Chapter 16 #2
“That sounds like deciding.”
“It is.”
The hurt flashed across her face before I continued.
“I’m not deciding whether you get information or whether you can help. I’m deciding I won’t walk you into an active search area when none of us knows who’s out there. I wouldn’t take Daisy, Lark, Charlie, or any unarmed civilian into those woods either.”
Sunshine studied me, measuring the distinction.
“Civilian?”
“You aren’t trained for a live search.”
“I know the Order.”
“And that knowledge matters. We’ll use it from somewhere defensible.”
Her shoulders remained tense, but the anger in her expression eased. “You’re not sending me away because you think I can’t handle it.”
“No. I’m sending everyone without tactical training away because we may be hunting an armed man.”
She looked toward Charlie.
“Fine.”
“Fine?”
“I don’t like it.”
“You don’t have to.”
“But I understand.”
That was enough.
Charlie slid from her chair and held Mr. Pickles toward Sunshine. “He can protect you.”
Sunshine accepted the bear without correcting the promise implied in the gesture. “I thought he was commander.”
“He can do both.”
“Talented.”
I watched Sunshine tuck Mr. Pickles beneath one arm while Charlie reached for her other hand.
The picture looked so natural that fear sharpened inside me again.
These were the two people I was most terrified of losing, walking toward the hallway together as though the shape of our lives had already decided itself.
Toxic called before we reached the side entrance.
I answered on the second ring.
“Tell me they’re moving,” he said.
“They are.”
“Good.”
“Sunshine wants full access to whatever Cipher finds.”
A pause.
“She gets it.”
The easy agreement surprised me.
“You aren’t arguing?”
“I’m not stupid.”
“That’s new.”
“Watch it.”
I glanced toward Sunshine, who stood beside Daisy while Charlie attempted to zip her own raincoat. “Any update?”
“Mace found fabric caught on barbed wire near the old logging fence.”
“What kind?”
“Dark wool. Could be from a coat.”
“Blood?”
“Not yet.”
“Direction?”
“Northwest.”
Closer.
My jaw tightened.
Toxic’s voice lowered. “Get them here. Then come back.”
Sunshine looked up at the exact moment he said it, as though she could hear the order through the phone.
“I’m staying with them until Cipher briefs her.”
“Remedy.”
“She won’t do this alone.”
“We need you here.”
“You have Mace, Gage, Steel, Bishop, and half the chapter.”
“You’re the medic.”
“If someone’s hurt, call me.”
The silence on the other end sharpened.
Toxic understood what I was saying. I was not refusing the club. I was prioritizing Sunshine and Charlie because the threat appeared connected to them, and because leaving Sunshine alone with photographs from the Order after promising I would stay felt impossible.
“Thirty minutes,” Toxic said finally. “Then I need you.”
“Agreed.”
The call ended.
Sunshine watched me. “You’re going back.”
“Yes.”
Fear crossed her face before she hid it.
I stepped closer. “After the briefing.”
“You don’t have to stay for that.”
“I said I would.”
“You’re needed here.”
“I’m needed in both places.”
The tension in her expression deepened. “You can’t keep splitting yourself in half for everyone.”
The words struck closer than she realized.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
I almost smiled at hearing my own question returned to me.
“Probably not.”
Sunshine looked toward Charlie, then back at me. “Stay until I see the files. Then go help.”
“You’re sure?”
“No. But I don’t want your promise to become another reason you carry too much.”
The quiet care in her voice unsettled me more than fear. She was not asking me to abandon her or prove anything. She was trying to protect me from my own habit of becoming indispensable until there was nothing left.
I nodded. “Thirty minutes.”
“Thirty minutes.”
We left through the side entrance beneath a security escort that would have looked excessive anywhere else.
Steel drove the lead SUV. Daisy followed with several children and two Harbor House residents who chose to relocate.
I drove the truck with Sunshine beside me and Charlie buckled into the back seat, singing softly to Mr. Pickles about popcorn while rainwater flashed beneath the tires.
Sunshine remained quiet for the first several miles.
I kept one hand on the wheel and the other near the center console, remembering the way she had reached for me the previous night. This time I did not assume.
After another mile, her fingers covered mine.
I turned my hand beneath hers.
Charlie continued singing behind us, unaware of the fear moving silently between the adults in front.
“Remedy,” Sunshine said.
“Yeah?”
“What happens if the man in the woods is someone I know?”
“We identify him.”
“And if he knows where I am?”
“He already might.”
Her grip tightened.
I refused to lie.
“He still doesn’t get to take you.”
“What if he isn’t there for me?”
“Then we find out who he’s there for.”
“And if he’s there for one of the other women?”
“We protect them too.”
She looked toward the passing trees. “You say it like there’s no question.”
“There isn’t.”
“There are always questions.”
“About how. Not whether.”
Sunshine turned back toward me.
The fear in her eyes remained, but something steadier lived beside it now.
“You really believe that.”
“Yes.”
“That everyone can be protected.”
“No.” The truth hurt, but anything less would be cruel. “I believe we do everything possible. I believe nobody gets abandoned because protecting them became difficult. That isn’t the same as pretending we can control every outcome.”
She absorbed the answer in silence.
After a moment, her thumb moved across the side of my hand.
“That’s more honest than promising nothing bad will happen.”
“I’m trying honesty.”
“How’s it going?”
“Terrifying.”
Her smile appeared, small but real.
The clubhouse came into view around the next bend, its brick walls and reinforced gates no longer resembling only a family home.
Brothers stood near every entrance, cameras tracked the arriving vehicles, and the garage doors remained closed despite the motorcycles lined outside.
Charlie pressed both hands to the window.
“Movie day!”
The joy in her voice reminded me exactly what all the security existed to preserve.
When we parked, she waited impatiently until I opened the rear door, then launched herself toward Steel before remembering Mr. Pickles and running back for him. Daisy gathered the other children while Lark appeared on the porch with blankets, bowls, and enough popcorn to feed a small theater.
Sunshine stepped from the truck and immediately looked toward the clubhouse windows.
“Ready?” I asked.
“No.”
I moved beside her. “We go anyway?”
She drew a slow breath.
“Yes.”
Inside, Cipher had transformed the conference room into a temporary command center.
Maps covered one wall, camera feeds filled two monitors, and the image of the unknown man remained frozen on the largest screen.
Lilith sat beside the table, her expression tense as she studied a new photograph Cipher had apparently found.
Sunshine stopped in the doorway.
“What is that?”
Cipher turned.
“Another image from Rebecca Hayes’s files.”
The photograph showed three men standing beside a supply truck outside an unfamiliar compound. One face had been circled in red.
The man was younger, heavier through the jaw, and not wearing the cap from the trail camera.
But the pale scar beside his ear was unmistakable.
Sunshine’s hand found mine.
“I know him.”
Every person in the room went still.
Cipher rose. “Name?”
Her breathing shortened, but she kept looking at the image.
“They called him Brother Malachi.”
Lilith’s face changed.
“That wasn’t his real name.”
“No,” Sunshine whispered. “But he was the one who inspected the transports.”
The man from the woods finally had a title.
And according to Sunshine’s expression, he had also carried nightmares far worse than any of us had yet understood.
Nobody spoke.
The conference room seemed to shrink around the photograph as every pair of eyes returned to the man standing beside the supply truck.
He looked younger than the figure from the trail camera, his shoulders broader, his expression almost bored as he watched several men loading wooden crates into the back of a transport vehicle.
A faded scar curved from just below his right ear toward his jawline, unmistakable now that Sunshine had drawn our attention to it.
Sunshine's fingers tightened around mine.
Not painfully.
Desperately.
I shifted closer until our shoulders touched.
"Take your time," I said quietly.
She nodded, though she never looked away from the screen.
Cipher enlarged the image.
"You're certain?"
She swallowed.
"I've seen him before."
"When?"
Her voice remained steady, but I could hear the effort beneath every word.
"He didn't live at our compound."
She shook her head.
"He traveled."
The room remained completely silent.
"He came every few months."
"What was his job?" Toxic asked.
Sunshine closed her eyes for a moment.
"When supplies arrived..."
she whispered,
"...everyone became nervous."
"Why?"
"Because if anything was wrong..."
She hesitated.
"...people disappeared."
The words settled heavily across the room.
Lilith leaned forward.
"He inspected everything?"
Sunshine nodded.
"The wagons."
"The records."
"The storage buildings."
"The workers."
She opened her eyes again.
"And us."
Steel frowned.
"The women?"
"Everyone."
She looked back toward the photograph.
"If someone broke a rule..."
Her breathing caught.
"...he decided what happened next."
No one interrupted.
Even Mace, whose patience usually lasted about thirty seconds, remained completely still.
Cipher clicked to another file.
Rebecca Hayes had apparently photographed several pages from ledgers recovered during her investigation. One name appeared repeatedly.
Brother Malachi
No surname.
No legal identification.
Only the title.
Cipher frowned.
"Looks like it wasn't just a nickname."
Toxic crossed his arms.
"Internal title?"
"Probably."
Lilith nodded.
"They did that."
Mace looked toward her.