Chapter 20 #3
"I know." Fresh tears start falling. "I know and I've been trying to stop it, trying to feed them bad information, trying to protect both sides but it's not working and I don't know what to do."
The pieces are starting to come together now. The leak we've been chasing. The intel the Vipers have been getting. It's not someone betraying us—it's Talia trying to play both sides, trying to protect people she loves on opposite sides of a war.
"Jesus Christ," I breathe.
"I'm sorry." She's crying again. "I'm so sorry. I never meant—I was supposed to destroy them from the inside but then I fell in love and everything got complicated and I don't know how to fix it."
I pull her back against my chest, hold her while she cries, while my own body reminds me that I'm bleeding and broken and probably need medical attention.
But that can wait. This—Talia falling apart in a parking lot, Talia caught between two worlds, Talia needing someone to tell her it's going to be okay even if it might not be—this can't wait.
"Okay," I say finally, the word coming out rough. "Okay. I'll bring you back."
She jerks back to look at me. "What?"
"I'll bring you back to them. To Killian and Axel." I'm already regretting this, already knowing Jackie is going to lose her mind, already aware that this is possibly the stupidest decision I've ever made. "But there are conditions. Non-negotiable conditions."
"Anything—"
"They stop attacking us." I hold her gaze, make sure she understands how serious I am. "The Vipers stop hitting our territory, stop killing our people, stop this war. You're the one feeding them information—you're the one who can make this stop. So you make it stop."
"I can't just—"
"Yes, you can." I'm not backing down on this.
"You tell them that the girl they're in love with has ties to the Raiders.
That continuing this war means losing you.
That you'll only stay if they agree to a ceasefire.
" I pause. "And you tell them that if they hurt you, if they even think about using you as leverage or collateral or anything other than someone they love, I will burn their entire organization to the ground. No extraction. No mercy. Just fire."
She nods slowly, processing. "And you'll really bring me back?"
"I'll bring you back." I check my phone—three missed calls from Jackie, two from Zay, one from Xavier.
The extraction was supposed to be quiet, surgical, in and out.
Instead it's turned into this mess. "But you're calling your mother first. Right now.
You're telling her you're safe, that you're making your own choices, that you're—" I stop.
"That you're in love and you need her to trust you. "
"She's going to hate this—"
"She's going to hate it less than thinking you're dead or being held against your will." I hand her my phone. "Call her. Now. Before I change my mind about any of this."
Talia takes the phone with shaking hands and makes the call.
I can hear Jackie's voice on the other end—relief and anger and confusion all tangled together—but I'm not listening to the words.
I'm looking at Talia's face, at the way she's trying to explain something inexplicable to a mother who just wants her daughter safe.
I'm thinking about how love complicates everything, how it makes simple situations impossible, how it turns loyalty into a labyrinth with no clear exit.
I'm thinking about Xavier and Valentina and the mess they've made, about Zay trying to hold everyone together, about myself standing in a parking lot bleeding and broken because I tried to save someone who doesn't want to be saved.
I'm thinking that maybe none of us know what we're doing. Maybe we're all just stumbling through, trying to protect the people we love, trying to make impossible choices in situations that don't have good answers.
When Talia hangs up, she looks at me with eyes that are red-rimmed but determined. "She wants to talk to you."
I take the phone, put it to my ear. "Jackie."
"You're bringing her back." It's not a question. Jackie's voice is flat, controlled, the voice of someone holding onto their composure through sheer force of will. "To them. To the Vipers."
"Yes."
"This is insane—"
"I know." I watch Talia climb back onto the bike, watch her wipe tears from her face with hands that are still shaking. "But it's what she wants. And she's eighteen. Legally an adult. We can't force her to come home if she doesn't want to."
"She's my daughter—"
"She's her own person," I interrupt gently. "And she's made her choice. All we can do is make sure it's as safe a choice as possible. Make sure they know that if they hurt her, they answer to us."
Jackie is quiet for a long moment. Then: "You're bleeding."
"How did you—"
"I can hear it in your voice. You sound like you got run over by a truck." She pauses. "How bad?"
"Bad enough that I probably need a hospital. Not so bad that I can't ride a bike back to Viper territory first."
"Asher—"
"I'll be fine, Jackie. I've survived worse." I watch Talia rev the engine, testing it, getting familiar with it.
"You're really doing this."
"I'm really doing this." I close my eyes, let the exhaustion wash over me for just a second before pushing it back down. "Talia loves them. Maybe that's enough. Maybe it's not. But it's her choice to make."
"And if it goes wrong?"
"Then we go to war for real this time." I open my eyes, look at Talia. "But I don't think it will. She's smart. She knows what she's doing. And she has us backing her up, whether the Vipers know it or not."
Jackie sighs, and I hang up.
Talia looks at me with something like hope mixed with fear. "You're really taking me back?"
"I'm really taking you back." I climb on the bike behind her—every movement an agony that I'm getting very good at ignoring.
"But first you're calling Killian. Telling him you're coming home.
Telling him that the Raiders know where you are and who you're with and that there are conditions for this arrangement working. "
"And if he refuses?"
"Then I keep you and they can try to get you back." I wrap my arms carefully around her waist, mindful of the ribs that are definitely broken. "But I don't think he will. I think he loves you enough to agree to almost anything to keep you safe."
She makes the call. I listen to her voice—steadier now, more certain—as she explains to Killian that she's coming back, that she's safe, that the Raiders know everything and this is the only way forward.
When she hangs up, she looks back at me. "He agreed. To all of it. The ceasefire. The conditions. Everything."
"Good." I start the engine. "Then let's get you home. Wherever home is now."