When Axel finally emerged, he looked ten years older.
"What is it?" I stood, crossed to him. "What's wrong?"
"Intel came in." He ran a hand over his face. "About why Devil's Dust has been so untouchable. Why Viper keeps making moves no one should survive."
"Why?"
"He's got protection. Law enforcement." Axel's grey eyes met mine, and I saw something there I'd never seen before.
Fear.
"Not local cops—that we could handle. This is federal, Kai. FBI." The word landed like a bomb.
"Someone in the FBI is protecting a trafficking operation?"
"Looks that way. We don't have a name yet, but the intel is solid—Viper's been feeding information to someone in the Bureau for years. In exchange, his operations stay off the radar. Investigations get buried. Evidence disappears."
I thought about Slash, about the warehouse, about Jake tied to that chair. About the trafficking Axel had mentioned—girls, kids, whatever paid.
"How do we fight that?" I asked. "How do you fight the FBI?"
"Carefully." Axel pulled me into his arms, held me tight against his chest. "Very carefully. And not tonight."
"But—"
"Tonight, I just want to hold you." His voice was rough. "Tomorrow, we plan. Tonight, I need to remember why we're fighting."
I let him lead me upstairs. Let him undress me slowly, reverently, like I was something precious. We curled together in his bed, skin against skin, his heartbeat steady under my ear. I was almost asleep when my phone buzzed on the nightstand.
Unknown number.
I almost ignored it. Almost let it go to voicemail, because nothing good ever came from unknown numbers at two in the morning. But something—instinct, fate, the universe's sick sense of humor—made me reach for it. "Hello?"
Static. Then a voice I hadn't heard in eight months. A voice I'd given up hoping to hear again.
"Kai."
My blood turned to ice.
"Tyler?"
Axel stirred beside me, instantly alert. I barely noticed. The room had narrowed to the phone in my hand, to the impossible sound of my brother's voice.
"Listen to me carefully." Tyler's voice was low, urgent, nothing like the easy charm I remembered. "Don't trust anyone with a badge. Anyone, Kai. Do you understand?"
"Tyler, where the hell have you?—"
"There's no time. I'm coming to you. Stay at the clubhouse, stay with the Phoenixes, and stay alive until I get there."
"What are you talking about? What's going on?"
"I'll explain everything. I promise." A pause. In the background, I heard traffic. A horn. He was on the move. "Inever meant to leave you alone this long. I was trying to protect you."
"Protect me fromwhat?"
"From what's coming. And it's coming soon, Kai. Sooner than your new friends think." His voice cracked, just slightly. "I'm so sorry, Kai. For all of it. Just—please. Trust me one more time."
"Tyler—"
