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Every day she believed she had abandoned her own children to whatever nightmare she imagined I’d unleashed. She deserved every second of it. Of course I let her live. Betrayal doesn’t earn a clean exit. A quick death would have been mercy, and I don’t deal in mercy. I deal in consequences. She would carry that weight until her bones gave out.

The road climbed higher. I rolled my shoulders, feeling the familiar tension ease. Ahead, the turnoff appeared. I took it without slowing.

The abandoned warehouse stood near the tree line. An all black van waited beside the loading dock, and Colin leaned against the passenger door with a cigarette between his fingers. John was inside the back of the van, checking the equipment.

I killed the engine and stepped out.

Colin nodded when he saw me. “You’re right on time.”

“I always am.”

John glanced up from the open duffel. “There’s coffee in the thermos.”

I climbed into the van and accepted the cup he offered. We had worked together long enough that none of us needed small talk. The Collective had given us a name, and by morning, that person would no longer exist.

I sat on the rear bench while Colin crushed his cigarette and climbed into the passenger seat. John stepped out, closed the rear doors behind him, and walked around to the driver’s side.

Once we were moving, John looked at me through the rearview mirror. “How are the boys?”

I took a sip of coffee. “Luke acts before he thinks. He isn’t afraid of anything, but his recklessness will get him hurt if I don’t correct it. Seth is strong, he understands the lessons. His problem is attachment.”

Colin glanced back at me. “He must’ve gotten that from his mother.”

I gave a short nod. “I’m correcting it. Been too merciful with both of them, to be honest. But they’ll learn. They don’t have a choice.”

John kept his attention on the road. “Have you heard anything about Samantha?”

“No, and I prefer it that way.”

Colin shifted in his seat. “I could look into her. It wouldn’t take much to find out where she lives.”

I shook my head. “She betrayed me. Now she lives with the belief that her decision killed her kids. That consequence will last much longer than anything I could do to her.”

The conversation moved to Maggie. I told them she remained exactly where she belonged, confined inside a prison where she could no longer interfere with my life.

Two women. Both failed their sons. Neither deserved them. Women are expendable. That was the lesson they both proved in the end.

John pulled onto an empty turnout before we reached our destination. I took a small bag from my jacket and tapped four thick lines onto my phone case. Colin reached between the seats and took the rolled twenty from my fingers. He inhaled the first two lines and passed the bill back.

I finished the remaining two.

The powder burned the back of my throat. Numbness spread across my gums as my pulse accelerated and the last of my fatigue disappeared.

John pulled back onto the road.

“So what did he do?” I asked.

“He refused to kill his assigned target,” John said. “After that, members started dying. He killed ten of our own without anyone realizing the deaths were connected. He chose them one at a time, covered his involvement, and made every murder appear unrelated.”

“How did you find him?”

“He made one mistake with the last body. Colin found evidence linking him to the scene. Once we started reviewing the other murders, everything led back to the same person.”

Colin looked at me over his shoulder. “He still doesn’t know we figured it out.”

The road narrowed as we entered a secluded area surrounded by forest. Large properties sat miles apart behind walls, gates, and long private drives. There were no streetlights or neighboring houses close enough for anyone to notice our van.

John turned onto an unmarked road and continued until a single house appeared between the trees. Its windows glowed in the darkness.