open, and whispers said their leader had bent the knee to someone new. Someone with deeper pockets. Someone with a reputation too dangerous to ignore. Marco Delgado was in town. Ashley sat on the clubhouse steps, coffee untouched, watching men move across the yard. Everyone had orders. Everyone pretended they weren’t scared. Ace came out, sunglasses hiding how little he’d slept. He stopped beside her. “You hear?” he asked. She nodded. “Yeah.” “Fangs are folding. They’re calling him ‘partner’ now.” Her throat went dry. Partner. That word was poison. “Marco doesn't have a partner,” she said quietly. “He takes over.” Ace’s jaw tightened. “Then we need to be ready for when he makes his move.” Ashley stared at the yard. “You don’t get it. If

Nolan stood in the middle of the wreckage, jaw tight, scanning everything like he could fix it just by staring hard enough.Ace leaned against a wrecked truck, his face unreadable under the dirt and bruises.Cole was wrapping Jax’s arm with gauze that kept slipping through the blood.No one said a word. Ashley stood near the steps, hands shaking as she looked at the mess. A bike was on its side, leaking fuel. One of the club banners hung torn, the snake logo ripped clean through.Her chest tightened. This happened because of me.Two prospects swept glass off the porch. Someone cursed in the distance.“Move those bikes off the line,” Nolan said. “Double the guards. I want eyes on that gate till morning.”Ace pushed off the truck. “You think they’ll come back?”Nolan didn’t look at him. “If they do, we’ll be ready.”Cole muttered, “Ready doesn’t mean safe.