Chapter Twelve
Elias didn’t call meetings unless something had already shifted.
Luca felt it the moment the message hit his phone—short, encrypted, stripped down to a single word and a timestamp. Now. No context. No escalation markers. Which meant whatever had happened had already moved past panic and into calculation.
That was worse.
He reset the house on instinct, muscle memory taking over where thought would have slowed him down.
Doors locked. Internal lights shifted from warm to functional.
Screens woke one by one, flooding the living area with muted blues and data streams. Somewhere above him, Kol moved, a quiet presence he felt more than heard, running parallel sweeps that Luca didn’t need explained.
Kol never ran them unless something itched under his skin.
By the time Elias arrived with Dominic and Rafael, the table had been cleared, chairs aligned, the space transformed from home into command. The faint smell of plaster dust still lingered near the wall Luca had punched days earlier—a reminder he hadn’t bothered to erase.
Mateo pulled in last.
And Mara—
She stepped inside with him, pausing just long enough to take in the room and the men gathered there. She didn’t hesitate. Didn’t shrink. Her shoulders were squared, her expression composed, the calm of someone who had already weathered worse than whatever this meeting was going to bring.
Luca stayed where he was.
He didn’t reach for her. Didn’t guide her. He let her choose where to stand, where to sit. After everything, it mattered. But he had to admit it felt perfect when she chose to sit beside him.
Elias took position at the head of the table, standing rather than sitting, hands resting on the back of the chair as if grounding the room by sheer will. Dominic leaned against the wall near the window, arms folded, eyes on the perimeter even as his attention stayed locked on Elias.
“We’ve had a development,” Elias said.
He didn’t raise his voice. Didn’t need to. The room shifted anyway, attention snapping to him like a pulled wire.
Dominic pushed off the wall, boots scuffing softly on the floor. “Okay,” he said. “That’s vague. What kind of development?”
“I have received some information,” Elias replied. “It didn’t come through Covenant channels, but it’s good.”
Mateo’s fingers paused over the screen. “Meaning?”
Elias’s mouth curved just enough to suggest he knew exactly what they were thinking. “Meaning I know a lot of people and many of them work outside the Covenant, but have similar values. The information is solid.”
Rafael frowned. “Solid how?”
“Because it’s not tied to us,” Elias said calmly. “We have not paid for it, nor have we pressured anyone for it. They are not trying to curry favor. It’s a group who’s been right before and doesn’t benefit from it either way.”
Luca felt the room tighten as the implication landed.
Translation—someone the traitor could not influence, who didn’t need them, didn’t fear them, and didn’t profit from lying.
Luca felt the tension in the room rise. If this information was solid, then it was something that meant they needed to act sooner than later.
“We know that the traitor within the Covenant and Havelock are connected. My guess is that the traitor benefits financially from Havelock’s operations, and he steers us away from his trafficking and bullshit so as not to stop his payday.
But they are planning to kill some of the women,” Elias continued, voice level, unflinching.
“The ones who aren’t viable. Injured. Sick.
Anyone slowing their ability to move and won’t bring in the profit they need anymore. ”
“Fuck,” Luca growled. “And then they will grab other women, possibly children, to make up for it.”
The words settled like ash.
Mara’s breath caught, quiet but audible in the sudden stillness.
“And the rest of them, the ones they can sell?” she asked, her voice tightening over that last word.
“They will be moved,” Elias said. “Tonight.”
Mateo swore under his breath. Kol, seated at the far end of the table with his laptop angled toward him, spoke up, his voice tight and precise. “That accelerates the timeline significantly.”
“Yes,” Elias said. “Which means we accelerate ours.”
Luca leaned forward, palms braced on the table. “We were waiting to flush the traitor.”
“We still are,” Elias replied calmly. “But the women can’t wait for that, so we’ll simply make our move. It will mean that the traitor will know we are moving on him and his cash cow, and that will make it more difficult to find him but so be it.”
Rafael nodded once. “So, we move without confirmation of the traitor.”
“We move with intention,” Elias corrected. “The location is solid. Industrial holding site. Tertiary warehouse. Guard rotation suggests they expect time.”
“We risk spooking them,” Mateo countered.
“We risk lives if we don’t,” Elias replied. “And our code does not allow us to risk lives to save lives.”
Silence followed—heavy, deliberate. Not disagreement. Calculation.
“Roles,” Elias said.
Mateo straightened, fingers already moving. “I’ll ghost external feeds and kill outbound alerts. I can get us a ten-minute window before anyone realizes they’re blind.”
“Kol.”
Kol didn’t look up from his screen. “Eyes and overwatch. I’ll track deviations the second they happen.”
“Dominic.”
“Entry pressure,” Dominic said. “Quiet at first, so as not to risk the hostages. And we go loud only if needed.”
“Rafael.”
“I’ll cover our six,” Rafael said. “Anything that moves in behind us will meet their maker.”
Elias turned his attention to Luca. “You’re on point. You know the building style.”
Luca nodded once.
Elias turned to Mara. “I have arranged a few people to come here tonight and protect you, if that’s okay, Mara. We do not want to put you at risk, and, unfortunately, we cannot rely on any internal sources because of the traitor.”
“And, Mara?” Mateo added lightly, glancing her way. “You will come back to mine after this.”
Luca’s head snapped up. “That’s not—”
Mateo lifted a hand, a faint grin tugging at his mouth. “I’m kidding.”
Luca didn’t return it. “Not about her.”
The air shifted—subtle, but unmistakable.
Mara arched a brow, looking between them. “I can handle banter, Luca.”
“I know,” he said, eyes still on Mateo. “I just won’t handle anyone deciding where you belong.”
Mateo’s expression softened. “Fair.”
Elias watched the exchange without comment, then nodded once. “We move in forty minutes. Gear up.”
Chairs scraped. Screens shifted. The Covenant flowed into motion with practiced efficiency.
As the room broke apart, Luca finally turned to Mara. “You okay?”
She met his gaze, steady and unflinching. “I am. Go get those women and bring them out safe. I will stay here as asked and wait for you to return.”
He nodded.
And for the first time since Elias’s message had come through, Luca felt aligned—on purpose, on timing, on what mattered most.
The sound hit a second later.
Low. Heavy. Rolling.
Engines.
Not cars. Not trucks.
Motorbikes. Big ones.
A group of them by Luca’s count, the distinctive growl rolling up the drive in a way that spoke of weight and power and most definitely implied speed. The windows vibrated faintly. Somewhere outside, gravel shifted under thick tires.
Kol’s head snapped up. “How the hell did they get through security?”
Luca was already moving, eyes going to the monitors. No alarms. No breaches. No forced entries.
He looked at Elias.
Elias smiled.
“I gave them nothing,” Elias said calmly.
Luca frowned. “I’m the only one with the access key.”
“You still are,” Elias replied. “There are no holes in your system.”
“That doesn’t explain—”
“They’re just very good at getting into places people do not want them to be,” Elias said mildly.
The engines cut.
Silence followed, thick and expectant.
Then the door opened.
Three men walked in.
They were bikers, and despite them not wearing any colors, there was no mistaking these men were together, bonded.
They were all big men. Scarred. Bearded.
Built thick through the shoulders and chest, the kind of muscle earned through years of hard use rather than mirrors.
Their jackets were plain black, unmarked, heavy leather creased with wear. No patches. No insignia.
But they moved together.
The man in the center walked a pace ahead of the other two, the space parting around him without effort, and he held that same sense of authority as Elias. He was broad, taller than Luca by a fraction, his presence dense enough to bend attention. His eyes were sharp and assessing, missing nothing.
“Kaiser,” Elias said.
No introductions followed.
The other two remained silent, their gazes scanning the room, their stances loose but ready. They were a unit. Whatever they were, they were together.
Elias turned slightly. “This is Mara.”
Kaiser’s attention shifted to her, not lingering, not intrusive.
“We’ll protect you tonight,” Kaiser said. His voice was rough, worn smooth by sin and whiskey. “You have my word.”
Luca stepped forward.
The room tightened instantly. The two men flanking Kaiser shifted, hands flexing, weight coming forward.
Kaiser raised one hand.
They stilled.
He looked at Luca then, eyes level, measuring. Luca met his gaze without blinking, taking in the scars, the calm, the absence of bravado. This was a man who didn’t promise lightly.
Kaiser nodded once. “We’ll keep her safe. There are eight of us, and no one will get near her.”
Luca exhaled, tension easing from his shoulders for the first time since the meeting began. “Thank you.”
Kaiser inclined his head a fraction.
For the first time, Luca believed it.
He could leave her.
And she would be safe.
****
“Move. Now. Low profile. Blow the door.”
Luca’s voice cut through the dark like a blade.
The warehouse door blew inward an instant later, steel screaming as Dominic’s charge ripped the hinges free.
Cold night air collided with heat and rot, the smell inside thick enough to taste—old blood, bleach, fear that had been trapped too long.
Fluorescent lights stuttered overhead, half of them dying, the other half flickering like they were trying to look away.
Concrete stretched wide and shapes resolved out of the darkness
Men.
Women.
Chains.
“Contacts left,” Mateo said in Luca’s ear. “Four. Armed and nervous.”
Luca was already moving.
The first man rushed him, wild-eyed, gun coming up too fast, too sloppy. Luca stepped inside the arc, twisted the wrist until bone gave, followed with an elbow to the throat. The sound was wet. The man dropped, choking on nothing.
A second man raised his weapon.
The crack of Kol’s rifle split the air. The shooter spun, shoulder exploding, body slamming into a pillar with a howl that echoed and died.
Then the shouting started.
“Wait—listen—fuck—”
Havelock’s men shoved the women forward.
Eight of them stumbled into the light. Bare feet slapped against concrete. Wrists bound raw. One collapsed to her knees, another caught her before she could fall completely. Their eyes were hollow, glassy in the way that meant they had already learned begging didn’t work.
Two gunmen dragged women by their hair, forcing them down between the Covenant and their gun barrels.
Luca felt the shift inside himself—the click where restraint ended and precision began.
“Put the guns down,” he said calmly. “This doesn’t end the way you think it does.”
The man in front—the lieutenant—laughed. It was thin, panicked, high. “We walk out of here, or they don’t.”
The first shot detonated the room.
A woman’s head snapped back. She dropped without sound, blood already spreading beneath her.
The second gunman didn’t hesitate.
Another shot. Another body. Another life ended like it was nothing.
Kol’s voice broke over comms. “No—”
Luca didn’t hear the rest.
He was already killing.
Dominic hit the nearest shooter like a freight train, driving him into steel hard enough to crack ribs.
Rafael fired twice, clean and controlled, both men dropping before they understood they were dead.
Kol abandoned overwatch, fury tearing through discipline—he tackled one man bare-handed, slammed his head into concrete again and again until there was nothing left to fight.
Luca went straight for the lieutenant.
The man scrambled backward, hands up, mouth working. Luca grabbed him by the collar and drove him face-first into the floor. Once. Twice. The screaming stopped.
Silence crashed down.
Breathing. Dripping blood. A sob that sounded like it had been trapped for days.
“Clear,” Dominic said.
Mateo swore under his breath.
Luca turned to the women.
There were five left alive.
“We are going to get you out of here,” Luca promised.
One stepped forward.
From the looks of her, she shouldn’t have been able to.
Her face was swollen, one eye nearly sealed shut, lip split and crusted dark. Bruises wrapped her throat like hands that wouldn’t let go. She was shaking—pain, exhaustion—but her spine was straight, chin lifted like defiance was the only thing keeping her upright.
“You are not separating us,” she said. “We have lived through hell together. Lost—” she looked around at the women who had just been killed. “—too many.” Her voice cracked, but then she stood taller.
“What’s your name?” Luca asked quietly.
She met his gaze without flinching. “Seraphina.”
The name carried weight and her voice carried steel beneath the damage.
“We will not separate you, but we will get you out of here,” Luca promised.
“And...” Seraphina’s voice shook as she indicated the bodies on the floor.
“I promise you,” Kol said as he stepped up beside Luca. “We will treat each and every one of them with the respect and care they deserve. And we will make sure that the people who did this to them and to you, will pay with their fucking lives.”
Elias stepped into the room, tablet in hand. “There were nine of you,” he said. “Intel said nine.”
Kol turned away sharply to look at Seraphina.
Seraphina nodded once. “They sold Eliza this morning.”
“Fuck!” Kol slammed a fist into the wall. “We were too late.”
“We were in time to save five,” Luca said. “You know that we can’t save everyone. Life is just not fucking like that.”
A new voice cut in over their comms unit.
“Luca.”
Everything in him tightened.
“Kaiser,” he snapped. “Report.”
“There’s been a development,” Kaiser said. “And you’re not going to like it.”
Luca’s blood went cold. “Is Mara safe?”
A beat.
“She’s exactly where I said she’d be,” Kaiser snapped. “No one’s touched her. Don’t fucking insult me. There’s a contract out on your woman. Dead or alive.”
The traitor had just stepped closer.
“Lock her down,” Luca ordered. “Full perimeter.”
“Already done,” Kaiser said. “See you at the house.”
Luca looked back at Seraphina.
“We have to leave,” he said. “We’ll get you somewhere safe and get you all some medical assistance.”
She gripped another woman’s hand, steadying her, unbroken.
The Covenant disappeared into the night with five lives saved—
—and a war had just escalated.