4. Chapter 4 #2
“And she agreed to that?”
“She asked me what choice she had.”
No one answered.
Rory folded his arms. “Convenient story.”
“She’s scared enough to run.”
“Or smart enough to make you believe she is,” Gabriel said.
He had a point.
“She came after Xyst and walked out with an offer of protection,” Gabriel continued. “She’s lucky we’ve left her alive.”
My temper started to rise, but Lacey spoke before I could.
“She can be useful to Delgado and still be trapped by him. That’s how men like Ciro work.
They don’t always put women in chains. Sometimes the leash is a paycheck, a job title, a promise that everyone she loves will pay if she runs, and a future he can burn the second she steps out of line.
” Her expression hardened. “Fear does a better job than locks.”
No one argued with Lacey about Delgado. Not after what he’d done to her.
Nik’s jaw tightened. He and Lucian had both once held power over the women beside them. Lacey and Scarlett understood better than the rest of us how fear and dependence could look from the outside.
“Nothing we’ve verified disproves the story she gave Lach,” Nik said. “That doesn’t make it true. But we haven’t found unexplained money, offshore activity, or communications that contradict it—nothing we can tie to her.”
He changed the image on the screen.
A photograph from Port Newark–Elizabeth appeared. Crates marked as industrial machine parts sat open, with rifle components and conversion kits packed beneath the false panels.
“She gave Lach information about a shipment we could verify,” Nik said. “My people confirmed it before Luca’s port contacts seized the cargo.”
Lucian studied the photograph. “So we took this from Delgado?”
“Yes. It proves she can give us useful intelligence. It doesn’t tell us why she gave it to us.”
“And sometimes,” Rory said quietly, “useful intelligence is bait.”
Scarlett nodded. “That’s why you verify everything. But fear and performance don’t cancel each other out.”
Her gaze shifted to me.
“Women who are trapped perform. Sometimes they’re lying. Sometimes the performance is the only reason they survived long enough to ask for help.”
Lacey looked at me too. “And sometimes the only person a trapped woman trusts is the one who had the power to hurt her and didn’t.”
That hit harder than I wanted it to.
Lucian studied me. “And you’re sure you want to do this?”
“Aye.”
I thought of Isabella in that government office, her chin high and tears clinging to her lashes, selling me a story I couldn’t fully trust but still couldn’t ignore.
“If she’s lying, we’ll deal with it. But if she’s another woman Delgado is using, leaving her with him is something I can’t live with.”
Lucian understood.
I saw it before he glanced down at Scarlett.
He would burn a country for his wife. Nik had burned half of Delgado’s world for Lacey. None of us got to pretend we were purely logical when a woman might be trapped with a monster.
Lucian looked back at me. “Then we plan for both possibilities—that she’s trapped and that she’s leading us into a trap.”
“Exactly,” Nik said. “We’re not trusting her. We’re treating her as a compromised asset under hostile surveillance.”
I hated hearing her reduced to an asset, but I knew better than to argue with the wording. Nik used cold language because it kept people alive.
Julian’s gaze swept the table. “All right. Where does she want the extraction?”
“She gave me an address near Teterboro. A small house she says she bought in December as an investment property. It’s empty enough for her to leave from without drawing Delgado’s attention.”
Nik rapped his fingertips against the table. “The property records support the purchase. The working plan is to spend the next few days securing the extraction route and choosing the best window before the end of the week.”
Rory lifted a brow. “That’s in the same area as your safe house.”
Nik’s expression darkened, and his gaze moved briefly to Julian before shifting to Lucian.
“Former safe house. Compromised by a mole who I’ll soon catch and feed to the fish.”
The room cooled.
Scarlett’s eyes lifted to Lucian’s. A muscle ticked in his cheek, and I knew exactly where his mind had gone—Hayes walking through a door he should never have found and Scarlett nearly dying because a safe place hadn’t been safe enough.
“DarkMatter will have eyes on the property before Lach gets within a block,” Nik said. “Rory, coordinate the ground team. Gabriel and Julian will watch the perimeter. I’ll monitor the camera feeds, communications, and surrounding data from a mobile command.”
Rory nodded once. “Yes, sir.”
Gabriel smirked. “Finally. Something useful for me to do.”
Julian gave a short nod. “Understood.”
“The rest of the on-site men will be DarkMatter,” I said. “Too many of us in one location draw attention.”
“Already arranged,” Nik said.
Lucian crossed his arms and focused on me. “And you’re going in alone?”
“She’ll come with me because I’m the only one she knows. To her, the rest of you are just more men with guns.”
Rory’s gaze settled on me. “If you miss a check-in or we see movement we haven’t accounted for, we breach.”
“If she panics at the last second, I may need time.”
“Then say so. As long as the perimeter stays clean and you keep checking in, we hold.”
“My phone is the only line in,” I said. “No earpiece. No live transmitter. Delgado’s men have been hovering too close to her all week.
If they sweep her or that house and pick up anything that feels like an operation, we don’t just blow the extraction.
We put a target on her back before she ever reaches the door. ”
Nik nodded. “Ciro has spent too much money on technology for us to assume his men are blind. Phone only. Limited check-ins. Nothing that ties Lachlan, Xyst, or The Syndicate to her unless we have no other choice.”
Lucian rubbed a hand over his mouth. “I don’t like it.”
“I don’t either. But if this goes wrong, the trail needs to end with a woman running from Delgado, not with us standing beside her.”
Silence settled hard over the table.
Lucian’s phone buzzed.
He glanced at the screen and cursed under his breath.
Scarlett reached for his hand. “Jack?”
“Second time today.”
Every eye in the room focused on Lucian.
I frowned. “What does Uncle Jack want?”
“He’s calling in the family card.”
Rory lifted a brow. “The Irish king summons.”
“Apparently.” Lucian pocketed the phone without relaxing. “He gave us this week. Now he wants me in Boston.”
“Wants?” Gabriel asked. “Or demands?”
Lucian gave him a flat look. “Demands.”