For a heartbeat, I swear even the air freezes.
Bones’ jaw tightens. He glances over the data, expression unreadable. Then he laughs once, sharp and joyless. “That’s what this is? You think I’m working with the bastards who gutted our brothers?”
“I don’tthinkanything. I saw it.” Rebel growls.
“You saw numbers, not truth.” Bones replies.
“Then explain it!”
His gaze cuts to me. “You bring this Fed in here to read me my own accounts?”
“Marine,” I correct, stepping closer. “And the pattern’s there whether you want to see it or not.”
He snorts. “Pattern. You ever think maybe someone’s framing me?”
Rebel’s voice wavers but doesn’t break. “Who the hell could frame you, Bones? You built half this system.”
He moves closer, slow, deliberate, like a storm closing distance. “Careful, girl. You’re talking like someone who forgot where she stands.”
“I remember exactly where I stand,” she shoots back. “On the side that doesn’t sell out the family.”
The tension hits a knife’s edge. My hand drifts toward my sidearm without meaning to. Bones notices, smirks. “You want to point that at me, Gunny?”
“Not unless you give me a reason.”
“Then here’s one. Get her out before she says something she can’t take back.”
Rebel doesn’t move. Her voice drops low. “You tell me right now if you’re dirty.”
Something flickers in Bones’ eyes, grief, guilt, exhaustion. His voice drops low, raw. “You want to know the truth?” he says finally. “Yeah, I moved money. But not for them. For us. For the brothers’ families. For the ones the Syndicate left in the dirt. He gestures toward the club walls, toward the ghosts. “I did what I had to do to keep this place alive.”
The silence after that feels like a held breath. Rebel shakes her head, eyes glassy. “You lied to me.”
“I protected you.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
Bones exhales, heavy. “No, it’s not. But it’s what I had left.”
Her hand trembles as she pulls the tablet away. The glow fades off her face, leaving nothing but disbelief. “You always said family doesn’t hide in shadows.”
“And I meant it,” he says softly. “Until the shadows were all we had.”
The words break something in her. She takes a step back. I see it, the exact moment her trust fractures down the middle.
“Come on,” I murmur. “We’re done here.”
Rebel turns and walks out, every step like she’s shedding skin.
Bones calls after her, “You think you know betrayal, Rebel? You don’t. Not yet.”
I don’t look back. Because I know he’s right. The worst betrayal doesn’t come from your enemies. It comes from the ones who taught you loyalty.
Once we are outside, Rebel stops beside her bike, jaw locked, eyes wet but furious.
“Don’t,” she says.
“I wasn’t going to.”
