Page 42 of Shadow Strike
“No.He can’t.”Ryder’s smile widened.“Which makes this a pretty simple choice for you.Walk away from Regan, and Wade lives out his days in peace.Keep protecting her, and I’ll make sure that if she goes public with her investigation, your father will take the fall.”
CB forced himself to breathe.Ryder thought he had the upper hand.
Let him keep thinking that.
Outside, he heard the roar of bikes.A dozen of them, at least.“I won’t let you frame him,” CB said, his phone secure in his hand inside his pocket.
Ryder studied him for a long moment.Then he laughed—a short, dismissive sound.“You don’t have a choice.”
He walked past CB toward the door, close enough that their shoulders almost touched.At the threshold, he paused.“You’ve got twenty-four hours to decide.After that, the offer expires.”
Then he was gone, his boots echoing across the porch and down the steps.
CB stood alone in the empty lodge, the lantern light flickering across the walls.The room felt colder now, the memories of childhood erased by what had just happened.
Ryder would kill Regan if he had to.CB had seen it in his eyes—the calculation, the willingness to do whatever it took to protect what he’d built.
And if CB backed off, if he abandoned her to protect his father, Regan would be alone against all of it.
He couldn’t do that.Not to her.Not to himself.
CB walked to the door and stepped onto the porch.There, he stopped.
The gravel lot that had been empty except for his truck was now full.Motorcycles lined the perimeter.Men stood in loose clusters, their faces lit by the glow of cigarettes and phone screens.
CB recognized some.Collin “Red” Hartman, who’d taken on his first ride into the mountains when he was twelve.Holton Ostrander, who’d been at every Briggs family barbecue for as long as CB could remember.Ned Beechum, whose daughter had gone to school with CB.
The rest were strangers.Younger, harder-looking, with the wary eyes of people who’d joined the organization after its transformation.Ryder’s recruits.Ryder’s loyalists.
None of them spoke.They just watched as CB walked down the steps and crossed the lot to his truck.Watched as he climbed in and started the engine.Watched as he backed out and drove away, their eyes tracking him the whole way.
The message was clear:Follow orders or else.
CB drove the dark roads back toward the bar.Ryder thought he held all the cards.Wade as leverage.The Outlaws as muscle.The threat of exposure hanging over CB’s head.
But Ryder didn’t know about Claire.Didn’t know about the FBI case, the cease and desist that would arrive tomorrow and prove Regan wasn’t backing down.
Didn’t know about the recording on CB’s phone.He pulled it out, checked that he’d gotten the whole conversation.
Ryder didn’t realize that CB had his own loyalists among the Outlaws.Men who remembered what the organization used to stand for, before Ryder twisted it into something meaner and darker.Men who’d stand with CB when the time came.
This wasn’t over.Not by a long shot.
CB thought about his father.Wade’s hands, once so strong, now unable to button his shirt.His voice, once commanding, now reduced some days to slurred syllables and frustrated silence.
Wade had made mistakes—plenty of them.But he’d also preserved most of what his father had built.He didn’t deserve to be Ryder’s fall guy.And CB wasn’t going to let that happen.
He owed Regan an explanation.He owed her the truth.
Tomorrow.He’d tell her everything tomorrow.And then they’d figure out the next step together.
Family loyalty didn’t mean protecting someone from the consequences of their choices.It didn’t mean covering up crimes or looking the other way while people got hurt.And it sure as hell didn’t mean letting Ryder Briggs tear down everything CB cared about just to save his own skin.
Ryder was family by blood.But blood didn’t make someone worth protecting.
CB was going to take him down.
Whatever it cost, however long it took—Ryder was going to answer for what he’d done.To Wade.To Regan.All of it.
