I stare into his eyes. The man I once trusted. The brother who rode beside me. Now nothing but a traitor. I press the barrel of my gun under his chin. "You die for this."
He whimpers. Begs. I don’t care. I squeeze the trigger. The shot echoes loud. His body slumps. Blood sprays across the wall. I feel nothing but cold satisfaction.
"Burn this place," I order. "Then we hit the airfield. We find her tonight."
The team moves out. Flames lick up behind us as we ride away. The night burns orange in the mirrors. My hands grip the bars until my knuckles turn white. Tia’s out there. Scared. Takenbecause of me. Because I let my guard down. Because I thought the compound was safe.
I’ll find her. I’ll kill every last one of them. And when I bring her home I’ll never let her out of my sight again. She’s mine. And the world will learn what happens when someone tries to take what belongs to Kraken.
The engines roar louder. The hunt continues. Blood will flow tonight. Rivers of it. Until my woman is back in my arms where she belongs. Safe. Loved. Protected. Mine.
I ride faster into the dark. The ocean watches from the side. Stars burn cold overhead. None of it matters. Only her. Only getting her back. The rest of the world can burn. I don’t care. As long as Tia comes home to me.
23
Tia
The SUV bounces hard over uneven ground as we pull into a small airfield near the water. My wrists burn from the zip ties cutting into my skin. Every breath feels too shallow. My heart hammers so loud it drowns out the engine. The two men beside me laugh and joke in Spanish like this is just another night for them. One of them keeps staring at me with hungry eyes that make my skin crawl. I press myself smaller against the seat and try not to shake visibly.
The vehicle stops in front of a large hangar. Floodlights glare down from tall poles casting harsh shadows across cracked concrete. Armed guards patrol the perimeter. Rifles slung over shoulders. Tattoos visible even in the poor light. They look nothing like Kraken’s men. These are colder. Meaner. Organized in a way that screams cartel.
The doors open. Rough hands drag me out. My feet stumble on the gravel. Cool night air hits my bare arms and raises goosebumps. The smell of saltwater and diesel fuel and something metallic hangs heavy around us. I twist my headtrying to see everything at once. More guards. More guns. No escape.
"Move," one of them barks. He shoves me forward through a side door.
Inside the hangar the air feels thicker. Dim overhead lights buzz faintly. Crates stack high along the walls. The floor feels sticky under my flip flops. I hear voices echoing from deeper inside. Then I see him.
Dad.
He sits tied to a metal chair in the center of an open space. His face looks swollen and bruised. Blood crusts at the corner of his mouth. One eye is nearly shut. His clothes are torn and dirty. But he’s alive. His head lifts when he hears the commotion. His good eye widens when he spots me.
"Tia!" His voice cracks rough and desperate.
I tear free from the guard’s grip and run to him. My tied hands make it awkward but I don’t care. I drop to my knees in front of his chair and press my face against him. Tears spill hot down my cheeks. "Dad. Oh god Dad. Are you okay? They hurt you. I’m so sorry. This is all my fault."
His body feels warm but trembling slightly. He leans his head down against mine as much as the ropes allow. "Shh kiddo. Not your fault. Never your fault. You okay? Did they touch you?"
I shake my head against him. Sobs choke my throat. "I’m fine. Just scared. Kraken’s coming. He’ll find us. He promised."
One of the cartel men laughs loud behind me. The tall one from the SUV. He walks over slow with a smug grin on his face. Apistol hangs loose in his hand. "Touching family reunion. But you’re wrong, little girl. This was always about you."
I turn my head just enough to glare at him while keeping my cheek pressed to Dad’s chest. "What are you talking about?"
He crouches down so we’re eye level. His breath smells like cigarettes and mint gum. "You work in data analysis. Little signals. Patterns. Blips in the streams. You started noticing things you shouldn’t have. Shipments. Routes. Money flows. Our money. Our operations. You flagged anomalies that made our bosses nervous. So we watched you. Then we used your father to draw out the biker trash. But you... you were always the real target."
Dad tenses against me. "Leave her out of this. She’s just a kid doing her job."
The man stands and laughs again. The sound bounces off the metal walls. Several guards chuckle with him. "She’s not a kid anymore. She’s the reason we lost two major shipments last month. Her little reports nearly exposed a whole network. It’s why we took the Royal Bastard’s shipment instead. Now she’s insurance. When the president comes running we’ll use her to make him kneel. Kill two birds. Then we take everything."
I feel sick. My mind races back to the weird signals at work. The patterns that felt off. The ones I mentioned in passing to my supervisor. I thought it was nothing. Corporate stuff. Boring data glitches. Not this. Not cartel shipments and biker wars. Not my father beaten and tied up because of something I saw.
"I didn’t know," I whisper. Tears keep falling. "I was just doing my job. Please let him go. Take me instead. He has nothing to do with any of this."
The tall man shakes his head. "Too late for that. Both of you stay right here until Kraken delivers himself. Then the real fun begins."
He nods to the guards. They haul me up and tie me to a chair a few feet from Dad. The plastic digs deeper into my wrists. My ankle throbs from the earlier scuffle. I look at Dad through blurry eyes. His face looks so broken but his expression stays fierce.
"Stay strong kiddo," he says quietly. "Kraken will come. That boy doesn’t know how to fail."
