57. Ace
Ace
Istare at the screen.
Read it again.
Then again.
Like it might change.
It doesn’t.
“Tell me I’m seeing that wrong,” Trigger says quietly.
Blaze doesn’t answer.
Because he can’t.
Because it’s right there.
Clear.
Undeniable.
“What?” Tessa asks beside me.
No one answers.
And that—
That’s what gets her.
“What is it?” she demands.
I look at her.
And I hate this.
Hate that I have to say it.
But she deserves the truth.
Always.
“Tessa…”
Her stomach drops.
“Who is it?”
I hold her gaze.
“It’s Sheriff Dalton.”
Silence.
Heavy.
Absolute.
“No,” she says immediately.
But I can already see it.
The doubt.
“He was my father’s best friend,” she says. “He helped us when my dad died. He—”
She stops.
Because now—
Things don’t line up anymore.
The timing.
The knowledge.
The way he showed up.
“He knew,” she whispers.
“Yeah,” I say.
Cold.
“He knew.”
Blaze pulls up more files.
Transactions.
Connections.
Routes.
“All of this ties back to him,” Blaze says. “Not just the past. Current activity too.”
That means—
This is still active.
Still moving.
“He let me go to prison,” Tessa says.
That hits harder than anything.
“He knew I didn’t do it—and he let it happen.”
I step closer.
“Tessa—”
“No,” she shakes her head. “He didn’t just let it happen. He used it.”
Yeah.
That’s the part that breaks people.
“We take him down,” Trigger says.
Simple.
Clean.
But this?
This isn’t simple.
“Not yet,” Tessa says.
We all look at her.
“If we move now, he runs,” she continues. “Or destroys everything.”
Blaze nods slowly. “She’s right.”
She steps closer to the screen.
Focused.
Clear.
“This is bigger than him,” she says. “He’s connected.”
I lock onto her.
“So what’s the move?”
She meets my gaze.
Steady.
“We set a trap.”
That gets my attention.
“How?”
“He thinks I don’t know,” she says.
Understanding hits fast.
“He comes to you,” I say.
She nods.
“I’m the loose end. And now that the drive is found…”
Her pulse picks up.
“He won’t wait.”
Yeah.
She’s right.
And I hate it.
“He’ll come for you,” I say.
“Yeah.”
Every instinct in me says no.
Every tactical instinct says she’s the bait.
She steps closer.
Close enough that everything else fades.
“I won’t be alone,” she says quietly.
My jaw tightens.
“You won’t be out of my sight.”
“Good.”
Blaze looks up.
“We do this—we do it fast.”
I nod once.
Cold.
Final.
“Then we end it.”