Holding The Pieces

Rafe had the call routed through a secure line within minutes, tracing capability quietly running in the background, and the war room fell into absolute silence as Emmett dialed a number he had not used in thirty years, his weathered hands steady now despite the tremor that had gripped them only moments before.The line rang twice before it connected, and a voice answered, cool and unhurried, carrying an unmistakable echo of the same careful, controlled cadence Voss himself had once used, though younger, sharper, entirely its own.The voice said: Emmett. I confess I did not expect you to actually call. I rather thought you'd let your new family handle this the way you've let them handle everything else.Emmett's jaw tightened, but his voice, when he spoke, remained carefully level. He said: hello, Julian. It's been a long time.Julian Reyes said: thirty-one years, three months, since you last returned one of my calls. I remember exactly, in case you were wondering whether I've thought

What Thirty Years of Absence Made

The call ended shortly after, and the war room erupted into immediate, fractured debate, Colt adamantly opposed to Emmett meeting Reyes alone under any circumstances, Dutch cautiously weighing the offer against everything they knew about how carefully Reyes had orchestrated every move so far.Colt said: this is exactly how Voss operated. Isolate the target, control the terms, control the location. We cannot send Emmett into that alone.Emmett, sitting very still at the table, his face carrying the particular exhausted weight of a man who had just spoken to his estranged brother for the first time in three decades, said: I understand the risk, Colt. I have understood risk longer than most of you have been alive. But I also understand something none of the rest of you can, which is exactly how my brother thinks, how he negotiates, what actually might move him. If there's any chance this ends without more violence, without more people I care about being hurt, I have to try.Marco, listen

All Chapters of Claimed By The Outlaw: Chapter 111 - Chapter 112

Holding The Pieces

What Thirty Years of Absence Made