We move in, boots crunching over broken glass and old bone fragments. The weak bulb overhead swings on its wire, throwing shadows long and jagged across the floor.
And then I see her.
Devyn. Tied to a chair in the center of the room, duct tape stretched across her mouth, her chest heaving when her eyes lock on mine. Relief tears through me sharp enough to hurt.
But Riot steps out of the dark before I can move, her palms rapping twice against the rusted bars of a cage as she passes, the hollow clang echoing like a warning through the room.
She’s wearing her cut like she’s still one of us. Her eyes are wild, but her stance is steady. Sweat glistens at her temple, strands of hair sticking damp to her cheek. A pistol dangles loose in her hand.
“You came,” Riot says, her voice low, almost smug. The pistol dangles at her side, “Guess that means you got my message. So? Are we making a trade, Pres?”
Quinn doesn’t blink. Her voice could freeze the ocean. “Let her go.”
Riot barks out a laugh, sharp and bitter, but it wavers at the edges. “Not until I walk out of here free. You get Devyn, I get my life. That’s the deal.”
“We don’t make deals with traitors.” The venom in my tone is deadly.
Riot’s eyes snap from Quinn to me, her face twisted with pain before rage hardens it. “You think I wanted this? You think I picked Serrano’s crew over my family for the fun of it? He had me by the throat. I got pinched a few months back. Cops found a car full of unregistered weapons that I was moving for this club. I was looking at federal charges.”
Her voice cracks as she goes on, shame bleeding into the words. “Serrano had a cop in his pocket. He made it all go away before it hit the system. He said I owed him. Just one favor. Thenit was another, then another. Next thing I knew, I was buried under it.”
Quinn’s eyes narrow, sharp as razors. “If you were in trouble, you should’ve come to us. You should’ve trusted your club.”
Riot’s laugh is jagged and bitter. “Trusted you? You’d have stripped my patch the second you found out. You’d have locked me out before I could explain. I thought I could fix it before anyone knew. I thought I could keep us safe.”
Her eyes flick to Devyn, and the guilt there is almost enough to make me sick. “Then he wanted names of girls. He said if I didn’t he’d make sure every fed in the country had my file. I didn’t have a choice.”
“You always have a choice.” My voice is hoarse, raw. “That girl’s done nothing to you.”
Devyn’s muffled cry cuts through the air like glass. My stomach knots so tight I can’t breathe.
“You don’t understand,” Riot snaps. “I couldn’t just walk. You would’ve hunted me down till the end of the earth. So I used what I had. Devyn was… leverage. A way to buy myself out.”
Quinn moves forward, slow and deliberate. Calm in a way that makes the whole kennel tremble. Riot’s gun twitches, but Quinn’s faster. Her hand clamps Riot’s wrist, twisting hard until the pistol clatters against the concrete and skids out of reach. In the same motion, Quinn grips her by the collar, yanks her forward, and rips the cut clean off her back. The leather tears under her fists, the sound like a sentence being passed. She holds it up like a trophy, her voice low and lethal.
“You’re right about one thing. You don’t deserve to wear this,” Quinn says. Each word is a death knell. “You betrayed your sisters. You betrayed me. What you did to those girls…to Devyn. It’s unforgivable. You’ll die without it.”
Quin tosses the cut to the floor. Riot lunges for it, desperation spilling out of her. “We had a deal!”
I’m on her before she reaches it, pain tearing through my ribs. We crash into the concrete, fists flying. Everything we were dies in the blur of blows. Riot rams her knee into my ribs and I nearly black out from the pain, but I don’t let go. I grab her wrist, twist until her bones grind, and slam her into the concrete, blood smearing hot across her face.
I pin her, every breath fire in my chest. My fists rain down. one, two, three. Blood smears across her lip, her nose, but still she thrashes.
“Kat!” Quinn’s voice snaps sharp.
I don’t stop. I can’t. This is Riot. My sister. My betrayer. The one who put Devyn in that chair.
Riot spits blood onto the concrete, smirking through split lips. “You think you’re better than me? You don’t even know what it takes to survive.”
My fist cracks against her jaw, the sound sickening. She jerks away, scrambling to her feet, wild-eyed, blood dripping down her chin.
She comes at me like a feral dog. Nails rake my cheek, burning lines into my skin. She rams her shoulder into my ribs, and the pain blinds me momentarily. I grunt, my knees buckling, but I don’t go down. Not for her. Not for this.
I grab her by the hair and slam her face into the nearest cage. Metal dents, blood spatters. She snarls, swinging an elbow back into my gut. I choke on pain, stagger, and she twists free, snatching the knife from her boot.
The blade gleams under the flickering bulb.
“You chose Serrano,” I snarl back, circling opposite. My vision tunnels, focused only on her and the knife.
