LOGINMarcus
Two words were all it took to crack something open in me. For fourteen days, I had imagined finding Jarek a hundred ways, and none prepared me for him looking at me from that chair like I had only been gone ten minutes.
I crossed the room before I realized I was moving.
MarcusTwo words were all it took to crack something open in me. For fourteen days, I had imagined finding Jarek a hundred ways, and none prepared me for him looking at me from that chair like I had only been gone ten minutes. I crossed the room before I realized I was moving.Sable shifted off his lap enough to give me space. I caught the back of Jarek’s neck, leaned down, and pressed my forehead against his. He was warm, breathing, and here, and everything I had held together for the club, for Sable, and for myself cracked at once.My hand shook against his neck until Jarek breathed out slowly and asked, “Miss me?”
SableThe door hit the wall hard enough to make both men inside turn. Jarek sat in the center of the room in a metal chair, one wrist cuffed to the armrest and a chain wrapped around his waist. His shirt was filthy and torn, one side of his face swollen badly enough to narrow his eye. Dried blood marked his mouth, collar, and the skin near his hairline. He looked thinner than he had fourteen days ago, exhausted enough that the restraints seemed to be doing part of the work of holding him upright.He was alive, and the second his eyes found mine every other detail in the room tried to disappear.“Kitty.”The word nearly took my knees out, but the man beside him reeked of cigarettes. Keys hung from his right pocket, and he had one hand on Jarek’s shoulder with a syringe in the other. A younger man stood on Jarek’s opposite side with a pistol already coming up, so I fired first. The younger man went backward into the wall. His shot hit the ceiling, showering dust across the room as the
SableNobody celebrated when Nixx said we had found him. The clubhouse changed shape around the words instead. Chairs scraped back, weapons came out, and radios, magazines, keys, and maps started moving from hand to hand. We had an address strong enough to bet lives on, but every person in that room understood what still stood between us and Jarek.Marcus started assigning people before the silence fully broke. “Stone, pull the old building plans. Max, split Doom between the loading side and the northern exit. Nixx, kill that camera before we get close. Benny, stay here and keep every feed you can reach open.”The room reorganized itself around him so quickly it would have been easy to miss the way his hand shook once when he reached for the magazine beside mine. I saw it. He saw me notice. Neither of us said anything because there was nothing useful to say.I looked down at Jarek’s wedding band on my thumb. I had worn it there since Calderon because taking it off had felt impossible,
SableDay Thirteen began with an abandoned building and no guarantee Jarek was inside it.That was still more than we had yesterday.We had spent the back half of Day Twelve confirming everything we could without getting close enough to warn whoever was watching Arroyo Agricultural Storage. The place had no active utilities and no legitimate business, but it had fresh tire marks, a newer cellular security camera, and two public rail crossings close enough together to fit the clue Jarek had fought to hold onto.By sunrise, I wanted to hit it.
MarcusBy Day Eleven, exhaustion had stopped being something any of us discussed.Nobody asked whether I had slept because the answer was obvious. Sable’s eyes were red around the edges, Max had started drinking coffee like it was water, and even Nixx and Benny had lost the ability to pretend they were running on anything except caffeine and spite. The clubhouse smelled like stale food, printer paper, leather, and too many people who had been wearing the same cuts for too many hours.We were still moving.That was the only part that mattered.The northern branch Benny isolated had give
SableWe reached the Calderon Holdings warehouse at six thirty-eight on the morning of Day Nine.Nobody had gone home. Nobody had slept. Nixx verified the utility spike, Marcus called the club, and we were on the road within minutes of Tomas giving us the address. The sky was turning gray by the time the warehouse appeared beyond a strip of scrub west of Los Lunas.Power was on. Fresh tire tracks cut through the gravel, one security light still burned over the loading bay, and a side door had been left badly latched. None of that meant Jarek was inside. I had learned that lesson too many times already.Marcus pulled in beside me and kil







