Layla POV
The courthouse feeling wouldn’t leave me. The image of my father in that orange jumpsuit, chained, crying my childhood name… it played over and over. Jax saw a liar. I saw a broken, scared old man being used by monsters worse than he was. Maybe I was a fool. But he was still my blood.
I waited until night, when the fortress was quiet except for the low murmur of men on watch. I found Jax in the command room, staring at a map under a single bare bulb. Grizz was with him, along with two other Reapers. They all looked up when I appeared in the doorway.
“Jax?” I said, my voice soft. “Can we talk?”
His blue eyes were guarded, tired. He nodded to the others. Grizz and the two men filed out without a word, giving us space but not going far. I could feel their presence just outside
