Page 77 of Falcon’s Forever

“Either hacked or compromised,” Sterling replies.

Vulture taps a finger on the table. "So, they knew Falcon was leaving?"

"Not necessarily," Sterling says. "They knew somebody from the club would have to make the pickup."

Harrier sits back, but there’s none of his usual grin in it. "They set the road up before they even knew who'd take it."

I feel sick, because that's worse, not better. Rachel needed her medication, or thought she did because I decided she did, and they used that as an opening either way. "The women were the primary target," I say.

The room goes quiet.

"The ambush kept me and Hustler off the property," I say. "They didn't need to know it'd be me. They just needed officers gone."

Zip nods slowly. "And once they saw it was you, that was a bonus."

Ice Pick's jaw hardens. "So, we've got somebody organized enough to monitor medical records, jam cameras, coordinate two strike teams, and know our blind spots."

"Which means this goes past whatever was left of Vance," Rook says.

I look around the table. "They're not reacting to what we did. They're protecting what's still standing."

Condor's already typing. "I can check whether the feeder companies have any financial link to the pharmacy provider."

Vulture lets the silence sit a second before he brings it back to me. "Now the other thing."

Nobody needs it clarified. I sit up straighter. Vulture looks around the table before turning his attention back to me.

“My VP ignored a direct order during an active threat,” he says, making sure every brother hears him. “A prospect is dead because of that decision.”

Hearing it stated so plainly in front of every man who knew Carrot is worse than I allowed myself to imagine.

“I ignored the order,” I admit. “Carrot is dead.”

Vulture holds my gaze. “Tell the table why you went back.”

“I believed moving the shooters away from the civilians was the right call,” I explain.

“Was it?” he asks.

“No,” I answer.

Vulture leans forward. “Why not?”

I look around at every man at this table. Because I didn't trust them to get there in time. Because some part of me still believes protecting everyone means being the one closest to the bullet, and because Knox told me Rachel would rather not wait, and rather not was never a reason good enough to disobey a stand-down order, and I knew that when I did it.

"I made the decision alone," I say. "I had orders., my brothers were already moving. I knew backup was coming and I decided I knew better anyway. And when Carrot heard I was in trouble, he made the same kind of call I did. He broke off from the group to get there faster because I've spent months telling every prospect in this club that showing up is the only thing that matters, and he believed me."

Nobody says anything. Digger's staring at the table now instead of the empty chair.

"The public road was a bad position, that part was true," I go on, because stopping now would be its own kind of cowardice. "What I should've done was hold, hand the club the problem, let us solve it together. I didn't. And it's not the SUVs that got Carrot killed. It's every choice I made in the twenty minutes before that put him in a position to think dying for me was the job."

Ice Pick's jaw works once, and he doesn't argue with any of it.

Vulture doesn't either. He just looks at me a long moment, and then he says the word. "Patch."

I've heard him say it before. This time it doesn't sound like a test.

"Falcon," Zip says, low.