Chapter 103
Hailey
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The image on Ledger’s screen might as well have been carved intone. The empty street. The locked grate. The spot on the sidewalk where Stella’s feet had left the ground.
My lungs still refused to work properly. Jake’s office didn’t smell like an ashtray anymore. It smelled like cold, hard reality. It tasted like guilt.
Jake was the one who broke the silence. His eyes were fixed on ‘ton, and his voice was stripped of all emotion. “He took her alive.”
Talon gave a single, grim nod. “He did. So he’s plannin‘ on using her. Which means she’s not dead yet.”
The words were meant to be reassuring, but they landed on me like a bag of cement.
Stella was a pawn. A piece on Anatoly’s board. And her value was directly tied to how much he could make me hurt. Make Logan hurt. Make the club hurt.
Jake leaned forward, elbows on the desk, fingers steepled. He was staring at a point on the wall across the room. “If Logan finds out right now… what does he do?”
No one responded. The answer was in the set of Talon’s shoulders. In the way Ledger subtly minimized the laptop screen like Logan could somehow see through the door.
“He burns it down,” Jake continued, his voice flat. “He charges in. No plan, no backup. All rage. He’ll expose himself, get himself killed, and ruin any chance we have of gettin‘ her back quietly. He’ll get her killed.”
–
I flinched. The image was too clear. Logan – injured leg be damned — on his bike. A one–man army riding straight into a trap designed just for him. Trying to cut the head off the snake before it could bite me.
Talon let out a long, slow breath. “I love my kid,” he said, almost an apology. “But he’s predictable. Anatoly’s countin‘ on that. He’s baiting the hook, and my boy’s hungry enough to bite.”
This wasn’t them doubting Logan. They were knowing him. Protecting him from his own nature.
“If we’re gonna get her back alive,” Jake said, his eyes finally cutting to me, then to Talon, “Logan can’t know about this.”
The decision was made. Just like that. No vote. No debate. The president and his vice–president had looked at the chessboard and moved their pieces.
And I was one of them now. Complicit in a secret that would devastate Logan if he found out.
The air in the room changed. We were no longer bystanders to a tragedy. We were operatives in a covert mission. The objective was clear. Find Stella, retrieve her, and do it all without alerting Logan.
Ledger’s fingers were already typing again. The hunt was on.
The click–clack of his keyboard filled the empty space in the room, and he was muttering to himself. A low stream of technical jargon that sounded like a foreign language.
“Late–model Ford Transit. No plate, obviously… pulling up traffic cams on Grand and Seventh… come on, baby, show me what you got…”
,
A new window popped up on his screen, a blurry, time–stamped clip from a different camera. The same van, a dark smudge against the streetlights, turning right.
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Ledger tapped the screen. “Headed northeast. Out of the downtown grid. Satellite imagery’s gonna take a minute to sync up but that’s the direction Toward the industrial parks, or maybe father out?
“How long?” Jake’s voice was all business
Ledger pushed his glasses up his nose. “To get a solid location? Couple hours. Maybe less if I get a lucky break. They’ve got stop somewhere”
Two hours. Logan was already finalizing the lockdown. He’d be herding everyone into the gun range soon. Once that steel door clicked shut, this operation was over before it started.
“We don’t have two hours.” I said, my voice sounding thin and ready to my own ears.
“We’ll make time,” Talon grunted. He was standing now. “I’ll go get her. Soon as we get a location.”
The statement was so matter–of–fact. ‘I’ll go get her. Like he was picking up a gallon of milk. Not extracting a hostage from a nest of Russian psychopaths.
I needed to move. I needed to do something. It was almost a physical pain in my chest. It overrode every ounce of sense i had left. “I’m going with you.”
The words hung in the air for a second. Ledger stopped typing. Jake’s head slowly turned toward me. Talon just looked at me, and for the first time, something like genuine surprise flickered in his hard eyes.
It was followed immediately by a sharp laugh.
“The hell you are,” he said, his voice a low rumble.
“She’s my friend,” I insisted. “I can help. I can-”
“You’d be a liability,” Jake cut in. His tone left no room for argument. “A distraction. Talon needs to be focused on the op, not on babysitting. Absolutely not.”
The rejection was swift and final. It shouldn’t have hurt, but it did. It sealed my role. I was the cause. The secret–keeper. But I was not a participant. I was to be protected, sheltered, and kept in the dark.
Just like Logan.
The irony tasted bitter.
Jake was already pulling his phone out. “You can take River with you.” He scrolled through his contacts, then he nodded and put the phone to his ear. I heard it ring once, twice, before a low “Yeah?” answered on the other end.
“My office. Now.” Jake didn’t wait for a reply. He ended the call and dropped the phone on the desk.
River. Awesome. Another person to look me in the eye and know I was lying to the man we all loved. The circle of deceit was widening, and I was at the center of it, spinning out of control.
Ledger’s typing filled the silence again. A race against the clock.
“I’m gonna… go make some calls,” I said, my voice unsteady. “Warn people.”
Jake gave a curt nod, pulling a flip phone out of his desk. “Use this. Burner,”
I didn’t like the implications of that. Still clutching Logan’s mug I took the phone and slipped out of the office, closing the door softly behind me.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket to look up contacts, and I dialed Nikki’s number first. I pressed the phone to my ear, listening to the ring and praying she’d answer.
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“Yeah?” She sounded annoyed. Probably because she’d have to change her gloves aher touching her phone. The buzz of a tattoo machine was loud in the background.
“Nikki, it’s Hailey. You need to close the shop. Right now.
The buzzing stopped. “Shit. What’d you find out? Where’s Stellat
I took a shaky breath, trying to force my voice into something like authority. “They took her, Nikki. I saw the footage. You guys shouldn’t be there. Cancel your appointments. Lock up and go home. Don’t open again until you hear from me?
Silence. I could picture her face. The shock wiping away her usual sarcastic mask. “Oh my god,” she whispered. “Are you serious?”
“Dead serious. Please, Nikki. Just go. And be careful.”
“Yeah… yeah, okay.” Her voice was small now. “Jesus. Keep me posted.
“I will.” I ended the call before my voice could break.
The next call was harder. I dialed my mom’s number from memory, listening to it ring.
“Hailey? Honey, is everything okay?” Her voice was laced with the same worry I’d heard too often lately.
“Mom, I need you to listen to me. I need you to pack a bag and get in the car. Right now.”
“What? What happened? Is Abby okay?”
“Abby’s fine. We’re safe. But I need you to not be home. I need you to go stay with Aunt Vicky in Montana for a little while.” “Montana? Hailey, what’s going on? You’re scaring me.” Her fear was reaching through the phone and squeezing my heart. “The people I told you about… it’s getting worse, Mom. They took my friend. They’re… they’re sending a message. I can’t have you where they can find you. I can’t worry about you, too.”
My voice cracked on the last word. I was losing the battle to stay calm.
She was quiet. I could hear her breathing, could almost see her processing. “Abby said things were… intense,” she said softly. “She didn’t say it was this bad.”
“It’s worse,” I whispered.
Another pause. Then a resigned sigh. “Okay. Okay, honey. I’ll go. I’ll call you when I’m on the road. You… you please be careful. Please.”
“I will, Mom. I love you.”
“I love you too, Hailey.”
The line went dead. I slid down the wall and pulled my knees up to my chest. The weight of it all pressed down on me. I’d just set more lives into motion because of the target on my back
The sound of boots on the floor made me look up. River was coming down the hall. He stopped when he saw me on the floor.
“Everything alright?” he asked. His voice was calm, but his gaze was a searchlight.
I pushed myself up, brushing off my jeans. “Yeah. Fine.” Another lie.
He held my look for a second too long. Then he gave a slight no and pushed open the office door without another word,
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disappearing inside. To be briefed on the mission.
To clean up my mess:
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I went through the motions like a robot. Back to the kitchen, where I dumped the cold coffee and poured a fresh, scalding cup, I needed the prop. I needed the lie to be tangible in my hands.
The gun range was a lot quieter when I returned. The men were lounging on couches and mattresses now, having quiet conversations. The calm before the chaos.
I wove through the mess and held the mug out to Logan. “Sorry it took so long. Got caught up in girl talk.” The lies were coming so easy now.
He nodded. His hand closed around the mug, his fingers brushing mine. A jolt went through me
green eyes flicked down to me, and now they weren’t the eyes of a general. They were just his eyes, tired and in pain,
guilt, fear, longing. His searching my face.
“You good?” he asked.
“Yep.” I said, forcing a smile. “Just… girl talk. You know. Blech.” It was the weakest excuse in the history of excuses.
He held my gaze for a beat longer, and I was afraid he’d see the truth screaming behind my eyes. But then he nodded, taking
a sip of the coffee. “Good. You should be with them. Better than hangin‘ around in this mess.”
He believed me. Or he wanted to believe me, enough to let it go. He reached out with his free hand, gently smoothing a stray piece of hair behind my ear.
The touch was so at odds with the fear in my gut that it nearly undid me.
“I’m gonna go back,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “Help them finish getting everything ready for… for lockup.”
He nodded, his attention already drifting back to the room, to the next
I turned and walked away, and each step felt like a mile. I could feel hi door, into the garage, and into the clubhouse.
em to solve. “Alright, Ace. See ya.”
on my back, but I just kept walking, through the
sgaze
se war he couldn’t know about.
I wasn’t going to the kitchen. I was going back to Jake’s office. Back to th
Every step away from him felt like a betrayal.
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