Hall.
No Olivia.
Something shifts. Not panic. Not yet. A small, cold adjustment inside me. The kind that happens before a gun clears leather, before a blade hits skin, before instincts decide faster than thought. Mac looks up from the kitchen island. The second she sees my face, hers changes.
Wrong.
My boots stop on the floor. “Where is she?”
The room quiets. Not all at once. But fast enough.
Kya turns from the counter. Brooke freezes near the couch with Mason’s toy in one hand. Emma straightens from where she’s sitting. Blaze, standing near the bar, stops mid-sentence.
Mac’s eyes flick toward the front door. That’s all it takes. The world narrows.
“Where is she?” I repeat. Lower this time.
Mac swallows. “Eli took her out.”
Everything stops. Not the room.
Me.
Sound drops away first. Voices dull. The hum of the clubhouse fades until all I hear is my own pulse, slow and heavy, pounding once behind my ribs like something waking up.
Eli took her out.
My hand goes to my phone. No hesitation.
I hit her name.
Ring. Ring. Ring.
No answer.
I call again.
Nothing.
I call Eli.
Ring. Ring.Voicemail.
My grip tightens around the phone until the case creaks. No yelling. No roaring. No outward panic. Inside, something tears open.
Mac steps closer, hands lifting slightly like she knows better than to touch me but wants to calm me anyway. “Cobra—”
“Where?”
Her voice shakes despite her trying to steady it. “She found out it was your birthday. She wanted to get you something. Eli said he’d take her quick. Just to the store and back.”
Birthday.
For half a second, that word doesn’t fit anywhere. Then it does. It lands like a blade between my ribs. She left because of me. Because she wanted to give me something. Because she thought she could make one normal, soft choice in a life that has been nothing but danger since I carried her through these doors.
Blaze moves first. “Dom!”
Dom comes out of the side room already reaching for his laptop. “What?”
