We were here because we belonged here.
Ariel sucked in a breath. I did too.
Wrecker pulled out the chair beside him, and I sat without thinking, grateful for the solid wood under my palms. My heart still beat too fast, but the familiar rumble of Wrecker lowering into the seat next to mine helped more than I wanted to admit.
Cap waited until the door shut and the room quieted before he spoke.
“Alright,” he said, voice steady. “We’re calling this what it is now.”
Every man at the table straightened.
“The ring didn’t just move girls through that logistics hub,” Cap said. “They crossed into our territory. And when they did, they clipped one of ours.”
The room went still. Not quiet,still. Like everyone felt the same shift hit at once.
Ranger nodded, jaw tight. “Scout was running recon through the same counties those shipments kept surfacing in. Same timing windows. Same corridors.”
“And the same goddamn smell,” Brutus added. “You ride past one of those vans, you don’t forget it.”
My hand slid under the table, brushing Amanda’s fingers. Just enough to let her know I was there. She curled her hand into mine and held on.
Cap leaned forward, forearms braced against the table. “When Scout’s transmission cut, we knew it wasn’t terrain. Too clean. Wrong carrier bled across the channel.” His mouth tightened. “But knowing something happened isn’t the same as knowing what.”
Ghost lifted his head slowly, gaze drifting to Scout’s empty chair.
“He didn’t vanish,” he said quietly.
The words settled heavy between us.
“He was intercepted,” Ghost continued. “That wasn’t an accident.”
Cap nodded once. “That’s the conclusion we reached. No proof yet. No location. No faces.” He paused, then said, “But the way they moved told us enough.”
Ranger exhaled through his nose. “They didn’t reroute. Didn’t dump the cargo. Didn’t go dark.”
“They held their ground,” Brutus said.
Cap’s eyes swept the table. “Exactly. Which means this wasn’t about the girls.”
A beat passed.
“They weren’t protecting the shipment,” Cap said. “They were protecting the lane.”
The words landed hard.
Ghost’s jaw tightened. “So Scout crossed into space that wasn’t supposed to be visible.”
“And they reacted,” Cap said. “Fast. Clean. Like they’d done it before.”
I felt Amanda’s grip tighten.
“And that’s why this doesn’t stop with Scout,” Cap added. “That lane’s still active. And now they know we’re close enough to threaten it.”
Silence followed, but it wasn’t uncertainty.
It was resolve.
My throat tightened. I remembered Scout laughing at me for calling a carburetor a “metal doodad.” I remembered him sliding a mug toward me at the clubhouse coffee machine and refusing to tell me which button did what because “you’ll learn faster if you screw it up.” I remembered him teasing me about needing a booster seat on Wrecker’s bike.
