I hate him for it. I respect him for it. Both sit in my chest like blades.My hands flex once. The violence is still there. It hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s waiting under my skin, pushing hard enough to split bone, demanding direction. But direction matters.
She matters.
Olivia, tied to that bed. Olivia covered in Eli’s blood. Olivia holding herself together because she knew I’d come.
She needs me sharp. Functional. Not tearing apart walls. Not swinging at brothers. Not blind. My breath drags in slow. It shakes once on the way out. I lock it down. Then I take one step back.
Logan watches every inch of it.
“Fine,” I say.
His expression doesn’t soften. “Say it better.”
I tilt my head. The look he gives me says he doesn’t have time for my bullshit, and for once, I don’t have time for it either. “I’ll listen.”
A beat.
Then he nods once. “Good.”
The door opens behind him, and the rest of the room comes back alive.
Dom is at the desk with his laptop, though the desk itself is shoved crooked from where I tried to destroy it. Landon stands beside him with papers spread across one arm. Cain is near the wall, watching me like he’s ready to put me down himself if I slip. Shadow stands close enough to help. Hammer is by the window. Joker is leaning in the corner, face blank, eyes sharp. Blaze is at the far side of the room, split lip still healing from me and expression stripped clean of humor. No jokes. No posturing. No wasted breath.
Logan moves back behind the desk. “We work.”
Dom doesn’t look up. “Tracking attempts are still bouncing. Whoever built their system knows what they’re doing. The link was routed through multiple relays before the feed cut, and every relay was masked behind disposable infrastructure.”
“English,” Hammer says.
“They’re ghosts unless they choose not to be,” Dom answers.
“That’s shit English.”
“It’s accurate.”
Landon slides a paper onto the desk. “Money’s the same. Payments are tied to high level liquidity channels. Not cash drops. Not street level transfers. They’re moving through accounts built for immediate access and rapid dispersal.”
Cain’s mouth tightens. “How high level?”
Landon looks at him. “Enough that we’re not chasing men in vans anymore.”
Logan says, “Say it.”
Landon exhales through his nose. “This isn’t street money. This is organized capital.”
The phrase sits heavy in the room.
Dom nods, fingers moving again. “They’re not just kidnappers. They’re attached to a market system. Buyers, handlers, transport, enforcement, financial layers. They’re structured because they have to be. Too many moving pieces otherwise.”
Inventory.
The word from before flashes through me. They made women inventory. They made Olivia inventory. I don’t move. Stillness matters now. Every piece of information becomes a blade. I take each one and set it where it belongs. System. Market. Buyer. Auction. Transfer. Weak points.
Landon continues. “We don’t have time to unwind the whole thing before tonight if they move her.”
“They will,” I say. Everyone looks at me. I hold the desk edge, not because I need support, but because my hands need somewhere to stay. “They killed Eli on camera,” I continue. “They escalated because we interfered. They won’t keep her in one place long after showing us her.”
Dom’s jaw tightens. “Agreed.”
