"He called. Said don't trust anyone with a badge. Said he'd been trying to protect me." I swallowed. "Said he was coming here."
"Did he say how he knew where to find you?"
"No."
Hawk exchanged a look with Axel. Something passed between them—a silent conversation I couldn't read.
"Your brother's timing is... convenient," Hawk said slowly. "We learn about FBI protection for Devil's Dust, and hours later he calls warning you about badges?"
"I know how it looks."
"Do you?" Tank's voice was harder than I'd ever heard it. "Because from where I'm sitting, it looks like your brother might be the leak. Might be the one who's been feeding our movements to Viper."
"Tyler would never?—"
"You haven't spoken to him in eight months." Irish, surprisingly gentle. "People change, Kai. Especially when money or power's involved."
I wanted to argue. Wanted to defend the brother who'd taught me to fight, who'd held me when I cried, who'd promised we'd always have each other's backs. But the truth was, I didn't know anymore. Didn't know who Tyler had become in the months since he'd vanished.
"When he gets here," Hawk said, "we'll have questions. Depending on his answers..." He spread his hands. "We'll see."
The meeting dissolved. I stayed in my chair, staring at the scarred table, until Axel's hand found my shoulder. "I'm sorry," he murmured.
"For what?"
"For the position you're in. Caught between your brother and your—" He stopped. "And us."
Your family,I thought.That's what you were going to say."Whatever happens," I said, "I chose to be here. I chose you. That doesn't change." His hand tightened on my shoulder. But he didn't respond.
Maybe he didn't know what to say.
Tyler arrived at three in the afternoon.
I heard the bike first—a Harley, rumbling through the gates. Not the smooth purr of a well-maintained machine, but something rougher. Meaner. I moved to the window of the common room, and my heart stopped.
The man climbing off the bike looked like Tyler. Same height, same build, same dark hair I remembered. But everything else was wrong.
He was wearing a Devil's Dust cut.
The patch was right there on his back—the snarling demon, the flames, the insignia of everything Phoenix stood against. My brother, myfamily, wearing the colors of the enemy.
"No." The word came out strangled. "No, no, no?—"
Axel was beside me in an instant. I felt his whole body go rigid as he took in the scene.
"Kai—"
"He's one of them." My voice didn't sound like mine. "He's been one of them this whole time. The disappearance, the silence—he wasn't protecting me, he was—" I couldn't finish. Couldn't breathe. The floor was tilting under my feet, and nothing made sense anymore.
Phoenix members materialized from everywhere. Tank, shotgun in hand. Irish, pistol drawn. Blade emerging from the garage with a wrench that could crack skulls. They formed a perimeter around Tyler, weapons raised, a wall of lethal intent.
Tyler raised his hands slowly. His eyes found me through the window, and I saw something there I didn't expect.
Anguish.
"I can explain," he called out. "Just give me five minutes."
"You've got thirty seconds before I put a hole in you." Tank's voice was ice. "Start talking."
