“Yeah,” Farrow mutters. “And they’re not thrilled about it. The syndicate doesn’t like losing, Mal. You know that.”
“I do.”
Malerick stares at the map pinned to the far wall, his mind racing. He thought the wedding would scare the assholes, instead he fucked up everything.
“Any word on how they pulled it off?” Gil asks, already jotting notes on the legal pad in front of him.
“Not yet,” Malerick replies. “The men on the security team during the wedding swear they didn’t see or hear anything unusual. They were careful. This was either someone they missed or something planted long before the wedding.”
“Long before?” Gil asks. “Like a sleeper asset?”
“It’s possible,” Farrow says carefully. “We’ll look into it, but right now, priority one is Galeana and Ledger’s safety. She has to go back soon. Show that she’s not afraid of them. We already have a few men with her and we’ll figure out if we want to add more.”
“We can’t be using civilians for this.” Malerick’s frustration flares again. “How the hell are we supposed to keep them safe when they’re this careful?”
“We got resources,” Gil reminds him.
He’s right and I’m a Timberbridge. If there’s one thing I should do it’s protect what’s mine, my family. Galeana is ours too. She’s Ledge’s and we have to protect her. Fuck. I did this, I asked my brother to do this thinking it’d be easy. And he doesn’t even realize what he’s walked into.
There’s a beat of silence before Gil says, “You’re worried about your brother?”
Malerick scoffs quietly, shaking his head even though they can’t see him. “Yeah, of course I am. But you’re right, we have people for that.”
“Then don’t let that happen,” Farrow says simply. “The Hollow Syndicate’s just poking the bear right now. But if we show weakness, they’ll come back swinging.”
Malerick clenches his jaw. “We won’t let it get that far.”
“Of course we won’t, but we still need to figure out how to take care of them before they continue spreading along the northern border,” Gil says. “We need to go, but if you have anything to discuss, call us.”
“You got it.”
“Keep up the good work,sheriff,” Gil says before ending the call.
ChapterTwenty-Four
Galeana
This can’t be real.It feels like I’ve stumbled into someone else’s nightmare, waiting for the moment I’ll finally wake up.
One moment, I was sitting at the marble island, eating leftover wedding cake and teasing Ledger about something I can’t even remember. The next? Boom.
My world split apart, shattered, and now I’m on the other side of the country, in a place that doesn’t feel like mine.
My mind refuses to grasp it, as if there’s an impenetrable barrier keeping the truth at bay, preventing it from fully settling in.
On the flight here, Ledger said something about trauma—about how sometimes, when something terrible happens, your brain shuts down in self-defense. It’s like flipping a breaker when the power surge is too much to handle. He called it emotional numbness, and it made sense in a clinical way. But now? Now I understand it in a way I wish I didn’t.
I can’t react because it’s too big. Too overwhelming. My mind just won’t let me touch it, as though the sheer enormity of what’s happened will crush me if I do.
Instead, I’m here, feeling . . . nothing. No sadness, no fear, not even anger—just an empty, hollow void where emotions should be.
Maybe that’s the most unsettling part. Not the explosion, not the house reduced to ashes, but the eerie detachment that leaves me feeling like a stranger in my own life, adrift and disconnected.
Ledger’s words replay in my mind: “It’s normal. Your brain is shielding you. When you’re ready, the reality will catch up—and I’ll be right here to hold you.”
But what if I don’t want it to catch up?
What if I’m not ready to face it?
