Chapter 41
LUCAS
Icarried Lexi up the stairs to our suite at Dominion Hall, her body slack with exhaustion against my chest. She'd tried to walk on her own, insisted she was fine, but the adrenaline had finally worn off and left her hollowed out.
Her eyes were half-closed, her breathing shallow, and when I set her down on the bed, she didn't even protest.
"Sleep," I said, pulling the blanket over her.
"You should, too," she mumbled, already drifting.
"Soon." I brushed my lips against her forehead. "I've got to talk to the brothers first."
She nodded faintly, her hand reaching for mine. I squeezed it once, then let go, watching until her breathing evened out and her face went soft. Only then did I allow myself to move.
I was tired—bone-deep, the kind of exhaustion that came from too much adrenaline and too little sleep. But this couldn't wait. Hank Singleton was dead, Hannah was in the hospital, and someone bigger was still out there, pulling strings we couldn't see yet.
I headed downstairs, my boots echoing against the marble. The war room door was already open, voices drifting out—low, serious, the kind of tone that meant everyone already knew this was going to be a long night.
When I stepped inside, the room went quiet.
Noah stood at the head of the table, arms crossed, his expression unreadable.
Atlas leaned against the wall, solid as stone.
Ryker sat with his feet propped on the table, but his eyes were sharp.
Elias had his laptop open, fingers flying across the keys.
The other Charleston Danes were there, too: Marcus, Charlie and Silas, the quiet one.
And then there were my Montana brothers—Ethan, Jacob, and Caleb.
Ethan was the first to move. He crossed the room in three strides and pulled me into a bear hug that damn near cracked my ribs. "You're alive," he said, his voice rough.
"Yeah," I said, clapping his back. "Takes more than a lunatic with a gun to take me out."
Jacob came next, grinning despite the tension. "Heard you're dating a movie star now. Guess you've been busy."
I snorted. "She's more than that."
Caleb smirked, shaking my hand, then pulling me in for a hug. "She'd have to be to put up with your ugly mug."
"Fuck off," I said, but I was grinning.
The moment stretched, warm and familiar, the kind of connection that only came from shared blood and shared history. But then Noah cleared his throat, and we all turned back to business.
"All right," Noah said. "Let's hear it. From the top."
I took a seat at the table, leaning forward, elbows on my knees.
The room settled, every eye on me. I walked them through it—starting with the bar, the fake aviator, the escalation at the set.
I told them about the condo, the three guys I'd interrogated, and Hank Singleton's final confession before Noah took him out.
When I got to the part about Hank's claims—that he had friends in high places, people bigger than all of us—the room went still.
"He believed it," I said. "Believed someone would swoop in and save him. And the way he said it ... it wasn't just arrogance. It was certainty."
Ethan's jaw tightened. "You think he was telling the truth?"
"I think someone made him believe it," I said. "Whether they would've followed through is another question. But someone's orchestrating this. Someone with reach."
Atlas spoke up, his voice a low rumble. "We've seen patterns. Probes. Tests. Someone's been watching us for months, poking at our security, our operations. Nothing overt, just enough to let us know they're there."
Ryker nodded. "We’ve had run-ins—surveillance that disappears before we can pin it down, threats that vanish the moment we get close. It's like fighting smoke."
Elias looked up from his laptop. "I've been tracking digital footprints. Whoever they are, they're good. Better than military-grade encryption, ghost servers, the works. They're not amateurs."
Jacob leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. "We've had issues, too. Subtle things. Nothing we could prove, but enough to keep us on edge."
Caleb added, "And it's ramping up. Whatever they're building toward, it's accelerating."
The room fell quiet, the weight of it settling over us like a storm cloud. Whoever this was, they weren't just a threat to one of us. They were a threat to all of us.
"Byron Dane," Ethan said quietly. "You think this is about him?"
"Has to be," I said. "Hank said someone bigger than the Danes. I don’t know what they told him, but it was just enough because they knew he was dumb enough to say what he said. They're coming after the family."
Noah's expression darkened. "We've been digging into Dad’s past, trying to piece together who he crossed, who he made enemies with. But it's like trying to peel a steel ball. The man built an empire in the shadows, and now we're dealing with the fallout."
"So, what do we do?" I asked.
Ryker stood, pacing the length of the room. "We need the other Montana Danes here. Now. If this is about the family, we need everyone under one roof. Strength in numbers. Maximum security."
Ethan held up a hand. "Agreed, but we need to be smart about it. We can't just yank everyone out of their lives overnight. We do it within reason, but we do it fast."
Noah nodded. "Until further notice, all Danes stay close to Dominion Hall. No one goes off on their own. No overseas travel."
Murmurs of agreement rippled around the table. The decision was made, swift and unanimous. Whatever was coming, we'd face it together.
Then Ryker turned to me, his gaze steady. "That brings us to you, Lucas. Are you prepared to stay? To leave Delta?"
The question hit me like a fist to the chest. Delta was everything I'd built my life around—the brotherhood, the mission, the clarity of purpose. It was who I'd been for so long, I didn't know how to be anything else.
But then I thought about Lexi, asleep upstairs.
I thought about the moment I'd seen Hank's gun pressed to her chest, the terror that had shot through me.
I thought about what she'd said in the SUV—about wanting a life that didn't end with a headline, about ordinary things that didn't feel ordinary when they were with her.
I looked around the room. At family.
And I knew.
"Yeah," I said, my voice steady. "I'm staying."
Ethan nodded, respect in his eyes. Jacob clapped my shoulder. Caleb grinned.
"Good," Noah said. "We need you here."
The room settled again, the tension easing just slightly. Then, because I couldn't help myself, I asked the question that had been nagging at me since I'd arrived.
"So," I said, glancing around the table. "Are all you Charleston Danes ... married?"
Marcus—who I'd pegged as the biggest smartass from the moment I met him—leaned back in his chair, a wicked grin spreading across his face. "Yeah," he said. "We all got married on the same day. It was beautiful. We wore matching tuxedos and everything. Very Love Island meets The Bachelor."
I looked around the room, searching for confirmation. Ryker nodded. Elias smirked. Noah shrugged.
"And you three?" I asked my Montana brothers. "All engaged?"
More nods.
I shook my head, half-laughing, half-bewildered. "What is this, some bad version of the Brady Bunch?"
Marcus snorted. "Why, did you see Marsha when you walked in?"
The room erupted in laughter, the tension finally breaking. Even Silas cracked a smile, rare as a damn unicorn, I’d come to find out.
I leaned back in my chair, looking around the table—at the Charleston Danes, at my Montana brothers, at the family I'd just stepped into.
It wasn't the ranch in Montana, where we'd grown up scrapping and surviving.
It wasn't Delta, where I'd learned to be a cunning weapon.
But sitting there, surrounded by men who'd fight and die for each other, I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time.
Home.
I wasn't running toward something or away from it. I was exactly where I needed to be.
"All right," Noah said, pulling us back to business. "Let's talk next steps."
And just like that, we dove back in—planning, strategizing, preparing for whatever came next. But even as we talked, even as the weight of the unknown pressed down on us, I felt steady.
Because I wasn't alone anymore.
I had my brothers. I had Dominion Hall. And I had Lexi, sleeping upstairs, safe and whole.
Whatever storm was coming, we'd weather it together.
At last.