“They’re keeping her in the old slaughterhouse,” he said. “Fangs still own it. Been dormant for years, but they’ve lit it back up. Guns and guards”
For a second, I couldn’t breathe. The wordslaughterhousesank straight into my chest.
“Thanks,” I said, meaning it more than he knew.
But Rox shook his head, swinging a leg over his Harley. “Don’t thank me. Ride with me. You’re too close to think straight, Reaper. She’s too important for you to go in blind.”
I wanted to argue, to tell him I didn’t need a babysitter and that Lucy wasmineto save. But I saw it in his eyes, the calm I didn’t have. The clarity. He wasn’t asking, he was already in.
So, I gathered up the brothers and we rode.
The road twisted through the trees like a snake, slick with last night’s rain. I couldn’t breathe. Not from the cold, not from the speed, but from rage.
Gabby’s smirk, her whispered betrayal, they’d cost Lucy everything. Every mile tightened the fire in my chest. I didn’t care about rules or strategy. Only about tearing the Fangs apart and making Gabby choke on what she’d done.
Rox pulled up beside me on his matte black Harley, the Steel Guards crest flashing under the moonlight. A single nod, and he veered off. The rest of us followed into a clearing overlooking the Fang compound: an old slaughterhouse wrapped in barbed wire and lit by burning barrels.
“They’re waiting,” Rox said, calm as stone.
“They want a war,” Riot muttered.
“Then we do what we came to do,” Riot snapped.
“Not yet,” Rox said. “Go in now and it’s a bloodbath. Traps, shooters, numbers. You brought me in because you couldn’t think straight, so let me think for you now.”
I wanted to argue, to charge in blind, but he was right. “Scouts?” I asked.
“Already moving.”
Minutes bled by until static crackled:“She’s here. Basement level. Light guard rotation. Either overconfident, or it’s a trap.”
Of course, it was a trap. But she was close.
“Let me go in first,” Rox said. “If it’s a setup, they’ll focus on the Guards.”
“Hell no,” Riot roared.
I raised a hand. “We go in together. Quiet. Find her. Get her out. Once she’s out, fall back and burn it down.”
My brothers nodded, weapons ready. I stared at the building glowing in the dark.
They took her, and I was going to take her back.
Chapter 36
Reaper
The old slaughterhouse breathed heat and smoke through cracked vents. We crouched behind rotted pallets, the generator hum echoing off the concrete walls.
Five minutes inside the fence and no alarms. So far, so good.
Rox moved ahead like a ghost. Riot crouched beside me, blade ready, Keno’s finger tight on his trigger.
We slipped through a side door. Rox checked the hallway and waved us in. The hall reeked of damp.
As two guards wandered past, Keno stepped out, and with two quick coughs from the suppressor, they dropped. We dragged them into a locker and left them with the bones.
“Stairs or chute?” Rox asked.
