Reaper met them near the front doors. “Truck’s ready.”
Buck nodded. “Keep everybody inside the perimeter until we know what we’re dealing with.”
Reaper’s eyes flicked briefly upstairs. “And the girl?”
Buck’s expression hardened instantly. “She’s upstairs. Keep her there, and keep her safe.”
The older biker studied him for half a second too long before nodding slowly. “Understood.”
Ghost smirked beside him once Reaper walked away. “You really do growl more now.” Buck ignored him, mostly because he wasn’t wrong.
Outside, the cold hit like a fist to the lungs. Snow tore across the compound under floodlights while the black SUV idled near the gates. Mason climbed into the backseat while Buck took the wheel, and Ghost slid into the passenger side. The moment they pulled onto the frozen trail leading east, silence settled heavily inside the truck. Buck focused on the road, and Ghost seemed focused on Buck.
“You’re distracted,” Ghost finally said.
“No, I’m driving,” Buck insisted.
“You know what I mean,” Ghost said. Buck gripped the steering wheel harder because, yeah, he did. Everything felt different now. There’d been no taking it back after tonight. No pretending anymore. Not after admitting what he wanted.Not after seeing the same hunger reflected in Ghost’s eyes. And definitely not after Wren reached for both of them, like everything happening between the three of them felt natural.
“She trusts us,” Buck muttered quietly.
Ghost looked out the frosted windshield. “Dangerous mistake on her part.”
Buck shook his head. “No. Dangerous for us.” That got Ghost’s attention. Buck exhaled roughly. “I’ve spent years making hard decisions without hesitating.” His jaw tightened. “Now every choice feels like it’s got her attached to it somehow.” Ghost went quiet beside him, and Buck laughed bitterly. “I don’t know how the hell Gorgon does this.”
“Easy,” Ghost said softly. “He found someone worth being afraid for.” The truth in that punched straight through Buck’s chest. The truck climbed higher into the ridge trails while darkness thickened around them. Snow-covered pines crowded both sides of the narrow road like silent ghosts watching them pass.
Then Mason leaned forward suddenly from the backseat and pointed out the front window. “There,” he almost shouted. Buck’s headlights swept across the watch post—or what was left of it. The small wooden structure sat partially collapsed into the snowbank with the radio antenna snapped clean in half. Blood stained the snow outside, and Buck’s entire body went cold. He killed the engine instantly, and nobody moved for a second.
Then Ghost spoke quietly. “That’s too clean.” Buck nodded. He knew that this was a trip. The realization hit both of them immediately.
“Stay in the truck,” Buck ordered Mason.
The prospect swallowed hard. “Got it.” Buck and Ghost exited the SUV silently, boots crunching through fresh snow while both men drew weapons. The wind howled across theridge. It was too quiet. There were no bodies and no movement—just blood.
Ghost circled left while Buck approached the ruined post slowly, every instinct screaming inside of him. Then Buck saw it first—a symbol carved into the wood beside the broken radio. Three slashes through a circle—Vultures. Buck’s jaw clenched because beneath the symbol, a second message had been carved deep into the wood.
SHE CHOSE BOTH.
Buck froze, and behind him, Ghost went deadly still, too, because somebody wasn’t just watching the compound anymore. Somebody had been watching them and knew exactly what was going on between them and Wren.
Buck stared at the words carved into the wood until rage settled cold and heavy in his chest.
SHE CHOSE BOTH.
The Vultures knew everything—not just about Wren, but about him and Ghost too. They knew about the thing growing between the three of them that Buck himself had barely admitted out loud a few hours ago.
Ghost stepped up beside him slowly, snow crunching beneath his boots. “Well,” he muttered darkly. “That’s unsettling.”
Buck ran a gloved hand over the carved symbol, his jaw tight enough to crack teeth. “Nobody outside the compound should know about us.”
“Exactly,” Ghost agreed. The implications hit hard because someone had been close enough to overhear. Or worse—someone inside the Kings had talked.
Behind them, Mason climbed carefully out of the SUV despite Buck’s orders to stay put. “Uh, guys?”
Buck turned. “I told you to stay in the truck.”
The prospect swallowed hard and pointed toward the trees. “You need to see this.” Buck and Ghost exchanged one quick look before moving together toward the tree line. Every instinct Buck had screamed now. The ridge felt wrong—too quiet and too staged. The blood outside the watch post suddenly felt deliberate instead of chaotic.
