Amanda’s face flashed through my head. Her face was pale, shaken, standing on the porch wrapped in my hoodie like it was armor. The way her hands had trembled when she grabbed my vest. The way her eyes had searched mine like she needed to know I was real.
Heat raced through my body and up my neck. My fists clenched, knuckles burning. Ending him would be easy. Too easy. One second of pressure and this threat would stop breathing.
Ranger’s voice cut sharp. “Wreck.”
I stopped.
Ghost straightened. “This wasn’t scouting,” he said quietly. “It was a message.”
Ranger nodded. “And if we kill him?—”
“They know we heard it,” Ghost finished.
Ranger jerked his chin. “Strip him. Phone stays.”
We dragged the man deeper into the trees, zip-tied him to a trunk, and stepped back.
Smoke stayed planted in front of him, growling low until Ranger gave a sharp hand signal.
Only then did the dog move.
We left the man alive. Alive on purpose. Killing him would’ve been so easy. But letting him live would hurt them longer.
Smoke jumped back into the truck’s rear seat without being told. Ghost slid behind the wheel. Ranger mounted his bike. Brutus revved his, eager for violence he didn’t get to deliver.
I stared at the warehouse yard one second too long. At the disaster relief logos. At the men moving pallets full of lies.
If they had Amanda’s face on a list…
I was going to kill every last one of them.
Ranger looked over. “Wreck. Mount up.”
I climbed onto my bike and gunned the engine harder than I meant to.
We rode back in silence.
Not the easy kind.
The kind that crackled like a fuse running out.
Every bump in the road, every stretch of dark forest, my jaw clenched tighter. All I could see was that blurred red shape behind glass.
By the time the compound lights came into view through the trees, something inside me had already decided.
If the ring wanted a fight, they’d pick the wrong fucking club.
And the wrong woman.
We pulled up to the gate and Ranger signaled once and the gate rolled open.
We slid inside fast, engines cut the second we cleared the fence line.
I was off my bike before it fully settled. Boots hit dirt. My eyes went straight to the upstairs window.
The curtains shifted.
A second later, Amanda appeared at the top of the porch steps, wrapped in a hoodie too big for her. Smoke broke from Ranger and bounded toward her like he’d been gone for days instead of hours.
