Page 24 of King's Claim
“Maybe.”Viper crossed his arms.“Or maybe you just pushed away the only person who’s managed to get under your skin in a decade.”
King shot him a glare sharp enough to cut steel.Viper just smirked faintly, like he’d expected the reaction.He pushed off the frame.
“Thought you’d want to know,” Viper said, his voice losing its edge.“Word came in.Serpents hit The Pit Stop again last night.This time they didn’t just tag it.Place went up in flames.”
The wrench slipped from King’s hand, clattering to the floor.He stood, shoulders stiff.
“What?”King demanded.
“Torched it.Total loss.Rick’s a mess.Cops’ll write it off as an accident, same as always.Everyone knows whose hand was on the match,” Viper explained.
King’s pulse pounded in his ears.Fury boiled hot and fast, but beneath it, something colder settled in his gut.
The Pit Stop had been Lena’s place.Her second home.He could still see her behind the bar, chin up, eyes blazing when the Serpents leaned too close.She’d fought for that place, for every scrap of independence it gave her.
And now it was gone because of the Serpents and because of him.Because he hadn’t been there.
By the time he hit the clubhouse war room, his men were already gathering, murmuring in tight knots.The news had traveled fast.
“Those bastards think they can light up what’s ours and walk away?”Rage growled, his voice booming.“We can’t let this slide, King.”
King dropped into the head chair, elbows braced on the scarred wood table.He wanted blood.Every instinct screamed to saddle up, to burn the Serpents to ash for daring to touch what was his.
But through the roar of fury, the hollow ache gnawed deeper.Lena.
She’d already lost enough.Her mom’s health, her peace, the bar that paid their bills, and now him.He’d given her nothing but reasons to hate him.
Yet the thought of her out there, alone, trying to hold it together while everything crumbled.Christ, it gutted him.He was supposed to protect her.Instead, he’d failed her twice over.
“King?”Viper’s voice cut through the haze.
King looked up, scanning the faces of his brothers.They were waiting for orders.For fire, for war.
However, all he could see was Lena’s eyes, stormy and proud, the way she’d told him he didn’t get to decide for her.She was right.King hadn’t protected her by pushing her away.He’d just left her vulnerable.
King shoved back his chair and stood, towering over the table.
“The Serpents think they can torch The Pit Stop, scare people into silence?Not on my watch.We’ll answer them, and when we do, it’ll be something they don’t come back from,” King said.
The brothers roared their approval, fists pounding the table.King barely heard them.His gaze drifted to the door, to the empty hallway beyond.Because even as the Devil’s Crown prepared for war, all he could think about was the woman who wasn’t there and the hole she’d left behind.
