Chapter 37 #2
For the first time since the meeting started, a faint thread of humor almost enters the room.
Then Dom says, “There’s one more thing.”
The room tightens.
“What?” Logan asks.
Dom pulls a still image onto the screen. A grainy shot from a traffic camera. Dark van. Bad angle. Almost useless. But not completely.
“There was a second vehicle behind the van during the club attempt,” Dom says. “Not close enough to look connected if you weren’t checking frame by frame.”
Landon leans in. “Scout?”
“Maybe,” Dom says. “Or cleanup. Or buyer confirmation.”
The cold in my chest sharpens. “They watched,” I say.
Dom’s eyes lift to mine. “Yeah.” Logan swears softly. Dom continues. “They didn’t just try again. They watched her with you. They watched the prospects. They watched the environment and moved when the fight created separation.”
I step away from the wall. One step. The room tracks it. Every man in here feels the shift. “They adapted to me,” I say.
Dom doesn’t flinch. “Looks that way.”
Good. That makes it simpler. They know I’m there. They know I’m the obstacle. They know she’s protected. And they still think they can get her. That isn’t courage. It’s arrogance. Arrogance gets men killed.
Logan’s voice cuts through the room. “This doesn’t change the plan.”
“It changes mine,” I say.
His eyes flash. “No.” I look at him. He points at me once. “No solo moves. No dragging bodies through town because your feelings have teeth.”
“My feelings had teeth before.”
Joker’s mouth twitches.
Hammer looks like he wants to laugh and knows better.
Logan doesn’t blink. “Then put a leash on them.”
I step closer to the desk. Not challenging. Not backing down either. “They built a system,” I say. “Systems don’t scare easy. You don’t just watch them and wait for them to make mistakes.”
Dom nods slowly. “You make them bleed resources.”
“Yeah,” I say. “Money. Men. Routes. Safe places.”
Logan’s expression shifts. He hears the strategy now. Not just violence. “Pressure points,” Landon says.
“Peel it,” I repeat.
Dom looks at the map again. “If we hit a route, they reroute. If we hit a payment channel, they change accounts. If we hit both close enough together…”
“They panic,” Cain finishes.
Joker’s smile returns, slow and unpleasant. “And panicked men make noise.”
Logan is quiet for a long moment. Then he nods. “Build it,” he says. “Dom, Landon, find the route and the money. Cain, Shadow, Hammer, prepare bodies. Joker…”
Joker straightens slightly.
Logan looks at him. “When it’s time, you’ll get your fun.”
Joker’s smile deepens. “Thought you’d never ask.”
Logan turns to me last. “You stay on her.” That order hits different. Not because I didn’t already plan to. Because now it’s club directive.
“Yeah.”
His gaze holds mine. “And when I say move, you move with us.”
I nod once.
The meeting keeps going after that. Details.
Routes. Names. Rotations. Possible hubs.
Known missing girls. Descriptions that make the room colder with each one.
Everyone is planning. I listen. I absorb.
But inside, the decision is already done.
This doesn’t get contained. It gets ended. Not slowed. Not disrupted.
Ended.
Because this isn’t about a random threat anymore.
This isn’t even only about Olivia. It started there.
It always comes back to her. But every name on Dom’s list is another folder.
Another routine. Another girl who walked through her life thinking she was safe because she didn’t know some man had already reduced her to inventory.
No.
The word settles in my chest like a blade.
No more.
Logan dismisses the room twenty minutes later, but I don’t move right away.
Dom keeps working.
Landon gathers papers.
Joker slips out with Shadow.
Hammer heads for the hall to check rotations.
Cain pauses near me. “You good?”
“No.”
He nods like that’s the only honest answer. “Stay that way,” he says. “Good makes men sloppy.” Then he leaves.
Logan and I are alone for half a second before Dom looks up from the laptop. “She know?” Dom asks. I look at him. “How big this is?” he clarifies.
“No.”
“She needs to.”
“She knows enough.”
Logan cuts in. “She needs to know more than enough if they’re still coming for her.”
My jaw tightens. I hate that. Not because it’s wrong. Because it’s right.
Olivia doesn’t need lies. She doesn’t need soft edges that make the truth easier to swallow. She chose to stay with her eyes open, and every time we give her less than the truth, we treat her like she can’t hold it. She can. I’ve seen it. Still hate it.
“I’ll tell her,” I say.
Logan nods once.
Dom looks back at his screen. “I’ll keep digging.”
I turn toward the door. Then stop. “Dom.”
He looks up. “When you find the first thread…”
“I’ll call you.”
“No,” I say. His eyes sharpen. “When you find the first thread, you call Logan. Then me.”
A faint smile pulls at his mouth. “Look at you respecting chain of command.”
“Don’t get used to it.”
Logan snorts. “Get the fuck out of my office.”
I leave.
The hallway noise hits me, muted compared to the office. The clubhouse is alive around me, but my focus goes one direction. Her.
Always her.
She’s somewhere in this building. Breathing. Moving. Maybe laughing with the women. Maybe curled in my room because her head still bothers her and she doesn’t want to admit it.
Alive.
Here.
Mine.
They built a network to take women like her.
They put her name in it.
Now I’ll put mine on what’s left when it burns.