Chapter 13 Adam
Adam
The old man’s words burned in my head: Men with masks. Vans with no markings.
It fit. Too perfectly. Too damn clean.
I shoved out of the shelter into the night air, the damp heat pressing down like a fist. My team was already waiting outside—Russ steady, Boone restless, Hawk edgy, Blade silent as a shadow. Raine followed close, her braid still dripping, eyes flashing like lightning.
“They’re not lost in the flood,” I said. “They’re being taken.”
Boone’s grin faded. “Taken where?”
“Doesn’t matter where,” Hawk snapped, pacing. “What matters is who—and why.”
“Organs,” Blade said quietly, almost like he’d been expecting it. The others froze, staring at him. He didn’t look up from the knife he was running over his whetstone. “Black market’s alive and well. Flood’s just noise to hide the screams.”
Russ exhaled slowly. “Christ.”
Raine stepped forward, her voice hard. “We have names. People confirmed alive, now vanished. Trucks moving them under the cover of evacuation.”
“Then we track the trucks,” I said. “Russ, pull traffic cam feeds. I know it will be hard with all the flooding. Boone, shake our contacts with local PD—see what’s being buried. Hawk, I want eyes along the river road. Blade…” I paused, meeting his calm, unnerving stare. “You stick with me.”
Raine crossed her arms, chin tilting stubbornly. “And me?”
My gut clenched. Every instinct screamed to keep her far away from this. But I’d seen the look in her eyes back in the shelter. There was no stopping her.
“You stay close,” I said finally, low enough that only she could hear. “And you don’t run off half-cocked again.”
Her lips curved—not a smile, not even close. More like a challenge. “Try to keep up.”
Boone muttered, “Oh, this is gonna be fun,” and grabbed his gear.
But my eyes stayed on her, heart pounding with something I didn’t want to name.
Because this wasn’t just a mission anymore.
It was war.
And if Raine got caught in the crossfire, I wasn’t sure I’d survive it.