تسجيل الدخولMarcusSable stayed downstairs after lunch.Normally that sentence would have meant nothing. Today it meant Jarek checked the time twice, asked once whether Nixx had changed the gate rotation, and then deliberately put his phone facedown on the nightstand like he was trying to prove something to himself.I let him.The bedroom had gone quiet after the call with Nixx. We knew Mateo was receiving information from inside our world. We did not know who was giving it to him, how long it had been happening, or whether the person understood exactly what Mateo was doing with what they passed
JarekThe next morning, Sable went downstairs at nine twelve.I knew the exact time because at nine thirteen Marcus looked over the top of his laptop and informed me she had been gone one minute.I told him I knew.He told me to stop checking.I flipped him off and went back to the tablet across my thighs.Marcus sat near the bedroom window pretending to review club accounts while actually monitoring me like a very annoying parole office
SableThree nights later, Jarek finally slept in our bed again.That should not have felt like an event. It was our bed. His side had not changed while he was gone, and Marcus and I had barely used it after the first night because neither of us could stand the empty space between us.Now Jarek occupied that space again, propped against enough pillows to make him complain that we had turned him into somebody’s grandmother. The bruising along his face had faded around the edges, his wrists were healing beneath lighter bandages, and the doctor had removed the IV that afternoon after his labs came back better. His ribs still made every movement careful, his shoulder remained strapped, and he tired faster than he admitted.But he was here.Marcus lay on his side facing him while I rested against Jarek’s uninjured shoulder, careful about where I put my weight. Nobody had turned on the television. Every laptop and phone had been abandoned on the dresser, which might have been the strangest p
SableBy late morning the next day, four Vipers rolled through the Black Daggers gate.Brian came first, Tag behind him, followed by two patched men I recognized well enough to know their faces but not well enough to pretend we were friends. They parked together near the garage and stayed with their bikes until Stone finished checking weapons and confirming exactly who had entered the compound.Brian had kept the group small on purpose. Four men, four bikes, and two boxes of old Vipers records strapped down like they were hauling somebody’s tax returns instead of years of criminal history.It should have been simple.Jarek hated it immediately.I knew that before I even made it downstairs because Marcus texted while I was still pulling on my boots.He wants names.A second message appeared before I answered.All of them.I typed back the four names, shoved my phone into my pocket, and went down to meet Brian.Tag stood beside one of the boxes with his helmet hooked beneath one arm. I
SableThe message on Mateo’s burner changed the room without anybody moving.KING IS OUT. BURN THE ROUTES.Jarek stared at the laptop while his fingers stayed wrapped around mine. His grip was still weaker than normal, but the tension running through his hand was not. He asked how quickly Mateo could actually burn a network like that, and Nixx gave him the ugly answer: it depended on what routes meant. Phones, drivers, properties, freight accounts, shell companies. If Mateo started shutting everything down the second he knew we had Jarek, some of it might already be gone.
JarekNixx had barely finished saying they had not opened the file box when I asked why, and the fact that he glanced toward Marcus before answering irritated me more than it should have.“Don’t look at him. I asked you.”Nixx adjusted the laptop under his arm and came farther into the room. They had been inventorying everything before they started tearing into it, he explained. Benny was downstairs with the other burner and the paperwork, and Nixx had only come up because Marcus told him I was awake.“Good. Now I’m awake.”







