John’s smile sharpens. “Elliot and Grant thought the Collective was a business. They wanted contracts and surveillance and leverage. They wanted control they could measure and sell. That’s not what we are.”
His tone drops, almost reverent.
“The Collective exists to keep the world in order. Predators on top. Prey beneath. Fear as a currency. Blood as proof.”
My stomach turns, but I keep my face still.
“You two have reminded everyone what real killers look like,” John continues. “You don’t negotiate. You don’t beg. You don’t back down.”
He leans closer to the camera, his eyes locked on mine.
“You were touched by it, Brooke. You’ve killed in pain. You’ve killed in love. Now look at you.”
His smile spreads wider.
“A weapon shaped by fire. Just like Seth. You two weren’t the problem. You’re the correction. You are what the Collective needs to survive what is coming.”
The frame jolts slightly, like he’s moving.
“You did what I needed you to do,” he adds, satisfaction threading through every word. “You exposed the weak ones. You made the fractures visible. You made people pick a side.”
Behind me, Seth’s breathing shifts.
John’s voice softens, almost gentle. “Tell me, doesn’t it feel righteous? Doesn’t it feel good knowing you are no longer the victim?”
I hold his gaze through the screen. I don’t blink. I don’t answer.
Then I reach forward and cut the feed.
The screen goes dark.
My hands are shaking when I lower the tablet. My pulse is too fast, my skin cold, like he reached through the screen and took something with him when it ended.
All I can think about is him watching from somewhere else, smiling like he already won.
Seth doesn’t say anything right away. He steps around me and takes the tablet from my hands, turning it over once in his grip like he might snap it in half.
I glance toward the hallway where Elise and Ryan are sleeping, and my chest tightens for a different reason. We brought them into this. We dragged them into it, even if we didn’t have a choice.
“I’m tired of waiting,” I say. “We need to end this. I can’t keep living like this.”
Seth nods once. “Then we finish it.”
I move, my hand closing around my gun on the nightstand.
“Travis, we need to find Grant and John. Now”
“We don't need to find them,” Travis turns the screen toward us, his expression uneasy. “They already know where we are.”
Chapter 70
Seth
The room goes still.
Travis drags a hand over his mouth, then nods toward the screen. “The Collective database is acting like a coordination board. Grant posted a job, and it wasn't subtle. Contracted killers picked it up.”
He taps the screen, pulling up another window. “Dmitri is one of them, along with a few others I'm still working to identify. They're meeting first, then they're moving to this location.”
