All Chapters of The Captain I Blame For My Brother’s death, Hides his Jersey: Chapter 61 - Chapter 68

CHAPTER 60The week of ceasefire brought an unfamiliar, almost disorienting calm to the farmhouse, no late-night emergency calls, no reports of new attacks, and I found myself almost unable to trust the quiet, constantly bracing for violence that didn't come, my body still running on the adrenaline patterns of active war even as the immediate danger receded. I caught myself flinching at ordinary sounds, a car door, a dropped plate, my nervous system refusing to accept that the threat might genuinely have paused even temporarily.Tiago noticed, of course, the way he noticed everything about me these days, and took to quietly warning me before any sudden sound, a gentle hand on my shoulder before he closed a door too firmly, a soft word of warning before dropping something in the kitchen. It was a small kindness, almost invisible if you weren't looking for it, but it meant more to me than almost anything else he could have offered during that strange, suspended week."You don't have to

CHAPTER 62I watched the footage Cam pulled up, daylight security camera recordings showing Henrique's enforcers moving with brazen, almost theatrical confidence, clearly unconcerned about human witnesses this time in a way that chilled me more than any previous attack. Whatever restraint the ceasefire represented, Henrique had now abandoned it completely and publicly, and the calculated nature of the timing, right as we were beginning to let our guard down, told me everything about how deliberately this had been planned."They didn't even wear masks," Cam said grimly, pausing the footage on a clear shot of one enforcer's face. "That's not recklessness, Tiago. That's a message. He wants us to know exactly who did this.""He wants more than that," I said, studying the frozen frame, the enforcer's expression caught somewhere between pride and challenge. "He wants it documented. He wants human authorities to have no choice but to notice, which means he's no longer worried about exposure

CHAPTER 64The group worked with desperate speed to plan a rescue operation using Beatriz's intelligence about the hunting lodge, Cam coordinating a small, fast-moving team while Isadora worked to ensure any pack council fallout from crossing into Spanish territory again could be justified as emergency rescue rather than renewed aggression, a distinction that felt increasingly thin given how fast events were moving. Maps were spread across the kitchen table once more, the same table where we'd planned the poison shipment interception weeks ago, now carrying an urgency that felt sharper, more personal than anything that had come before it."We move within the hour," Cam said, tracing a route across the map with one finger, his earlier banter entirely gone, replaced by the brisk, focused efficiency that always emerged in him during exactly this kind of crisis. "Every hour we wait is an hour Henrique has to decide Rafael's served his purpose.""Understood," Tiago said. "Walk us through t

CamilaThe courtyard of the farmhouse felt too small after the open dark of the border roads. People moved around us in tight, efficient patterns. Cam’s fighters checked weapons and reloaded magazines. Someone brought water and clean cloths for Rafael’s wrists. Lucía refused to leave his side for even a second.I stood with Tiago near the main door, still turning Rafael’s warning over in my head. The enforcers had pulled back in perfect order. That was not a defeated force. That was a force that had finished its job and walked away with exactly what it came for.“He wanted a headcount,” Tiago noted quietly. The understanding sat heavy on his face. “He wanted to see who still matters enough to you and to me that we would risk crossing the border for them.”I nodded. My throat felt tight. “And now he knows.”Isadora stepped closer. The night wind pulled at the ends of her hair. “The false ceasefire. The warehouse attack. Rafael’s kidnapping. All of it was reconnaissance. He has been map