Layla’s POV
The last rumble of the bikes faded down the county road, swallowed up by the thick morning mist and the trees. The quiet that rushed in to fill the space was worse than the noise. It was a heavy, waiting kind of quiet.
I stood on the porch, the rough wood cold under my bare feet, my thin robe doing nothing against the chill that wasn’t just from the air. My heart was stuck somewhere up in my throat, beating a frantic, trapped rhythm. The image of them all rolling out—Jax’s face like carved stone, Grizz looking like a moving mountain of fury—was frozen behind my eyes.
“Those goddamn Vipers,” I finally breathed out, the words a cloud in the cool air. I wrapped my arms around myself. “Won’t they ever just get a break? Won’t they ever just… stop?”
I turned to Chloe, my voice
