Chapter 26 #2
“Okay,” he said without preamble, “so I went through everything we pulled off Dvorak’s devices. And cross-checked with the verbal intel you three wrung out of him like sociopaths.” He gestured vaguely toward Bones and Voodoo, who gave him matching middle finger shrugs.
AB didn’t smile.
“It’s not the lead we hoped for,” he continued bluntly. “Not… really a lead at all. Not directly.”
A tightness pulled between my ribs. Not surprise. Just another echo of disappointment I wasn’t ready to name.
Bones swallowed a mouthful of sandwich and washed it down with coffee. “Give it to us straight.”
I slid into a chair at the dining table, both hands wrapped around the coffee. Even my eyelashes felt tired at the moment. Legend slid a breakfast sandwich in front of me along with hash browns, actual real, crispy cooked and fresh hash browns.
AB blew out a breath and tapped the tablet. “Best theory? Dvorak’s people—Madrina—were running a separate operation alongside Ignacio. Parallel tracks. And based on financial discrepancies and shipment logs…” His voice softened. “…Ignacio was definitely skimming.”
My jaw clenched. Hard.
“So,” AB said gently, “when their people raided one of Ignacio’s off-books transport hubs, it’s very possible you were caught in that sweep. Wrong place. Wrong time. Wrong man lining his pockets.”
My stomach twisted. Familiar discomfort. The kind that never quite left.
“But,” AB added, more cautiously now, “there’s nothing definitively tying you to Madrina’s group before that point. No prior notation. No identifiers. No auction codes. Nothing personal. Which means…” He hesitated.
Voodoo lifted his chin softly. “Means we still don’t know.”
AB nodded.
“And,” AB continued. “While we still have some threads to pull, we are running out of avenues to look.”
My heart was a rock in my chest. “Wasn’t there another name? The Maikel one?”
“He’s dead,” AB said. “Not a lot of data on that at the moment. Just—regime change. Looks like an internal war, not a lot of clear data at the moment, just…” His sigh said everything.
A thick quiet settled over the table. The heavy drape of it threatened to muffle the rest of the world. After all of it, we’d found so much and were no closer.
Legend crossed his arms, face unreadable. Bones dropped into the chair next to mine as Voodoo’s gaze flicked to me, sharp and careful. But I was looking right at AB when he glanced up from his tablet, guilt etched into the lines on his face.
Unsurprisingly, it was Bones who broke the quiet. His somber, authoritative presence steadied me as he wrapped a hand around my nape.
“Grace.” His tone was even gentler than I expected. “Do you want to keep looking?”
Just like that, every breath in my lungs froze. The room felt too bright again. The sunrise too sharp. The coffee scalded my fingers but I held onto it like it anchored me.
I looked at each of them—these men who had dragged me back from hell, who followed me into shadows they never owed me. Men who were asking—not assuming, not pushing—what I wanted.
What I wanted.
Did I keep searching for answers that might not exist? Did I chase ghosts and fragments, push deeper into wounds that might never close? Did I want the truth badly enough to risk what it might do to me?
Or had I already seen enough to know that certainty was a luxury I’d probably never get?
“I…” My voice caught. I swallowed and tried again. “I don’t know.”
And the awful, honest part of it was—
I wasn’t sure I ever would.
The words felt thin the moment they left my mouth—fragile, like they might splinter in the air if anyone breathed too hard.
No one did.
Bones didn’t flinch. Voodoo didn’t crack a joke to fill the silence. Legend didn’t step closer. AB didn’t try to offer some soft consolation or workaround. They all just… stayed. Present. Watching me without staring me down.
It was almost worse.
I dragged a hand through my hair, breathing out slowly.
“It’s like—I finally think I’m getting somewhere, and then it curves back into a dead end.
And every time we hit another wall, it feels less like we’re getting closer and more like we’re just confirming that everyone involved—Ignacio, La Madrina, whoever—treated people like inventory.
Which means I could’ve been anyone. A body in a room. ”
Meant she could have been anyone. If I didn’t end up somewhere, maybe Am didn’t…
My voice went quiet. “I don’t know if there’s an answer. Not anymore.”
Legend’s eyes softened, but he didn’t intrude on the space I was fighting to hold. “Not every story’s clean,” he said, voice low.
Voodoo nudged the wall with his shoulder. “Sometimes the closest thing you get to peace is knowing which doors aren’t the right ones.”
“That’s still progress.” Bones massaged the tense muscles at my nape, his fingers working slowly as if he could help drain it all away.
Maybe. Maybe not.
I stared down at the coffee between my hands. Steam curled up toward my face, warm, comforting, grounding—something simple in the middle of everything that wasn’t.
“I’m tired,” I admitted. “Of chasing shadows that might not even be hers.”
AB cleared his throat. “Then you don’t have to keep chasing it.” His tone was steady but not forceful. “We can stop. We can shift. We can reroute. You’re in control of the pace.”
I let that sit. My heart thudded hard against my ribs—slow, heavy, unsure.
“I don’t want to… quit,” I said finally. “But I don’t know how much further I can push without losing myself in the process.”
“Then say that.” Bones’ voice softened—not gentle, but solid. The kind of voice that made you feel like if the floor gave out, he wouldn’t. “Tell us where you want the line.”
My throat tightened. “I don’t know where the line is yet.”
“Okay,” Voodoo said simply. “Then we’ll help you find it.”
No pity. No pressure. No one jumping in to fix things for me.
Just… support. Plain and uncomplicated and terrifyingly steady.
Legend stepped closer—not crowding, just easing into my orbit like he’d been keeping pace with my heartbeat. “Grace,” he murmured, “you don’t have to decide today. Or tomorrow. Or anytime soon.”
My eyes burned, but I blinked it back hard. Until I decided, we were out here burning through their resources, their networks, their time—time they didn’t owe me. They’d already done so much more than anyone ever had.
Legend held my gaze. “But whatever you decide—we’re not letting you face it alone.”
Something in me loosened. Not fully. But enough that I could breathe again without feeling like my ribs were made of wire.
“I don’t know what I want,” I repeated, quieter now. The truth sat heavy on my tongue until another truth pushed past it. “Except you. All of you. I want all of you in this with me. I want to…”
The words jammed in my throat. Tears caught behind them like gravel. I couldn’t let go of Am. Couldn’t let myself imagine the world where she was… gone. But I didn’t know where to look next.
“Do we have any other leads?” I asked, though my heart already braced for the answer.
As my gaze moved from one face to the next—Voodoo, Bones, Legend, AB—I read it clearly. The answer was not really. Not cleanly. Not anymore.
“We’re not done here,” AB said firmly. “There are still some stones we can kick over.”
But his eyes told the quieter truth, those stones might not hide anything.
I closed my own eyes and leaned back into the warmth of Bones’ hand at my nape.
“Firecracker.” Voodoo’s voice was soft enough I almost missed it.
When I opened my eyes, he’d moved—kneeling beside my chair, level with me.
“We can finish up with Dvorak. Turn everything over to the Feds. Let them take the hammer to Madrina’s side of the wall.
Then we regroup. That’s not the same as giving up. ”
“No?” I whispered. Wanting so badly to believe it.
“No,” Bones answered, as unshakeable as bedrock. “It means we’re giving ourselves breathing room. We rest. Recover. Restock. Get our feet under us. Meanwhile, Alphabet keeps digging, we keep our contacts in the loop, we tug threads and watch what shakes loose. And when we have intel…”
We move.
That promise lived bright and certain in their eyes.
“Until then… we go back to Base?” I asked.
Montana. The mountain. Their quiet place. Our safe place.
“Yes,” Legend said, sliding his hand over mine on the table. “We take you home, Gracie.”
Voodoo set his hand over Legend’s. “We let you heal.”
“We help you heal,” AB corrected softly, adding his hand to theirs.
Bones covered them all with his own, squeezing the back of my neck gently. “And we don’t give up. Ever. We’re with you, Dollface. All the way.”
Then Goblin shoved his head right up between all our arms and nudged my knee with his nose like he was impatient to be included.
A watery laugh broke out of me. “What do you say?” I asked him. “Ready to go back to Base?”
His sharp bark echoed in the hallway—and the guys laughed, real and warm, something bright cracking through the exhaustion around us.
We weren’t giving up.
I wasn’t giving up on her. I never would. But I wasn’t alone, and pretending I was didn’t help any of us. We were stronger together—broken pieces braced against each other.
“Then let’s go home,” I said, more certain this time.