Survives Even After Maps Are Burned by Niro Mason 104

Chapter 104 

Chapter 104 

-Hailey- 

I didn’t knock this time. I just turned the knob and slipped into Jake’s 

closing the door softly behind me. 

23% 

65 vouchers 

Talon towered over Ledger’s shoulder, watching his laptop. Jake was still sitting, rubbing his hands over his face. River leaned against the far wall with his arms crossed. His gray eyes tracked my entrance without any surprise. He’d already been briefed. 

The circle of conspirators was complete. 

I sank back into the same leather chair. No one spoke. The only sound was the frantic click–clack of Ledger’s fingers on the keyboard. He was muttering a stream of numbers and street names under his breath. 

I wrapped my arms around myself as a chill tried to seep into my bones. 

This was my fault. 

My choices had brought this down on Stella. And now the club was wasting their energy, their focus, their war effort, to clean up my mess. 

The guilt was a hot, acidic pool in my stomach. Churning. 

I pulled out the burner phone Jake had given me and laid it gently on the desk. 

And then my own phone buzzed in my pocket. 

My heart leapt into my throat. Stella. It had to be. She’d gotten free. She’d found a phone. She was calling me. 

I fumbled for it. My fingers were clumsy with desperate hope. The screen glowed bright in the dark office. 

And there it was. Stella’s name. A text message notification. 

The hope curdled into something cold and sharp in the span of single heartbeat. 

I tapped the screen, and the message loaded. It was an image. 

Of Stella. 

She was tied to a wooden chair. Her wrists were bound to the armrests with thick, industrial–looking zip ties. More of them cinched her ankles to the chair legs. 

Duct tape stretched across her mouth, pulling her cheeks into a disturbing parody of a smile. 

But it was her eyes that stopped my breath. 

They weren’t pleading. They weren’t crying. They were blazing with pure, undiluted fury. 

All Stella, honestly. 

There wasn’t even a hint of fear on her face. She looked pissed. 

In one of her hands, she was holding up a piece of paper. Her knuckles were white where she gripped it. I had to zoom in to 

be able to read it. 

It was an address, handwritten in blocky masculine letters. 1847 Oakmoss Lane. 

1/4 

18:59 Tue, Jan 20 D 

Chapter 104 

Beneath that was a message: 

Come alone or she dies. * 

The words didn’t sit on the screen… they busted through me. A direct, brutal command. 

<23% 

My vision tunneled. The office and the men were gone. There was only the image. Stella’s furious eyes. The duct tape. The finality of those five words. 

I became aware of my own breathing. My heartbeat slamming against my ribs. 

The old Hailey- the pre–Logan Hailey screamed in my head to run. To grab a knife, find a car, and drive straight into whatever hell the Russians had set up for me. 

But that girl was dead. And the woman left in her place felt a strange clarity settle on top of the panic. 

This wasn’t a rescue mission. It was a designed outcome. Anatoly knew a lot about Logan. That much was clear. But apparently, he also knew a lot about me. 

I cleared my throat. It felt like sandpaper. 

“1847 Oakmoss Lane,” I said. It came out flat, like I was reading a grocery list. 

Ledger stopped typing. Four heads snapped toward me. 

“What?” Talon asked. 

I slid the phone across Jake’s desk, and it skidded to a stop next to Ledger’s keyboard. 

The effect was instant. Ledger’s eyes dropped to it and went wide. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and then his fingers were flying again. I knew he was typing in the address. 

Talon leaned in, his green eyes narrowing as he took in the image. A low, guttural sound rumbled in his chest. Jake sighed heavily. 

“Empty house,” Ledger announced a few seconds later. “Foreclosure. Been on the market six months. It’s pretty rural… no neighbors within shouting distance.” 

Of course it was. 

The pieces clicked into place. They wanted to see me coming from a mile away. To make sure I came alone. 

They’d want no witnesses to whatever happened next. 

“Anatoly isn’t there,” Talon said firmly. “He’ll have shooters posted. They’ll be watching the approach. The second they see anyone but you…” 

He didn’t need to finish the sentence. The image of Stella in that chair was final enough. 

The plan they’d been building was already dead. This changed everything. The objective wasn’t a stealth extraction anymore. It was a public execution, and I had to walk into the spotlight. 

“I’m going,” I said quietly. “It has to be me. He’ll be watching… hell know if I’m not alone.” 

“Like hell you are,” River said. It was the most emotion I’d ever heard from him. 

“She’s right,” Talon cut in with his gaze still locked on Ledger’s screen. “He laid the board. If we don’t play, the girl dies.” 

He finally looked at me, and his assessment was brutal. “But you won’t go alone. You’ll have shadows.” 

2/4 

18:59 Tue, Jan 20 D G. 

Chapter 104 

And so the plan reformed itself, putting me in the crosshairs. Not a charge, not a siege. 

A deception that could get us all killed. 

23% 

65 vouchers! 

“The house has woods on three sides,” Ledger said. “Hailey goes in the front door, you two come up through the woods, wait at the back tree line. The house has multiple entrances.” 

It was absolutely insane. But it was the only move left on the board that didn’t end with Stella in a body bag. 

Talon shook his head. “We need to bring more people. If this goes sideways…” 

“It already is sideways,” I whispered, my eyes drifting back to the photo on my phone. To Stella’s furious, terrified eyes. 

It was River who broke the silence that followed. “We have to tell him.” He wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at Talon and Jake, appealing to the chain of command, to the brotherhood. “Logan needs to know. Before we do this.” 

My stomach clenched. 

Telling Logan now would be the worst possible move. I’d have to watch the trust in his eyes shatter into a million pieces, right before the rage swallowed him whole. He wouldn’t see a strategy, he’d see a betrayal. He’d see me walking straight into Anatoly’s trap. 

“No,” I said. It came out a little too loud. “We can’t.” 

River’s eyes finally swung to me. “This isn’t a game, Hailey. You’re his woman. Keeping him in the dark goes against the brotherhood. Not to mention it’s really fucked up.” 

“It’s the only way to keep him alive,” Talon countered. He leaned forward, planting his hands on the desk. “You know him, River. You know what he’ll do. He’ll grab his piece and ride out that gate… make himself a martyr. And he’ll get her killed.” 

He jerked his head toward me, then toward the phone. “Anatoly is counting on that exact move. I’m not gonna hand my son to him on a fuckin silver platter.” 

“So we lie to him?” River’s voice was tight with frustration. “We let him think we’re locking down while we sneak out on a suicide run? What happens when he figures it out? Because he will. He’ll tear this club apart looking for her.” 

“Then we make sure we’re back before he does,” I said. The plan felt more insane with every word. “We get Stella, we get out, and we deal with the fallout after. Logan’s anger… I can handle his anger. I can’t handle him in a casket.” 

“You think they’re just gonna let you walk out of there?” River said, running a hand through his hair. “They told you to come alone, Hailey. They might let your friend go, but there’s no chance you’re walkin‘ out unless we intervene. They’re tryin‘ to use you to get to Logan.” 

I glanced down at the floor. He was right. There was no scenario that had me strolling out of that place holding hands with Stella. 

Jake finally spoke up. “The more people who know, the higher the risk of a leak. But going in with just the three of you… your odds are shit. You could bring Mason. Link. A few others. Roll in quiet, surround the place. Get the girls out of there alive.” 

“How do we do that without Logan noticing?” Talon said. “He’s got prospects posted at every window. He’s counting heads. He’s itchin‘ for a fight. The second a group of us moves toward the bikes, he’ll know, and he’ll want in. Or he’ll want answers.” 

The room felt like it was shrinking. Every option was bad. Telling Logan was a gamble with his life. Not telling him was a gamble with our souls. Bringing more men was a gamble with exposure. Not bringing more men was a gamble with survival. 

Three of us started to talk at the same time, but we were all silented by the sound of my phone vibrating where it still lay in front of Ledger. 

18:59 Tue, Jan 20 G· 

Chapter 104 

I leapt out of my chair, nearly throwing myself across the desk to see the screen. 

It was another message from Stella’s phone. Just one word. 

* Now. * 

My vision started to tunnel again. And as we all stared at my phone in silence, another image came through. 

A tooth. A molar. Bloody root and all. Lying on a wooden tabletop, next to a pair of pliers. 

“Shit,” River muttered. 

“Guess the choice is made for ya, boys,” Ledger added, sliding my phone back toward me. 

I looked at the photo again. Stella’s tooth, lying on that table. She was counting on me. 

3.23% 

55 vouchers 

The woman who had given me a job, a purpose, a life out from under Matt’s thumb. She was getting her teeth ripped out because of me. 

“It has to be us,” I murmured, looking at Talon and River. “Just us. We have to go now.” 

Talon nodded once. 

River looked from me to Jake. The conflict was plain on his face loyalty to his father, his president, warring with loyalty to his cousin. His best friend. 

Finally, he let out a sharp breath as the fight went out of him. “This is a huge fucking mistake,” he muttered, but he didn’t argue anymore. 

The decision was made. The three of us against whatever was waiting at 1847 Oakmoss Lane. The vice president, his nephew, and the girl who started it all. Sneaking out to war while the club thought they were locking down for safety. 

The weight of it settled on my shoulders. We were about to break the one rule that mattered most. We were leaving a brother behind. 

Ħ