Chapter 13
Take Her Alive
Rain drummed softly against the roof of the abandoned ranger station hidden deep within the national forest. Black Iron had used the cabin for decades whenever a brother needed to disappear. No roads appeared on public maps. No lights could be seen from the valley below.
It should have been invisible.
Instead, someone was already watching.
Titan woke before the explosion.
Years of survival had trained his instincts to recognize danger before his mind understood it. He was on his feet before the first window shattered.
"Down!"
The blast tore through the generator shed fifty yards from the cabin, plunging the forest into darkness.
Automatic gunfire erupted almost immediately.
Glass exploded inward.
Bullets ripped through the wooden walls.
Titan crossed the room in two strides, tackling me behind the heavy stone fireplace just as another burst chewed through the couch where I had been sitting seconds earlier.
"They found us."
"They shouldn't have."
"They didn't."
Titan's voice turned colder than I had ever heard.
"They were told."
Outside, motorcycles surrounded the cabin from three directions.
Professional.
Disciplined.
Not rival bikers.
Mercenaries.
The firefight lasted less than four minutes.
Black Iron's security team answered with overwhelming force, forcing the attackers back into the trees. Flashbangs illuminated the forest in bursts of white light while engines roared through the darkness.
Then...
Silence.
Too much silence.
Titan immediately knew something was wrong.
"Stay here."
He stepped outside.
Bodies lay scattered across the clearing.
Weapons littered the mud.
Two of Black Iron's guards were wounded.
None of the attackers remained.
They had vanished.
Titan's eyes swept the tree line.
His heartbeat slowed.
"The back trail."
He spun toward the cabin.
The rear door stood open.
The room inside was empty.
My backpack lay on the floor.
The silver coin Black Iron had given me rested beside it.
I was gone.
No ransom demand came.
No phone call.
No message.
Only absence.
Titan stood motionless in the doorway.
Every brother watched him.
No one dared speak.
Finally Hawk broke the silence.
"We'll find her."
Titan didn't answer.
Reaper arrived moments later, taking in the shattered cabin with one sweeping glance.
"What happened?"
"They wanted her alive."
"How do you know?"
Titan bent down and picked up a tranquilizer dart lying beside the doorway.
"They never intended to kill her."
He snapped the dart in half.
"They came hunting."
Within an hour, Black Iron Motorcycle Club launched the largest search operation in its history.
Every patched member rode.
Every prospect carried supplies.
Every ally received the same order.
Find her.
Roadblocks spread across three counties.
Drones searched river valleys.
Hunters on horseback combed mountain trails.
Former military brothers coordinated aerial searches.
Friendly truckers monitored interstate highways.
Even rival clubs that owed Black Iron old favors quietly joined the hunt.
Nobody wanted Victor Kane to win.
Because if Black Iron could lose someone under its protection...
No one was safe.
By sunset, the search had found nothing.
No tire tracks.
No fingerprints.
No cameras.
The kidnappers had erased themselves with military precision.
Inside the command center, frustration began replacing hope.
"They crossed the river."
"No."
"They used helicopters."
"No evidence."
"What about the interstate?"
"Nothing."
Every lead ended the same way.
Dead.
Titan stared at the operations map without blinking.
Reaper quietly approached.
"You need sleep."
"No."
"You've been awake thirty-eight hours."
"No."
"You won't think clearly."
Titan finally looked at him.
"I don't need to think."
"I need to find her."
The first prisoner was captured shortly after midnight.
One of the mercenaries had been discovered hiding inside an abandoned grain silo.
He was brought to Black Iron alive.
Bruised.
Bound.
Terrified.
The interrogation room beneath the clubhouse had not been used in years.
Tonight its lights burned again.
The prisoner smiled nervously as Titan entered.
"You won't kill me."
Titan closed the door.
"No?"
"You need information."
Titan pulled up a chair.
"I do."
The man leaned back confidently.
"So we negotiate."
Titan said nothing.
The silence stretched.
Seconds became minutes.
The prisoner's confidence began to fade.
"You know..."
His voice faltered.
"...there are rules."
Titan remained perfectly still.
"You don't understand."
"No."
Titan leaned forward.
"You don't."
For the next hour, no one outside the room heard shouting.
They heard no threats.
No crashing furniture.
Only silence.
When Titan finally emerged, there was blood on his knuckles.
Not much.
Enough.
Hawk looked at him.
"Did he talk?"
Titan handed him a folded piece of paper.
An address.
Nothing more.
"He remembered."
Hawk looked toward the closed interrogation room.
"How?"
Titan's expression revealed nothing.
"He decided forgetting wasn't worth it."
Even Hawk, who had fought beside Titan for years, felt a chill.
Reaper found Titan alone behind the clubhouse before dawn.
The giant stood beneath the fading stars, staring toward the eastern horizon.
"You scared them tonight."
Titan didn't answer.
"Hawk."
"Bishop."
"Even Diesel."
Reaper stepped beside him.
"They've seen you angry."
He paused.
"They've never seen you empty."
Titan's voice was barely audible.
"They took her because of me."
"They took her because of what she knows."
"They knew I'd protect her."
"They exploited that."
Titan clenched his fists.
"I promised."
"You did."
"I failed."
"No."
Reaper looked directly at him.
"You haven't stopped fighting."
Titan slowly turned.
"There won't be another negotiation."
"I know."
"There won't be another warning."
"I know."
"There won't be another chance."
Reaper nodded once.
"I know."
The eastern sky began turning gray.
Morning approached.
With it came something new.
Not grief.
Not guilt.
Something colder.
Something harder.
News of the interrogation spread through Black Iron before breakfast.
Brothers who had stood beside Titan for years lowered their voices when he passed.
Not because they respected him.
Because they no longer knew where the line existed.
The giant who had always carried violence like a burden now carried it like a purpose.
And somewhere beyond the mountains, Victor Kane smiled as reports reached him.
"The giant is unraveling."
His lieutenant nodded.
"Should we prepare?"
Victor looked toward the sunrise.
"No."
He folded Noah's final letter back into its envelope.
"He's finally becoming exactly what I wanted."
He believed he had broken Titan.
He couldn't have been more wrong.
Because mercy had not disappeared.
It had simply been buried beneath something far more dangerous.
Hope.
The hope that she was still alive.
And as long as that hope remained, Titan would tear apart every mile of road, every criminal empire, and every lie standing between them.
No matter how much blood the journey demanded.