Kira had been sleeping peacefully when Jax left her in his bed. Neither of them had gotten much sleep the night before, and she'd been exhausted. Just in case she woke up, he'd left her a note. He hadn't told her that he was planning to meet Raven. There was no sense in her worrying about him.

Dressed in unrelieved black, he geared up from the go bag kept in the rear of his SUV like he was preparing for war. He was. Jax removed the prospect's phone from his pocket as he slid off of his bike. He powered it up, scrolled down to his brother's name and pressed call. It didn't take long for Raven to answer.

"Yeah," was snapped impatiently.

"You're a fucking dead man," Jax informed him coldly.

Dead silence followed that announcement before his brother snarled, "Who the fuck is this?"

"And you're still a bird brain," he commented the same line he'd always taunted his brother with when they were kids. With a name like Raven, it had been the obvious insult.

More silence before his brother started to laugh. "Fuck me," he finally said. "If it ain't the mama's boy."

"You should have killed me, Rave," Jax assured him. "Because I'm coming for you."

His older brother must have thought that was hilarious because he couldn't seem to stop laughing. "Took you long enough to grow a set," Raven jeered.

"I could have killed you a hundred times before now," he corrected. "I've just been waiting for the right incentive to get you to meet me one on one."

The club president laughed and asked, "Why the fuck would I do that?"

"I have Kira," Jax admitted and smirked because his brother wasn't laughing now. "And you want her."

"Where the fuck is she?" He snarled.

"In my bed."

Raven's voice was ice cold when he said, "She's my property, Jax. Mine!"

"Yet I'm the man who marked her," he replied just as coldly. In the culture they had been raised in, a man marked his property, and no one else would dare touch it. While Jax may not have put his ink on her, the beard burns on her body had come from him, and that would serve his purpose. For now. It was also an insult Raven would not take lightly.

"You itchin' to get your ass kicked, little brother?" The older man demanded.

"Our place. Midnight," he replied. "And you'd better be alone, Rave." The line went dead, and Jax tossed the phone into the bushes.

 

***

 

Kira woke up to an empty bed. She stretched languidly and rolled over. She reached for Jaxon, but he wasn't there. Her hand brushed over his pillow, and she heard the sound of paper crinkling. Worried, she turned on the bedside lamp and grabbed the note he'd left her. Her heart sank to her toes at what she read.

If I'm not back by morning, call Steel.

He'll know what to do.

Oh, God. He'd gone after Raven! A horrified sob escaped her as tears filled her eyes. If anything happened to Jaxon, it would kill her. A glance at the clock showed it was a quarter till twelve. She had no idea how long he'd been gone. Even now he could be lying somewhere hurt. Or dying.

"No," Kira denied and shook her head vehemently. Jaxon was going to be all right. He couldn't die. Dammit, she'd just found him, and she wasn't about to lose him without a fight. Though she had no idea what to do or even where to go to start looking for him. That was when she realized that she didn't even have his phone number.

But she did have his teammates.

Kira scrambled off the bed and ran down the hall to the living room. She snatched her phone off of the coffee table with a hand that trembled. It took three tries before she could stop shaking enough to open the contacts. Scrolling down to find his name was challenging at best. She just prayed Steel answered the phone.

 

***

 

Chaz stared at the screen of his phone when it rang. He didn't recognize the number, so he answered with a gruff, "Yeah?"

A tremulous feminine voice responded in a rush of words. "You don't know me, but I'm a friend of Jaxon. Jaxon Caulder. He said if anything happened to him that I should call you. I don't know where he is, but…" her voice broke on a sob. "I'm afraid he's in trouble. He's gone to meet Raven. They'll kill him."

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this was the woman that Jax had told him about earlier. And she was scared half out of her mind. "Whoa, slow down," he said calmly. "Who's Raven? Why is Jax meeting him?"

"Raven is his brother," she choked out brokenly. "He's the President of the… the Hell Riders. And he's doing it to protect me."

The fuck?!

Chaz didn't know which was more of a surprise. The fact that Jax had a brother he'd never mentioned, or that his brother ran one of the worst outlaw motorcycle clubs in the country. No wonder Blade had asked him to protect his woman. If she was tangled up with those fuckers, shit was about to get real.

"Hold on," he instructed the woman and looked across the table at Hunter 'Stealth' Sheridan, the team's tech guru. "Ping Blade's phone."

"Problem?" Their team leader, Lieutenant Asher 'Ice' Pierce queried with a frown.

"Probably," Chaz confirmed.

"Got him," Hunter said and spat out the location.

Steel relayed the address to the woman on the phone, and she gasped in shock. "Christ Almighty. He's at their clubhouse! Help him. Please, God, help him!"

"Honey, you just sit tight," he said confidently. "We're gonna get your boy and bring him home in one piece."

"Thank you. Thank you so much," she said brokenly and ended the call.

Chaz looked around the table at the concerned faces of his teammates and explained, "Blade has decided to take on the Hell Riders to protect his woman, and he may need a little backup."

"Lock and load," Ashe commanded.

"When the fuck did Blade get a woman?" Rhett 'Shadow' Porter demanded in shock.

 

***

 

From his perch in the tree, Jax had an optimal view of the path leading to the clearing. He hated this fucking place and didn't even want to think about how many times he'd hidden there as a child. Countless times when he'd sought refuge in the darkness from his father's fury. Nor did he want to recall that his brother had shown him where to hide.

Because when they were children, Raven had tried to shield him from their old man's wrath. His older brother had taken numerous beatings for him. Bled for him. Protected him. Jax had worshiped Raven. Would have done anything for him. Until the night he became the monster that their father had trained him to be.

Robert 'Bullet' Caulder had bullied and badgered his sons from birth. He'd physically and verbally abused them on a daily basis. To teach them how to be men. Or at least his twisted version of what men should be. Bullet had been determined that his legacy of terror would live on through his sons.

Raven had been groomed to take over as President of the OMC when the old man finally kicked the bucket. Bullet had always said that Jax would never be man enough to wear the cut. Which was fine with Jax. He hadn't wanted any part of the club and hadn't believed that his brother had either.

Until the night that Raven killed their mother.

After she had unloaded the revolver into the old man, their mom had let the gun fall to the floor. She looked as if the weight of the world had finally been lifted from her shoulders when she looked at Jax. She'd even managed a smile, the first real smile he'd seen from her in a long time when she said, "We're finally free."

A split second later, a bullet had pierced her right between the eyes.

Even after all this time, he could still remember the absolute horror he'd felt when he realized that Raven had pulled the trigger. That his brother had shot their mother in cold blood. Jax had stared at him in stunned disbelief. "Why?" He'd cried rawly and could not believe what he'd just seen.

"To protect you," his brother had replied as if his heinous actions had been completely justified.

"From Mom?" He'd demanded incredulously.

"From your real father," the older brother had clarified. "Mom swore that she'd take you to him when she was free."

Horrified understanding had dawned. Bullet hadn't been his father. No wonder the bastard had hated his guts. It all made perfect sense now. But that still didn't explain or excuse their mother being murdered, so Jax had shouted in outrage, "So you killed her?"

"I'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe, Jax. No one will ever hurt you again," he swore.

"No one but you," he shot back furiously.

"I had to do it," Raven said seriously. "Your old man makes Bullet look like a fucking angel, little brother."

"Don't call me that!" Jax snarled. "I'm not your brother anymore, Rave. You're nothing to me. I hope you rot in hell with Bullet!"

His brother's expression became stoic before he responded, "If that's what it takes to keep you safe, so be it."

"Who is he? Who's my father?"

The older brother shook his head and replied seriously, "I'll take that to my grave, little brother."

"If you don't tell me I'll fucking kill you," he had warned and right then he'd been furious enough to try.

Raven had stared at him long and hard before he came to a decision. "I'll give you two choices, mama's boy," he'd said coldly and leveled the gun at his chest. "Walk away or die."

For twenty years the pain and hatred had festered. Twenty long years filled with regret. Now the day of reckoning had finally arrived. Jax shut down his emotions. Packed every ounce of feeling away. He reached deep inside himself and found the cold, calculating control needed to keep himself alive.

He went into full warrior mode.

Every sensory neuron was firing at full capacity. He was alert to the slightest sound. Attuned to every scent. Aware of each shadow and shaft of moonlight. He knew exactly when his brother arrived. Raven hadn't come alone. He had two men with him. No, three. Coming in from different directions to ambush him.

Let them come.

They had no idea that they were walking into a war zone. No clue that a trained killer lay in wait. The club members would be collateral damage. He would take no pleasure in their deaths. Nor would he feel any regret. They were not innocent civilians caught in a crossfire. They were dangerous criminals who deserved to be put to ground.

Jax would be their executioner.

God could be their judge.

He dropped from his perch without a sound. Back against the tree, he stood silent and unmoving. Raven stepped into the clearing, turned around in a circle, staring into the darkness surrounding him. "Still hiding in the woods, mama's boy?" He taunted. "Thought you wanted to face me like a man."

His brother was standing so close that Jax could have slit his throat and vanished before anyone had a clue. But that wasn't the way this was going to play out. He wanted to look Raven in the eye. See the fear of death on his face. Hear him beg for his miserable life. Watch the life drain out of him. He wanted the fucker to suffer for what he'd done.

Jax was an expert at making people suffer.

Raven turned in a circle again, looking up in the trees this time. "Come on out, ya pussy," he jeered.

Ignoring the man trying to distract him, Jax managed to locate the one coming up on his right and the one on his left. He slid two throwing knives from his vest, palming one in each hand. While his brother's back was turned, he flung both arms out to his sides simultaneously. His aim was true, and the knives hit their marks.

The man on the right crashed through the underbrush, grasping the blade lodged in his throat. Blood gushed from his mouth as he tried in vain to cry out. He hit his knees, convulsed and fell face first into the dirt. The man on the left never even made a sound. He was dead before his body hit the ground with a thump.

Raven looked from one of his men to the other in disbelief. Then he began to laugh. The bastard laughed so hard that he bent over double. "Looks like you finally grew a backbone, little brother," he said in amusement. "Maybe you do have some of the old man in ya."

Jax wasn't about to let the fucker goad him into doing something stupid. Which is exactly what that taunt had been meant to do. Instead, he said in a voice filled with icy calm, "You should've killed me, Rave."

The older brother whirled around and stared at the shadow where he stood. "Couldn't pull the trigger on my little bro," he denied.

"Too bad you didn't have that problem with mom," he derided.

"Mom was your weakness," his brother clarified. "You were mine. The only fucking thing I cared about was you."

"And ruling the club," Jax countered.

"That was a matter of survival," Raven shot back. "I had to take control. It's a dog eat dog world, Jax. And I'm the biggest, baddest dog in the pack."

He'd been listening intently, and there hadn't been any movement from the surrounding area. He knew there were more than two men. Since no one was sneaking up behind him, Jax stepped out of the shadows to draw them out of hiding and sneered, "Yeah. Terrorizing helpless women makes you a real badass."

That pissed his brother off. Until this moment, he'd never realized just how much Raven looked like Bullet. It was evident with the hardening of his features. "That bitch is mine," he snarled menacingly and took a step forward. "Bring her to me, and I'll let you walk away."

Jax folded his arms over his chest and countered with, "Think I'd rather keep her and kill you."

Raven pulled a gun from the waist of his pants about the same time that Jax heard a bush rustle behind him. That would be the third man finally making a move. In a blur of movement, his brother dropped the biker with one shot. Stuffing the gun back into his waist, he muttered, "Good riddance."

Jax recognized the man lying on the ground. Jackal had been Bullet's enforcer and the most vicious bastard he'd ever known. The gun still clenched in his hand assured him that the mofo would have shot him in the back if Raven hadn't killed him. Turning back to face his brother, he accused, "You should've come alone."

"You should've stayed away," his brother snapped and took a swing at his head.

"I did until you went after my woman," he informed him as he dodged the blow and landed one of his own to the solar plexus.

"I need her, Jax," Raven snarled as they circled each other, looking for an opening.

"The only way to get to her is through me," he replied.

His brother pulled a knife from the sheath on his hip and said, "Then this is on you, little brother."

Jax was ready for him when he lunged. In a split second, he had Raven backed against the tree, the knife at his throat. He could tell by the feel of the carvings on the hilt that he was holding Bullet's knife. The one the old man had sliced him with on his sixth birthday. That had been the first time that Raven had tried to intervene.

They had both needed stitches afterward.

A shaft of moonlight revealed his brother's face. There was no fear in his eyes. Just resignation. And acceptance. Jax did not take pleasure in it. Instead, he felt an overwhelming sense of grief and loss. For the brother he had once idolized. And sorrow for the monster that he had become.

Instead of slicing his throat and watching the life drain out of him as intended, Jax hesitated. For the first time ever, he didn't immediately finish the kill. Because this one was personal. No matter how hard he tried to shut down his emotions, he couldn't forget that the man he was about to put down was his brother.

"You can't do it," Raven taunted. "Just like I can't kill you."

"I can't let you live either," Jax shot back and wondered which of them he was trying to convince.

"Why? Because of a woman?" He demanded and laughed nastily. "Tell ya what. I'll let you have her when I'm through. Been wanting to shove my cock in that smart mouth for… gak!"

The tip of the blade penetrating his throat silenced the offensive offer. The offer that had forcefully reminded Jax why his brother had to die. His expression as cold and forbidding as it had ever been, he kept his eyes locked on Raven's. "Make sure you tell the old man who sent you to hell," he commanded in a lethal tone.

A twisted smile curved his brother's mouth. "He'll be so proud."

The fact that Raven wasn't kidding just disgusted him even more. With a roar of frustration, Jax yanked his hand back and impaled the knife into the tree beside his brother's head. He couldn't do it. He couldn't fucking do it. Shoving his forearm against the other man's throat, he demanded, "What will it take to get you to back the fuck off?"

Eyes so like his own searched his in the darkness. "I need the laptop Kira took," he replied and sounded desperate. "And your word that she'll keep her mouth shut about club business."

"What's so important about the laptop?" He demanded.

"It's got the club's financial records," Raven admitted. "The people I do business with would cut me into fish bait if they knew it was missing."

"Maybe you should find a better class of people to do business with," Jax suggested sarcastically as he released him and took a step back.

Raven laughed at that even as he rubbed his bleeding neck. "That's rich considering your old man is the one calling the shots," he jeered.

"The fuck you say?" He demanded. All those years ago, his brother had refused to tell him who his father was, claiming he was a monster. Now the bastard was doing business with him?

"Everything has a price, little brother," the oldest said as he slid down the tree, parking his ass on the ground. "Your freedom didn't come free."

"The hell are you saying, Rave?"

"Should've told you when we were kids," he sighed and wiped his bloody hand on his pants leg. "The only people who knew were mom, dad and his officers. Bullet would have killed anyone who mentioned it, which is how you never found out. Now that these three are dead, the only person who knows the truth is me."

"What is the truth?" Jax demanded and was determined to get some straight answers.

"When I was a baby, some German dude approached Bullet with a deal. The old man refused, so the prick kidnapped mom to change his mind," he began. "Bullet was crazy about her back then. Would have done anything to get her back. So he agreed to deal with the devil, and they sent mom home. But she didn't want to stay."

He looked up at Jax and explained, "The fucker had seduced her with his money and charm. She'd had a taste of the good life and liked it. Mom wanted to go back to him, and that damn near killed Bullet. The old man wouldn't let mom go to punish her. And he was stuck doing business with the man that she was in love with."

"That explains why he hated my fucking guts," Jax said as he parked his ass on the ground beside his brother.

Raven snorted a laugh at that. "The shit really hit the fan when he found out that mom was pregnant. Bullet was ready to kill her until your old man got involved. He told him he didn't give a damn what he did to mom after you were born, but he wanted you."

"Why didn't Bullet just hand me over?"

"Mom freaked the fuck out, threatened to kill herself if he let you go," he confessed. "So Bullet agreed to continue making runs for your old man if mom got to keep you. The bastard loved her as much as he hated her. Since hurting you hurt her, he took it to the extreme just to make her miserable."

"When I took over the club, I severed the connection. Told your old man to fuck off cause he didn't have shit to hold over my head. His deal had been with Bullet, not the club," Raven admitted. "He agreed to let us walk away if I handed you over. Fucker got pissed as hell when I didn't know where you were."

"You knew," he accused. Jax had gone to live with their grandfather, a cantankerous old sailor who had despised his son-in-law and the club he rode with. But Salty Jones had loved his grandsons. He'd kept in touch with Raven because Jax had never admitted who had killed their mother. The old man believed Bullet had done it.

"Fuck yeah, I knew. After all the shit I'd done to keep you away from him, the prick wasn't getting his hands on you," he agreed. "But the fucker has connections. He could have tracked you down. So I made a deal with the devil. The club would continue to make runs for him if he stayed away from you."

Jax simply could not fathom the lengths his brother had gone to in order to keep him away from his father. He'd killed their mom, taken over the club he'd hated, and made a deal with his father to keep him safe. The old man had to be one bad mother fucker. "You sacrificed yourself for me," he accused.

"I did what I had to," Raven shrugged. "At least one of us got to have a normal life."

"You still can," he suggested.

His brother gave him a bleak look. "Once you're in as deep as I am, there ain't no way back out, Jax," he denied. "Your old man would be the first in line to have me put to ground. I ain't ready to go out yet."

"Who is he?" Jax just had to ask in spite of the fact that he knew he was better off not knowing.

"I don't know his name. Nobody does," he replied. "Mom called him Erich. Bullet called him the fucking devil, but his people refer to him as Midas."

"What is he, mafia?" He queried and wondered who had the kind of power to keep an OMC like the Hell Riders under their control.

He snorted a laugh at that. "Mafia? Bro, he controls them too," his brother admitted. "This fucker has everybody in his pocket. Cops, Feds, politicians, you name it, he owns them. He belongs to some fucked up neo-Nazi new world order organization. Raven rolled his head sideways and said, "I wasn't bluffing, Jax. They will kill me if those records get out."

"You can have the laptop," he conceded. "But Kira is off limits, Rave. She's mine."

"Done," the older brother agreed and extended his hand.

Twenty years of anger and bitterness had been somewhat appeased at finally hearing the truth. Right or wrong, the lengths that Raven had gone to in order to keep him safe deserved a measure of respect. Jax clasped his brother's wrist and felt a hand wrap around his own. The gesture symbolic of the pact they had made as children to always have each other's back.

"You should think about getting out, Rave," he said seriously as he rose to his feet. "You deserve a real life."

"It is what it is," he sighed as he stood as well. Raven walked over to the man on their right and rolled him over with his booted foot. "Damn, Jax, the Navy taught you how to fight dirty."

Jax walked over to the dead man on the left to retrieve his blade and found it lodged in the fucker's eye. Dude must have been shorter than he thought. He'd been aiming for his throat. Raven handed him the blade he'd removed from the other man. "How are you going to explain this shit?" He queried with a nod to the three dead club members.

"You forget the Prez don't have to explain anything. Besides, these evil fuckers were the last of Bullet's old crew. Nobody gives a shit if they disappear," Raven admitted and flashed him the devilish grin he recalled so vividly. "See ya soon, little brother," he said as he started walking back to the clubhouse.

"You can come out now," Jax announced to the silent forest. Seven men moved out of the shadows and converged on him. Yeah. He'd known for some time that his team was there. Jax hated the fact that they had witnessed his brother's confession, but it was too late to do anything about it now. "Why the fuck are you here?"

"A better question would be, why the fuck are you?" Ashe shot back.

Ah hell. When Ice used his pissed off lieutenant's voice, it was never good. Then again, a SEAL team officer finding one of his men with three unsanctioned kills on US soil might have put him in a bad mood. Not to mention Ashe was duty bound to hand his ass over to the Shore Patrol.

"I'd rather save it for the court-martial," he said in resignation.

Ashe folded his arms over his chest and stared him down with those icy gray eyes. Jax held his ground and didn't flinch under the stare. Nor did he offer any intel. "Since you've already made yourself the executioner," he bit out. "I'm going to be the judge and jury. Spill your fucking guts, SEAL."

"Twenty years ago, my mother killed my stepfather to stop him from killing me," he ground out in a voice that sounded like gravel. "My brother put a bullet in her head and took the old man's place as the president of the Hell Riders. He got away with it because I walked away like a fucking coward."

"Dude, you were a kid," Chaz interjected. "The fuck were you supposed to do?"

"Steel's right, hermano," Rico 'Cruise' Montenegro agreed. "You were just a niño."

"After all this time, what made you decide to even the score?" Reed 'Blaze' Holt asked in confusion.

"There's more," Ashe predicted.

"Yesterday I met a woman terrified out of her mind," he growled. "She was running from my brother because he wanted to make her his old lady. In biker culture that means she's his property. He'd own her. Like a fucking slave. So yeah, I was going to put the bastard to ground. I'd do anything to keep her safe."

"So why didn't you?" Rhett 'Shadow' Porter questioned.

"How much did you hear?" Jax queried.

"Enough to know that your brothers been protecting you for a long time," he admitted.

"Rave never wanted any part of the club. He sacrificed himself and any hope of having a normal life so I could be free," he confessed. "So we came to a mutual understanding."

"Which is?" Ashe barked.

"He gets to live, and I get the girl."

Every man on the team nodded their agreement with his decision. All eyes turned to their leader's grim expression, awaiting his verdict. "Are we gonna bury the bodies or leave the fuckers here to rot?" He questioned.

Jax stared at him in surprise. "You're not turning me in?"

Ashe clapped a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. "For doing the right thing? Fuck no. If we were OCONUS, I'd give you a medal. Since we're not, I'll buy you a beer instead."

That surprised a rusty laugh out of him, and Jax admitted, "I'd rather have the beer."

"Might want to take a rain check on that," Chaz suggested. "You've got a worried woman waiting for you at home."

"She's staying at your place?" Mace 'Reaper' Donovan asked in shock.

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen," Reed laughed.

"Does this woman have a name?" Hunter 'Stealth' Sheridan queried.

"Her name is Kira, and yes, she's staying with me," Jax admitted. "She's safe at my place."

"Except from beard burn," Steel said with a devilish smile.

 

***

 

Every last one of his teammates followed Jax into his condo. Yeah, they were a bunch of nosey fuckers. But they were eager to meet the woman who brought Blade to his knees. Because they knew him well. And this Kira had to be pretty damn special to break through the nearly impenetrable vault he kept his emotions locked in.

It didn't take long to figure out how she'd done it.

A gorgeous little redhead with a smoking hot body practically flew across the room. "Jaxon," she exclaimed as she jumped into his arms. Her legs locked around his waist, hands tangled in his hair, her mouth covered his in a kiss filled with desperation. Jax held her in a fierce embrace as his mouth ate at hers just as hungrily.

Neither of them paid any attention to the group of men who let themselves out and locked the door behind them. Once in the hall, Ashe addressed his team with a shit-eating grin, "Men have started wars for a woman like that."

"Blade better stock up on sunblock," Chaz agreed with a wicked smile.