Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
JESSE
The old grain elevator loomed against the night sky, a relic from when Fredericksburg ran on wheat instead of blood. Jesse parked behind the abandoned structure, checking his mirrors for headlights that might have followed him from The Devil's Acre.
Nothing. Knox was passed out drunk in his room, Beckett was buried in schoolwork, and their father was in San Antonio on business until tomorrow morning. Jesse had maybe six hours before anyone noticed he was gone.
He glanced at the manila folder sitting on the passenger seat.
The documents inside were taken from the center of Bo's files where their absence would eventually be noticed.
This was the point of no return. There would be no undoing it, no reconciliation, no mercy.
It was exactly how Bo had trained him to operate.
Identify the weakness and press it without hesitation.
His phone buzzed:
Here. North side.
Jesse walked around the building, boots grinding against broken glass and loose stones. Raven's truck sat in the shadow of the loading dock, and she emerged from the driver's side, moving carefully in the shadows.
She'd dressed for stealth in dark jeans and a black hoodie. Her hair was pulled back in a high ponytail that made her look younger than nineteen. But there was nothing young about the way she moved, nothing innocent about the way she looked at him or the determination in her eyes.
"Did anyone follow you?" Jesse's gaze swept past her into the shadows.
"I was careful.” Raven studied him with her solemn gaze. "The real question is if you’re going to be straight with me, or is this a setup?"
"I'm about to show you something that could get us both killed." Jesse pulled the folder from inside his jacket. "It’s your call whether that counts as being straight."
Raven took the folder without hesitation, flipping it open to reveal shipping manifests, route maps, and financial records that he’d lifted from his father's study while the old man was distracted by Knox's latest bar fight.
"Jesus." Raven's voice dropped to a whisper as she photographed each document. "This is..."
"A complete record of the Southwest pipeline. Gun shipments, money transfers, payoff schedules for everyone from border guards to state senators to feds. This evidence is my father’s protection if the cartels decide to do to him what he’s done to the other families around here.
" Jesse watched her work, noting the way her hands stayed steady despite the magnitude of what she was seeing.
"Your uncle's property is just one waypoint on a network that stretches from Falcon Lake to Dallas. "
"How much money are we talking about?"
"Last quarter? Twelve million in profit. Your uncle got a hundred and fifty grand of that, which makes him either the worst negotiator in history or a man under extreme duress."
Raven glanced up, and Jesse saw something dangerous kindling in her eyes. "One hundred and fifty thousand to risk his life and mine. To turn our land into a highway for guns."
"Your uncle never had a choice. You have to understand that, Raven. If it hadn’t been the bank, it would have been something else. And my father doesn't make requests. He makes offers that sound like choices until you realize refusal means death."
"What’s your excuse?" She lowered the phone, studying him hard.
"The survival of my mother and brothers," he said finally. Survival wasn't the complete truth, but it was close enough.
The complete truth was that Jesse had been dreaming of ending his father since he’d been eighteen, heaving up his guts in a parking lot.
And during his time in the Army, he’d honed that dream into a plan to destroy the man who'd created him.
A plan that freed his family from the tainted legacy of Bo Hollister and the shadow of guns and violence.
Let her think he was reluctant or backed into a corner.
Reluctant men were trustworthy. Calculating men were not.
"But why now?"
"Because sometimes the right moment chooses itself." Jesse stepped closer, close enough to see the honey flecks in her dark chocolate eyes. "There’s no more waiting, no more planning. It's time for action and consequences."
"And probably both in spades." Raven's voice carried a hint of something that might have been respect. "What happens when your father finds out you took these?"
Jesse thought about Bo's reaction to disloyalty, about the basement room at The Devil's Acre where men went to scream and never came out alive. About the way his father's eyes went flat and empty when someone disappointed him.
"If he finds out, he’ll try to kill me after making sure I understand exactly how much I've cost him."
Her expression shifted, something heavy settling behind her eyes that made her seem older than her years. "Then why risk it? Why give me this?"
Jesse reached out, his fingers brushing against her cheek.
"The moment is here. If I’m going to free my family from my father, it’s now or never.
Like I told you, you’re my ace in the hole.
Against him and against this entire rotting system.
Understand that his network stretches across not only Texas, but all over the country.
He has people from all levels in his pocket.
But your ranch is also the match that lights the fuse.
And when this all burns down..." He watched her process that, watched her try to figure out if he was being cruel or honest. Both.
She was leverage against Bo, which would create the opening Jesse needed.
But she was also something else, something he didn't have words for yet.
She was the first person who made him think there might be something worth surviving if the blood ever stopped flowing.
Jesse didn't finish the thought, because the truth was he didn't know if either of them would survive the fire they were about to start.
"When it burns down, what?"
Jesse didn’t answer. The words, or lack thereof, hung between them, heavy with implication.
Raven froze, the phone hanging forgotten in her grip.
Her expression didn't change, but Jesse caught the way her throat worked as she swallowed, the slight widening of her eyes that said she'd heard what he hadn't said.
"Jesse..."
"I need you to understand this is a mutually beneficial arrangement.
You need protection from my father, I need the proper setup to draw him in and take him down.
We use each other to survive this, then go our separate ways when it's done.
Don't mistake this for something noble, Raven.
I'm still a Hollister. Right now, our interests align, and that's enough. "
Raven set the phone down on the hood of her truck, her movements careful and deliberate. When she met his gaze again, Jesse read strategy in her expression, not sentiment.
"If we do this, there's no going back." The words came out measured, professional.
"We passed that point a long time ago." Jesse maintained the distance between them. "But you're not here for the safe choice, are you? You're here because you need what I'm offering—a way to fight back."
"And what do you need?"
He kept his hands at his sides, professional despite the tension crackling between them.
"I need your ranch, with the big porch and clear line of sight. I need someone who can remain calm knowing that they’re standing across from a stone-cold killer.
I need someone who won't fold when things get bloody or turn on me.
If the old man takes me down, you get that information to the Feds and then release it to every news agency in the country. But only if that happens. Understand?"
She studied him for a long moment, and for a second he wondered if he’d made a mistake, if she’d cave.
Finally she bobbed her head. "Deal. What did you have in mind?"
"I’ll turn the cartel against him using a copy of that very file. Make them think he's working as a mole for the Feds or planning to cut them out entirely. Let them do what the law won't."
The cartel contacts, the evidence of skimming, the carefully documented proof that could be interpreted as Bo's betrayal—all of it was ready and waiting for the right moment.
The Blue Fork Ranch was the match and the accelerant, but Raven was the reason to burn it all down now and the means to make sure Bo couldn't rise from the ashes.
Raven was quiet, considering the implications. "You realize what you're saying, right? If the cartel believes Bo's betrayed them, they won’t stop at just him. They’ll wipe out your entire family. Your mother, your brothers, and anyone else they can get their hands on."
"I’m aware of the risks." Jesse's expression hardened.
"But I'm not going to let that happen. Before we make any move against Bo, I'll get my mother to her sister's in Houston.
She's been wanting to visit anyway. Beckett's got a college tour in Austin next week, I'll make sure he extends it.
And Knox..." He paused. "Knox can take care of himself. "
"And if the timing doesn't work out? If the cartel moves faster than you expect?"
"Then I'll deal with it. But the cartel's methodical.
They'll investigate first, verify the betrayal. That gives us time to get the innocents clear and I’ll stall Bo for as long as I can.
" Jesse met her gaze steadily. "I'm not trying to orchestrate a massacre, Raven.
Just arranging enough to remove Bo and the cartel from our lives completely. "
"That's a dangerous game. Once you unleash the cartel, you can't control them."
"Control and justice aren't always something we can achieve. Sometimes the best you can do is point the monsters at each other and hope the right people survive."
"And you think you could do it? Set up your own father to be killed?"