He nodded. “Gear down. Decompress. Debrief at midnight.”
I headed for my room, the weight of the burner phone still heavy in my palm. The moment the door shut behind me, I let out a slow breath.
Amanda’s scent still lingered in the sheets. Her outline barely pressed into the pillow. My throat tightened, and I let my hand drift over the space she’d been just hours before.
I wasn’t done with her. Not even close.
But the ring wasn’t slowing down, and I’d made myself a promise: she would never be touched by them again. Not while I breathed. Not while I could fight.
I plugged the burner into my decrypt rig and waited for the first files to load.
And as they did, a thought lodged sharp in my chest.
What if Scout left this behind on purpose?
What if this wasn’t a trap?
What if this was his way of saying: I’m alive.
I stared at the screen, every muscle tight with hope and dread.
Let them come.
We were ready.
12
AMANDA
I couldn’t sleep.
Even curled into the corner of the big leather couch in the rec room, with Ariel beside me and Cap across the room cleaning one of his damn rifles, my skin wouldn’t stop crawling.
They were out there. Somewhere. Watching.
I knew that now, down to my bones. The men were still out on recon, and the clubhouse had gone quiet hours ago, but I couldn’t shake the way it felt to have someonelooking at methrough glass. Like I was prey.
I had felt hunted before. In real ways. Concrete floors and locked doors and eyes that never looked away.
But this was different.
This wasn’t captivity.
This was awareness.
The kind that lived under your skin and refused to quiet down. Like every shadow had weight. Like the walls were only pretending to protect me. My body kept reacting before my thoughts could catch up. Heart stuttering, muscles bracing, breath going shallow for no reason I could name.
Stupid fucking lungs. I thought.Decided to work please.
I hated that even surrounded by people who would kill for me, my nervous system still remembered what it was like to be chosen.
To be marked.
I wrapped my arms tighter around myself, nails biting into my sleeves, and tried to stay anchored in the room. Cocoa. Ariel’s voice. Cap’s presence like a loaded gun leaning against the wall.
Safe things.
Real things.
