ASHES, BLOOD, AND THE LITTLE BEAR

Jax’s stomach plummeted into an abyss of cold fury. The man stalking through the trees was Marcus, a patched member of the Iron Nomads and a brother Jax had bled for in bar fights and highway skirmishes across the state. Marcus carried an AR-15 at the low ready, wearing night-vision goggles pushed up onto his brow.

""Jax!"" Marcus called out into the dark, his voice low and urgent. ""Come on out, man. We know you’re out here with the kid. Vance has five million on your heads, dead or alive. The President made the call. The club is cashing in.""

Jax clamped his hand gently over Lily’s mouth, pulling her deep into the shadow of the overhang. The betrayal tasted like bile. The club was supposed to be the only thing pure in a corrupted world—a brotherhood bound by blood and sacred oaths. To find out they had sold him and an innocent child to Gabriel Vance was worse than a bullet.

""We don't want to hurt the girl, Jax!"" Marcus shouted again, closer now, dry pine needles crunching beneath his heavy boots. ""Just leave the bear and walk away. Vance just wants the drive!""

Jax looked at Lily. Her eyes were wide, dark, and filled with a sorrow no child should possess. She didn't cry. She reached out and touched Jax’s leather vest, right over his heart, whispering against his fingers, ""Daddy, are your friends bad too?""

""They aren't my friends anymore,"" Jax muttered, his jaw tightening until his teeth ached.

Quietly, Jax unbuttoned his cut—the sacred leather vest bearing his patches, his history, and his soul. He laid it gently on the forest floor, stepping away from it. He was no longer a Nomad. He was just a father.

Marcus emerged into the small clearing ten paces away, his weapon sweeping toward the shadows.

Jax didn't draw his gun. He moved with explosive speed from the darkness, kicking Marcus's rifle barrel skyward just as a shot cracked, splintering a pine limb above. Jax drove his elbow hard into Marcus's jaw, sending the biker crashing onto his back. Before Marcus could recover, Jax pinned him to the dirt, pressing his .45 barrel under Marcus’s chin.