This wasn’t about vengeance. This wasn’t about dominance. This was about Trixie. Her father might have her location and even send his men in to bring her home, but he’d never get his hands on her. Not while Cyclops breathed.
They hit the clearing near the parked SUVs, and the enemy stepped out. Men in suits surrounded the vehicles. They were armed to the teeth, their eyes void of emotion, and he knew that they had come for one thing and one thing only—Trixie. They were probably ordered to retrieve her—or die trying, and Cyclops was good with the second option.
Cyclops killed the engine on his bike, and the rest of the Road Reapers did the same. He swung off the bike, rolling his shoulders, cracking his knuckles. “Gentlemen,” he called, using the term loosely. “You’re trespassing.”
One of the men stepped forward. “We’re here for the girl. Vincent wants Trixie—” Cyclops shot him in the knee before he could finish the sentence. The man collapsed with a scream, and Cyclops holstered the gun calmly.
“Next person says her name,” he said, tone icy and measured, “loses more than a knee.”
That’s when chaos erupted around them. Gunfire rang out, and Reapers howled around him. Cyclops barely had time to think about what to do. He just acted on instinct. The standoff lasted exactly six seconds. Cyclops moved like a storm—silentwhen needed, lethal when forced. A knife to one man’s throat. A boot to another man’s head. Ink’s shotgun blasted a man clean off his feet. Venom picked up one of the men and tossed him into a tree like he weighed nothing.
The fight ended fast--too fast. Vinnie Lee’s men weren’t amateurs, but these men weren’t there to kill. They were there to collect, just as he predicted. They were sent as a warning.
Cyclops wiped blood off his blade, breathing hard. “They were probing. Testing us to see what we’d do. They weren’t the real hit. They were a decoy sent to distract us.”
Venom nodded. “Which means he’s desperate.”
Ink reloaded. “Desperate men make mistakes.”
Cyclops looked toward the road leading away from camp. “He’s here,” Cyclops murmured, “I can feel it, and he thinks he gets the last move.”
Razor spat. “He’s wrong.”
Cyclops turned back to his men, resolve settling into his bones like iron. “We take him down,” he said. “We end this.”
“For the club!” Venom shouted.
Ink smirked. “And for the girl.” Cyclops didn’t deny it. They rode back as the sun began to rise over the trees—a blood-red sky painting the world in fire. He ran into the compound, expecting to find Trixie hiding in the panic room. But she wasn’t there. Panic welled up inside of him, and he realized that they were truly just a decoy. Vincent Lee had come to collect his daughter himself, and Cyclops was dumb enough to fall right into his trap. He had left Trixie unprotected and put her right in danger's path. This whole time, he had promised her that she wasn’t alone, but he had left her that way and given her father exactly what he wanted—a chance to get to his daughter.
TRIXIE
Trixie was making her way back to the safe room when she heard a loud bang on the other side of the compound. She wasn’t sure what possessed her to do it, but she found herself turning around, running to the noise, even though every one of her instincts was screaming at her to stop. All she could think about was Cyclops needing her, and running into a trap was the furthest thing on her mind. Until she ran into her father.
He wrapped his arms around her and smiled down at her. Trixie felt sick. “Hello, daughter,” he breathed. She began to struggle, trying to get free from him, but the more she fought him, the tighter his hold became.
Trixie forced herself to go still. Fighting him head-on wouldn’t work. It never had. Her father thrived on resistance and on fear. He liked to watch her struggle, and she wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. So she stilled her body, even though every nerve inside of her screamed in protest.
His grip loosened just enough to give her some slack, and she allowed herself to breathe. “There you go,” he murmured, brushing a strand of hair from her face with a mock tendernessthat made bile rise in her throat. “You've always been a smart girl, especially when you stop fighting me.”
Trixie swallowed hard, forcing her breathing to slow. If she let herself panic, she was dead. “You shouldn’t be here,” she said quietly.
He chuckled, the sound dark and satisfied. “Oh, sweetheart, this is exactly where I should be.” His eyes flicked toward the chaos echoing across the compound—shouting voices, distant gunfire, the roar of motorcycles. It was all a setup. He knew that she would be left alone if the rest of the guys went out to fight. Her father never saw any woman as capable enough to fight—especially not his princess.
“The SUVs were a distraction, weren’t they?” she asked.
“They think they’re taking everything from me tonight,” he continued, tightening his grip on her wrist as if she were nothing more than property. “Your precious Cyclops and his little club. All those men who think they’re heroes, but they’re not. They’re just idiots. They took the bait—always ready for a fight, and I gave them one to distract them. While they are out there playing the heroes, I’m here collecting what is mine.”
Her heart slammed against her ribs. The thought of Cyclops and the guys being put in harm's way just so that her father could get to her had been her fear since they got to the compound. The only way to save them was to go with her father, but she just couldn’t do that—not without a fight of her own. She had told Cyclops that she could fight, and now was the time to prove it.
“You’re wrong,” she said.
“Oh?” His brow lifted. “And why’s that?”
“Because they have already taken everything from you,” she said. The smile on his face vanished.
His hand tightened painfully around her arm. “Careful, girl. You don’t want to piss me off.” But she did want to do just that.Something had shifted inside Trixie. For years, she had lived under his shadow—terrified, controlled, and broken down piece by piece until she barely remembered what it felt like to breathe freely.
Then Cyclops had found her. He had looked at her like she was worth saving. He believed that she was strong, and for the first time in her life, she believed it too.
