Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
This pattern didn’t whisper.
It bled across the map in red and ash like a warning flare no one could ignore.
In the background, Sierra team’s lead was running through the report of their findings in Utah while Alpha waited their turn, the conference screen split between feeds and satellite stills.
The war room lights were dimmed low enough for the monitors to glow, casting sharp planes over the men and women gathered around the table.
The rest of the team spread out, cups of coffee sweating into cardboard sleeves that no one touched. They were too focused on the dual ops. Too aware that the clock wasn’t just ticking, it was sprinting toward a time when Cipher would vanish again.
“Completely destroyed,” Sierra’s lead reported. “Classic containment burn. Accelerant used strategically. Nothing left worth pulling—no hardware, no prints. No surviving digital storage. Tracks with the MO of our man.”
Ash shifted his weight, jaw tight. “Shell company on the deed?”
Elin answered from her laptop without looking up. “Three layers deep. Delaware LLC registered to a holding company out of Nevada, backed by a trust in the Caymans. Dante pulled it apart in thirty minutes.”
Dante gave a distracted lift of his hand.
Alpha started rattling off their report. Same story, different coordinates. Same scorched slab where a warehouse had stood. Same melted beams and collapsed roofing. Same fire department arrival too late to matter.
Two properties. Two states. Same man.
“Two for two,” Con said, voice low but cutting through the room like a blade.
Suddenly Ellory spoke, and the texture of her voice made heads snap in her direction.
“Not two for two,” she said quietly. “I think there’s more.”
Ash moved first. Dante rounded the table from the opposite side. They both leaned in toward her screen.
“I’ve been running every property connected to the holding company against tax records and bank notes,” she said, fingers flying.
“Cross-referencing utility transfers, insurance changes, accelerated write-offs.” Her finger stopped.
“This one was destroyed by fire three weeks ago. And this—just outside Cedar Ridge—classified as accidental.”
“Get that on the monitor,” Con ordered.
Ellory didn’t move.
She stared at the screen like she could reach through it and pull something—someone—back.
Ash didn’t like the stillness in her.
He’d seen that kind of lockup before. In firefights. In men who’d gone too deep into their own heads while everything detonated around them. They stopped hearing orders. Stopped reacting. Stopped moving.
The room fell quiet as they watched it happen.
Ash flattened his palm on the table, letting his pinky brush the edge of her hand.
She dragged in a breath like she’d been underwater.
For half a heartbeat, her eyes met his. Too bright. Too raw.
Then she nodded and shared her screen.
The next hour moved fast. Data layered over data. After their raids in upstate New York and Wyoming, Cipher had pivoted fast.
“He’s liquidating,” Ellory breathed.
The room hushed.
Ash met her stare.
Fear shadowed her eyes, but it wasn’t just fear of Cipher. It was deeper. Personal.
Before he could move toward her, Con jerked his chin at him. “Ash, get Alpha and Sierra updated on this.”
Ash shifted to the far end of the table, sliding on the headset as activity surged. Dante and Elin dove into national fire databases for the last six weeks. Chickie pulled up satellite overlays. Sophie layered zoning maps.
Dante turned his monitor. “Three more fires. All within thirty days. All tied to secondary subsidiaries.”
The air in the room thinned.
“He’s burning it all. Cleaning house.” Sinner grabbed his coffee cup but didn’t drink it.
“He’s running scared,” Con said.
Ash looked around the war room and saw it in every face—they weren’t chasing Cipher anymore.
They were closing the trap.
Ellory’s chair screeched back.
She crossed to the big map and jabbed her finger at a single yellow pin sitting just outside the arc of destruction.
“So why not that one?”
It wasn’t really a question.
In the glaring symmetry of the other burned properties, that one stood alone.
“Every destroyed property is industrial,” she pressed. “Warehouse. Office. Storage facility.” Her finger trembled as she pointed. “That’s zoned commercial.”
Sophie frowned. “That one’s an empty lot. Old gas station was torn down last year.”
“No.” Ellory shook her head. “Look at the timing. Insurance payout delayed. Property taxes deferred. There was a transfer request filed and then canceled.”
Ash saw it then—the way her breath shortened. The way her hands curled in on themselves.
“What if he’s holding something there?” she whispered. “What if he hasn’t burned it yet because—”
Because her brother was inside.
The words hung unspoken, but he heard them.
Con’s gaze shifted to Ash. Silent communication.
Now.
Ash stepped forward. “Team needs context.” His voice was steady even though his pulse kicked. “Ellory’s brother was undercover to get close to Cipher. He went missing thirteen months ago.”
The room went still.
Alpha’s lead leaned closer to his screen. “You think the brother’s leverage?”
Ellory made a small sound in her throat.
Ash didn’t hesitate this time. He crossed to her.
But before he reached her, Opal’s hand landed on his shoulder as she slipped past. “I’ve got her.”
Opal murmured something low and firm to Ellory. After a long second, Ellory nodded. She didn’t look at Ash as she let Opal guide her from the room.
Ash’s body strained toward the door anyway.
He forced himself to turn back to the map.
They didn’t have the luxury of emotion right now.
The coffee was shoved aside. Physical maps were imposed over satellite prints. Property records pinned at the corners. A financial trail marked in red stretched across counties like a vein.
When they stepped back, no one spoke.
The pattern was no longer theoretical. It was blatant. A sweep of burned assets that boxed in one remaining cluster of properties along the eastern edge.
“He’s collapsing inward,” Dante said quietly. “Like he’s sealing himself off.”
“Or burning the evidence before he runs,” Chickie added.
Ellory’s voice echoed in Ash’s head. So why not that one?
Dante zoomed in. “No confirmed burn yet. No recent fire call. Utilities still technically inactive.”
“Meaning?” Con prompted.
“Meaning if he’s following pattern, it’s in queue,” Dante finished. “But we don’t have enough to justify a raid. Not yet.”
The room silenced. They were close. Too close to make a blind move.
Con straightened. “We don’t kick a door without probable cause. We flag it.”
Ash felt the frustration ripple through the room.
“ATF?” Chickie asked.
“And FBI financial crimes,” Con confirmed. “We hand over everything.”
Silence settled like dust after an explosion. Getting this close and then putting everything on hold to wait for an order to come down the line didn’t sit well with any of them.
Then Con looked around the table. “We did what we needed to do. We identified the pattern. We’ve narrowed the geography. We handed them a roadmap. Meeting’s breaking. Await further orders.”
Chairs scraped. Headsets came off. The map stayed lit on the wall, red pins glowing like open wounds.
Ash didn’t move.
And if Cipher decided to strike before the feds cleared a move—
The next red pin might mark more than the burned shell of a property. It could destroy all hope of Ellory’s brother being alive.
And if that happened, Ash would carry it with her.
* * * * *
Ellory sat alone in the kitchen, trying to fight the sensation that the walls were closing in on her.
Opal had been sweet, fixing her a snack and hot tea, telling her they all needed a break while making all this feel normal.
But it wasn’t normal to Ellory.
Everyone in that room had seen her start to lose it, and that was the only reason she’d agreed to step back from her work. The last thing she wanted was to break down in front of them all.
The woman sat across the island, her quiet presence calming.
She sipped her tea. “Thanks for this, Opal.”
She compressed her lips and set her own cup aside. “I know how it feels to crack.”
“And you saw the signs in me?” She tried for a brave tone but it fell flat.
“It doesn’t mean you aren’t strong, Ellory. It means that you needed a short break. We all do sometimes. Why do you think we hit the pool or the casino to unwind? Everything gets clearer with a little space.”
She nodded and stirred another teaspoon of sugar into her tea to keep her hands busy. What she really needed was a computer system and time alone to keep digging. But she tried to take a break because her friend suggested it.
After a few minutes, Opal slipped out to give her space. Ellory went straight to the computer lab but couldn’t get to work.
She sat staring at the screen for so long the numbers began to blur. She pressed her fingers to her eyes and found them damp.
Archer had turned twenty-nine in the time he’d been gone.
Her brother was talented and brilliant—both traits had put him in the position to find Cipher. But it was his cockiness that drove him to believe he could find the terrorist when no one else could.
For months, she’d carried this alone. Sure, their family knew Archer went undercover for long stretches of time, but they didn’t know what she knew.
The door opened and she didn’t have to see him to know his measured steps. Ash came to stand beside her but didn’t speak right away. That was one of the things she loved most about him—he never rushed to fill silence with words that didn’t fit.
She sucked in a breath that was too loud in the space. “I can’t stop thinking about that map.”
“I know.” His quiet words reverberated through her with a comforting beat.
“What did you find?” She searched his face and more worry flooded in. “You’re going to deploy?”
He shook his head. “We passed it all to the feds. We’re waiting for clear orders.”