Page 11 of Shadow's Edge

I followed her through the clubhouse, but as we crossed the main room, Duke caught my attention with a subtle nod, signaling for me to step aside.

“She’s not what she seems,” he murmured as we walked toward a few of his guys.

I studied him. “What do you mean?” I had already suspected as much, but I wanted to hear him say it.

Duke sighed, rubbing a hand over his face before turning to me. “Kai will make you believe she could take on the world with one hand tied behind her back, and hell, maybe she could. But I remember the girl who showed up at my place after her mom died. She wasbroken. Since then, she’s never stopped. She’s always moving, always protecting, always saving someone. She never just…” He trailed off, eyes dropping to the floor. “Stopped. There are moments when she’s Kyle, an almost normal person. But, more often than not, she’s Kai. Fuck, some of the guys don’t even see the difference between the two, but I’m thinking you might.”

His words hit me harder than I expected. I wasn’t naive—I knew Kyle carried weight on her shoulders most people would buckle under. But hearing it confirmed and seeing the way Duke looked when he talked about her past? That changed everything.

I nodded, giving him the only assurance I could. “I see the difference between the two. You have nothing to worry about from me.”

I turned, heading toward the door, but Duke’s voice stopped me just as I reached for the handle.

“I never thought I would,” he muttered. Then, after a beat, “Just a head’s up, she’ll play ping pong with your balls before you can blink if you fuck her over.”

Imighthave stumbled slightly as I stepped outside, but I recovered quickly, catching up to Kyle and Preacher as a group of unfamiliar men approached.

Kyle had no idea, but if Ieverfucked her over, Preacher would get to me before she could. Not that it would ever happen, because something about Kyle was different.

In fact, everything about her felt different.

I just hadn’t figured outwhyyet.

As we stepped outsideto meet the incoming MC called Valiant—the club Kyle had apparently reached out to for backup—I instinctively stayed close to her. Some might call it possessive, but it was more than that. It was protectiveness.

I knew she could handle herself. Hell, I had seen it firsthand. But that didn’t stop the voice inside me from whispering that I should make sure she never had to. And these new arrivals, I didn’t know them, which meant I didn’t trust them.

Engines cut off, filling the air with tense silence as the men dismounted their bikes. Kyle didn’t hesitate.

“Glad you could join us,” she called out, her voice firm, authoritative. “Let’s get this show on the fucking road.”

Duke had been right when he said she never let herself stop. Since the moment we learned about the senator’s missing daughter, she had barely slowed down. I hadn’t seen her take a break all damn day, and considering everything we had done—physically and mentally—that was impressive as hell.

How the fuck does she keep going?

I followed them into Church, taking a seat as Kyle led the briefing for Hunter and his team. They ran through the latest intel on the traffickers, while Data worked his magic on the keyboard, flipping through images that projected onto the wall behind her.

Kyle spoke with a commanding presence, flipping between information like she had lived in this world her whole life—which, in some ways, she had.

“Who the hell are these people?” Gauge asked, finally voicing the question we had all been thinking as we listened to her recap and reviewed what images Data had managed to track down.

This wasn’t just a kidnapping, it was too perfect, too calculated. This had been planned, orchestrated for a reason.

“Assholes, that’s who,” Kyle replied, her lips curving into a dangerous smile. “That said, they dropped the ball about an hour outside of where the kid was taken.”

The screen behind her flickered to an image of a man walking into a service station.

“Look familiar?”

Hunter’s entire posture stiffened. “Fucking Demingo.”

That name carried weight. We had already been briefed on this bastard over dinner before Valiant arrived, so I leaned back, observing how they processed the information. Their reactions were subtle but telling. Every man in Hunter’s crew had the unmistakable presence of military background—disciplined, sharp, analyzing details like a second nature.

Then, there were the small gestures and the silent communication between them. The way they relayed messages with quick glances and barely-there hand signals. This was going to either beinteresting or a nightmare.

“The best news?” Kyle continued, her voice smooth but electric with tension. “Because of this screw-up, we have pictures of the car…” She clicked the images forward to a close-up of a license plate. “…and we know where it’s headed.”

The next slide brought up a map, and suddenly, the tension in the room shifted.

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