23
HAWK
I get backto my place, pull into the drive, idle a second with my hands on the wheel, and listen to the engine tick as it cools.
I didn’t burn the barn.
Falcon went home to Savannah, none the wiser about Reyes or coordinates or AI flames.He believed my nonsense about scouting a guesthouse site and “checking structure.”He left in good spirits.
Inside, my foyer smells like lemon oil and laundry detergent.My cleaners are here.Fuck.The framed print by the door—Do The Next Right Thing—stares down like an accusation and a benediction in one.I set my keys in the dish just before my phone buzzes.
It’s a text from Raven.
Judge says the DHS notice was fake.Dani’s not going anywhere.We’re 90% sure Agudelo’s chef is behind Belinda.V’s digging on a real name.We’re on it.Will update.
I shut my eyes, and the breath I let out feels like a pack is dropping off my shoulders.
Fixed.
One thing, at least, is fixed.Daniela isn’t going back to Colombia.
I take my boots off and leave them facing the door the way Dad drilled into us—always ready to move.I walk through the kitchen, grab a glass of water, and drink it down.
Then I head into my mancave, where the Nintendo controller sits on the coffee table—a portal to a world where you get three lives plus extras if you’re clever.
For a second, the idea is delicious.I could sit.I could hurl myself into make-believe and let the dopamine do its merciful job.No blood, no law, no family, no leverage.Just jump, duck, run, repeat.
Make the noise stop.
My hand hovers over the controller.
I pull it back.
Daniela isn’t leaving the US.But nothing else is fixed.The barn still stands.Reyes has leverage on me.
And worse…
Belinda is still missing.
And Daniela is still in danger.
Not just from the chef, Reyes, and Diego Vega.
But from the Huntington’s gene.
Damn.
I know Agudelo was lying to her.I just know it.
Is it just foolish hope on my part?
Maybe, but it’s worth a shot.
We have to get Daniela tested.And if she does have the gene?I’ll spend every minute with her and every dollar of my fortune trying to get her cured.
I can’t kill the disease if she has it, but I can at least kill the uncertainty.I can take the weight off her shoulders or, if I can’t, I can shoulder itwithher.
That thought hits like cold water.It clears the static.
