"I'm undercover." Tyler kept his hands up, kept his voice steady. "FBI. I've been inside Devil's Dust for eight months, building a case against their federal protection."
"Bullshit." Irish spat on the ground. "Feds don't ride with trafficking MCs."
"This one does. Because the corruption goes all the way up, and I couldn't trust my own agency to investigate." Tyler's eyes found mine again. "Kai. I know how this looks. But everything I've done, I did to protect you. To protect people like you."
I was moving before I made the conscious decision. Out the door, across the gravel, until I was standing ten feet from the brother I hadn't seen in eight months.
He looked older. Harder. There were new lines around his eyes, and a scar on his jaw that hadn't been there before. But underneath the Devil's Dust cut, underneath the road-worn exhaustion, he was still Tyler.
"Prove it," I said. "Prove you're not one of them."
He reached slowly into his cut—Tank's shotgun tracked the movement—and pulled out a badge. FBI. The photo matched his face.
"I went under fourteen months ago," he said. "Took me six months to get patched in, another eight to work my way close to Viper's inner circle. I've got evidence of trafficking routes, money laundering, murder." His jaw tightened. "And I've got proof that a senior FBI agent has been protecting the whole operation."
"Michelle Chen." Hawk's voice came from behind me. I hadn't heard him approach. "That's the name we've been given."
Tyler's expression flickered—surprise, then grudging respect. "Your intel's good. Yeah. Special Agent Michelle Chen. Twenty-year veteran, runs the organized crime task force in this district. She's been taking Viper's money since I was still bouncing between foster homes—over a decade of protecting traffickers who prey on the same kids we used to be."
"And you can prove this?"
"I can prove everything." Tyler lowered his hands slowly. "But I can't do it alone. Chen has people everywhere—local PD, federal prosecutors, maybe even judges. If I try to bring this through normal channels, it disappears. Along with me."
"So you came to an outlaw MC for help." Tank's voice dripped skepticism. "Forgive me if I don't buy it."
"I came because you're the only ones Chen can't reach." Tyler's eyes swept the assembled Phoenix members. "And because three days ago, I heard Slash bragging about the witness they've been hunting. The pretty nurse with purple hair who's been warming Reaper's bed."
The words hit me like a punch.
"He described you, Kai. In detail. The violet highlights, the jade pendant, the way you fight." Tyler's voice cracked. "And then he said Chen had authorized a kill order. Not capture—kill. You're not just a witness anymore. You're a loose end."
The world went very quiet.
Axel was suddenly there, his arm around my waist, holding me upright. I hadn't realized I was swaying.
"A kill order," Axel repeated. His voice was deadly calm—the kind of calm that preceded violence. "Federal authorization to murder a civilian."
"Chen's desperate. The trafficking operation is worth millions, and Kai can link Viper to the attacks on Phoenix. If that connection gets made publicly, it threatens everything she's built." Tyler stepped closer, and this time no one stopped him. "I broke cover because I couldn't let that happen. Because I already lost one family, and I won't lose another."
He was standing in front of me now. Close enough that I could see the fear he was trying to hide. The guilt. "I'm sorry I disappeared." His voice dropped, meant only for me. "I'm sorry I left you alone. I thought keeping you in the dark would keep you safe, and I was wrong." His hand came up, hovered near my face without touching. "I was so fucking wrong, Kai."
I moved first.
Grabbed him, pulled him into a hug so tight my arms ached. He went rigid for a moment—surprised, maybe, or overwhelmed—and then he broke. His arms came around me, and I felt him shaking. "I thought you were dead," I whispered into his shoulder. "Or worse. I thought you'd left because you didn't care anymore."
"Never." His voice was thick. "I never stopped caring. I never stopped watching. Why do you think Devil's Dust couldn't find you for three days after that first night? I was feeding them false leads, sending them in circles. Buying you time."
I pulled back, stared at him. "That was you?"
"I couldn't let them hurt you. Even if it meant risking my cover." He smiled—that old Tyler smile, the one I remembered from childhood. "You're my brother, Kai. Blood or not. That doesn't change."
Hawk called Church.
This time, Tyler stood at the end of the table, still wearing the Devil's Dust cut like a costume he couldn't wait to shed. He laid out everything—Michelle Chen's history, Viper's operation, the trafficking routes that moved through six states. The evidencehe'd gathered, hidden in encrypted files across three different servers.
"I've got names, dates, account numbers," Tyler said. "Enough to put Chen away for life. But I need help extracting it. And I need protection while I do it—for me and for Kai."
"You're asking us to trust a fed." Hawk's voice was neutral. "That's a big ask."
