Pins shifted.Lines appeared.
“From what I’ve found so far, Diaz still moves product through the river warehouse,” he continued.“Light security.Patterned convoys.Next run hits in three days.”
Silence settled thick.
“Eyes only,” Atilla decided.“We confirm, log, and leave.”
Spade nodded.“Falcon, Knuckles, Rook.”
Atilla’s gaze locked on me.“No hero shit.”
“Yes, sir.”
Then his attention shifted.“Jade.”
My spine tightened.
“She stays under our protection,” Atilla continued.“She’s Falcon’s.Which makes her ours.Anyone forgets that answers to me.”
Agreement rolled around the table.Something warm and dangerous spread through my chest.
Chapter Ten
Jade
I dreamed about Jason.My brain dug him up to prove how much he could still hurt me.He stood in the doorway of our old apartment wearing his familiar grin -- the smug one which meant he’d already decided the rules and expected me to play along.A notebook filled one hand, cheap coffee the other, his shoulders loose as though the world had never managed to catch him.
Mom sat on the couch behind him, laughing at something on TV.Blue light from the screen washed over her face, softening wrinkles which had deepened over the past few years.For a few seconds, everything seemed normal enough my chest loosened.
The door behind Jason began to change.Wood became chain link.The deadbolt turned into a thick steel bar.The apartment doorway stretched into the Savage Raptors’ gate, tall and unforgiving, the kind of barrier you only built when you expected someone to try to break it.
And dripping across the metal in red spray paint, big enough to read from a distance, was one word.Owned.
I woke up gasping for breath, as though someone had shoved me underwater and yanked me out by my hair.My heart hammered against my ribs until they ached.Air refused to enter my lungs no matter how hard I tried to breathe.Reality blurred at the edges -- dream mixed with memory while fear crawled across my skin with phantom fingers.
Why had I seen that word at the end?Was it because of Roth acting like he had rights to me because of my brother’s debt?Or was it something more?
Darkness filled the room except for a thin seam outlining the curtains, the only sign morning existed beyond our walls.Kane slept with his arm heavy around my waist.Warmth radiated from his chest against my back while his breath remained steady on my neck, counting seconds in perfect rhythm.
Safe, my body insisted.
Owned, the old fear tried to answer.
I forced air into my lungs and counted the way I’d taught myself when my apartment walls felt too thin.One: I lay in Kane’s house, not my old place.Two: sounds outside came from a compound full of people who knew my name, not an empty hallway where footsteps meant danger.Three: Mom had been gone for a while now.Dreaming about her didn’t bring her back from the dead.
Kane’s arm tightened around me.His subconscious sensed my panic before I could mask it.Words rumbled from his chest, rough with sleep and barely formed.“You okay?”
My instinct reached for the lie, quick and practiced.The lie had kept me alive for a long time.It had also kept me trapped.
“Yeah.”The word left my mouth anyway.Then I swallowed and forced the truth to follow it.“No.But I’m trying.”
Kane’s breath left him in a low sigh.The mattress shifted when he rolled, careful not to jostle me as though he sensed my raw nerves.
“I’ll accept nothing else right now.”
He moved me with an easy strength -- gentle without asking permission.My body wanted to flinch, but his careful handling gave me no reason.Within seconds I found myself on my back, staring up at him through dim light.
His hair stuck up on one side while stubble shadowed his jaw.Clear eyes met mine, which almost made me angry -- how dare he remain so steady while I unraveled?
