Shoes tucked beneath one bed. Small. Scuffed. A handful of hair ties gathered in a ceramic dish that didn’t belong here. Cheap jewelry was laid out like it had been emptied from pockets and forgotten. A whiteboard mounted beside the door, wiped clean except for faint impressions—numbers pressed too hard to erase.
Scheduling marks.
Inventory.
The locks were on the outside.
Viper felt the confirmation settle—cold, absolute.
This wasn’t indulgence.
This wasn’t leverage.
This was infrastructure.
He glanced at Titus.
Titus hadn’t moved. His face was unreadable, eyes dark with something pained, his whole body gone very still—like a blade held just short of contact.
“It’s a holding room,” Titus said, voice gravel-rough. “For their business.”
Viper didn’t disagree.
This was where they staged the product. Human lives. Young.
Fuck.
He stepped back and let the door slide shut.
The music beyond the corridor swelled again—bright, oblivious.
Not for long.
Titus stalked a few paces down the corridor and stopped short, planting his hands flat against the wall. His head dipped, shoulders tight, breath coming harsh and controlled—like he was forcing it back into his body one pull at a time. The stillness in him hadn’t broken. It had sharpened.
Viper lifted two fingers without looking back. Vale caught it immediately, already turning; Law shifted first, catching Sage by the wrist and pulling him with him, while Syx peeled wide—the four of them dissolving back into the music and light at Viper’s silent order.
The corridor emptied, the party swallowing them whole, until it was just Viper and Titus left in the hush—expensive walls, buried crimes, and no one left to witness what came next.
They housed kids here. Young ones.
Viper felt his throat close as he watched Titus absorb it. Then Titus’s head snapped up—eyes blazing, face gone bloodless.
Fuck.
Viper didn’t stop until he crowded him, arms coming around Titus before the break could turn outward. Titus stiffened, resisted only then.
“Let me go.”
The words were raw, scraped tight from his chest.
Viper shifted him back against the wall, close enough to cage without crushing.
“No,” he said quietly. “Never.”
“You saw that.” Titus swallowed hard, gaze cutting away.
“I did.”
