Kael looked around the table.His brothers’ faces were hard, thoughtful—but there was no hint of judgment.Just resolve.“You’ve got all of us now,” Kael said.“You won’t be fighting alone anymore.”
Niko gave a short nod.“Wasn’t gonna say otherwise, Surge.”
Kael felt a swell of something in his chest—pride, gratitude, love.They’d accepted Drew without hesitation.My ipo,he thought with a full heart.“You have no idea how much that means.”
Luca, already half-buried in screens, looked up.“Speaking of not fighting alone—Marsh has been in touch.We’ve been running searches through everything from darknet chatter to ghost accounts.”
Keanu snorted.“What the hell are you saying?”
“Nothing a cretin like you could understand, bruh,” Luca shot back with a grin.“But, there is nothing obvious there which is the problem.It’s too clean.No noise, no leaks.The Directorate’s good at covering tracks—but there’s something weird happening online.”
Kael frowned.“Weird, how?”
Luca rotated one of the holo-screens toward them.“Someone’s been searching for us.Individually, the queries look harmless—tracking import licenses of our vans, land deeds, offshore supply shipments—but together?It’s a pattern.Someone’s mapping our footprint.”
Drew leaned in.“Any trace signatures?”
“Yeah,” Luca said, tapping a line of code on the display.“The user’s handle keeps shifting, but there’s a common marker buried in the encryption—an old ops phrase—nalowale.Means ‘lost’ or ‘forgotten’ in Hawaiian, but it’s not local.It’s stylized.If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that it is a military-grade tag.”
Kael exchanged a glance with Drew.The word rang faintly in his mind—something that felt like a warning.“We don’t know who it is?”
Luca shook his head.“Not yet.But whoever it is, they’re getting closer.If they keep probing, we’ll know them before they know us.”
Keanu folded his arms.“We might not have that luxury.This site—beautiful as it is—is a security nightmare.Cliff access on two sides, jungle on the third, waterline open to boats.We need to reinforce the perimeter.”
Niko grinned faintly.“You volunteering for guard duty again, Torch?”
“Damn right,” Keanu said.“If someone’s gonna breach our home, they’re gonna have to walk through fire to do it.”
Kael nodded.“Then we move fast.We double defenses, up surveillance, and reroute comms through Luca’s encrypted network.No more open signals.”
Niko raised a brow.“So...we hunker down until someone decides to come knocking?”
Kael gave a wry smile.“Pretty much.”
Drew looked between them, an amused curve to his mouth.“You all make impending assault sound like a team-building exercise.”
Niko chuckled.“That’s family for you.We roll with adversity a little differently.”
The tension eased, laughter rolling around the table like sunlight breaking through clouds.Kael leaned back, taking in the moment—their strength, their trust, their unspoken acceptance.This was why he’d built Black Tide.
Not for power, not for money.For this.
“All right,” Kael said finally, pushing away from the table.“We’ve got a perimeter to tighten and a day to plan.Down to the garage.”
As they stood, Keanu clapped Drew on the shoulder.“Try to keep your honeymoon short, yeah?Some of us actually sleep near your camper.”
Drew’s grin was quick and wicked.“No promises.”
Kael groaned, half-laughing.“You’re impossible.”
“Yeah,” Drew said, catching his wrist as they started toward the stairs.“But you love me anyway.”
Kael’s response was a quiet, warm laugh as Drew tugged him down the stairs and outside toward their camper.The team’s laughter followed—a sound of home, of family—and for a fleeting moment, Kael let himself believe that peace might last.
He knew he was kidding himself, but in that moment, he just didn’t give a shit.
