LOGINJarekBy the following night, I was tired of everybody watching me like they expected sleep to turn into a fistfight.Marcus still had a fading mark on his forearm from the night before, and both of them had spent the day pretending they were not watching whenever I got quiet. Nixx had spent those same hours chasing footage around the tire shop. The traffic camera proved Mack met somebody, but not what happened at the car. Until Nixx found another angle, all we could do was wait.I hated both.So when the bedroom door closed and Sable started gathering clothes for the shower, I said t
JarekThe first thing I knew was that my wrists would not move.The second was the smell.Bleach. Sweat. Concrete. Something medicinal caught at the back of my throat while darkness pressed close around me. I pulled once, hard, and resistance answered immediately.No.Not again.I twisted, searching for leverage that was not there. My shoulder lit up. Something touched my chest, and every part of me reacted before I knew what the fuck I
SableThe current gate rotation sat on the war-room screen like an accusation.Marcus had brought back enough from the meeting in Belen to make everybody upstairs go quiet. Mateo was preparing multiple sites. Weapons, vehicles, men, routes that could move if one location burned. The surviving Jackal had confirmed the plan was bigger than revenge now. Jarek’s death was supposed to crack the Daggers open, and Marcus was supposed to inherit whatever remained.Then the bastard had unfolded the gate rotation.Not an old one.The new one.The version Nixx rebuilt after Motor Works, less than forty-eight hours before Marcus saw it in the Jackal’s hand.Mack had access to it.That did not make him guilty by itself anymore. We were past by itself. Two false packets had followed him out of the clubhouse and into Serrano communications. Now a current security schedule had reached the man acting as Mateo’s biker liaison.Nixx and Benny were working backward through every place the rotation had ex
MarcusBy eleven forty-five the next night, everybody who mattered knew where I was going and nobody who mattered looked like they did.That was the only way the meeting worked. Mateo’s people wanted me alone, which meant I had to arrive alone. It did not mean I was stupid enough to actually be alone. Nixx had the truck-service lot mapped from three angles, Benny had traffic cameras on the nearest road, and Stone and Bryce were positioned far enough out that nobody watching the meeting would see Dagger colors unless things went wrong.Jarek stayed at the clubhouse because his absence from the compound would destroy the entire point of the performance.
SableBy the next afternoon, apparently I had become a voting bloc.I learned that from the Iron Saints’ vice president, which was not how I expected my day to go. Camden and I had met exactly twice, once at a memorial ride and once when the Saints passed through Middletown on their way west. He was not a friend, but he was neutral enough that his call mattered. Neutral clubs did not usually insert themselves into another club’s internal problems unless those problems were starting to affect business.I answered outside Motor Works because Marcus was inside arguing with an insurance adjuster and I valued my hearing.&
MarcusBy midnight, Nixx had enough to confirm Mack was not simply unlucky.The second false packet had gone out with him at seven twenty-three. Twenty-three minutes later, the revised time, west gate, Benny’s name, and the fake storage unit appeared in Serrano communications. Once that hit, Nixx went backward through traffic cameras and card activity from the first leak instead of only looking forward from the second. That was how he found the gas station.Mack had stopped there after both packets.The first time, before we knew to watch him, a traffic camera caught his bike en







