21. Zaria #2
"Then we get to him before that happens." Cain's jaw sets. "We mobilize everyone, leverage every connection, and we find where she's holding him."
"And if we're too late?"
"We won't be." He grips my shoulder, forcing me to meet his eyes.
"Because you're not going to fall apart.
You're going to channel everything you're feeling into getting him back.
That rage, that fear, that love—use it. Ezinne thinks taking Greer gives her leverage.
Show her she just made the worst mistake of her life. "
Something settles in me at his words. The panic recedes, replaced by cold, crystalline fury. Ezinne took what's mine. She hurt him, scared him, tried to use him as a weapon against me.
She's about to learn exactly what I'm capable of when someone threatens the person I love.
"Call everyone," I tell Cain, my voice steadying into something lethal.
"Every soldier, every informant, every person who owes us a favor or wants to stay in our good graces.
I want the Okafor properties mapped, their crew identified, their routines catalogued.
Someone knows where Ezinne runs interrogations. "
"Already on it." Cain pulls his phone. "What about Hayes?"
The question stops me. Hayes Carelli, Greer's brother-in-law, who trained him to fight and likely has resources we don't. Bringing him in means exposing Greer's involvement completely, means admitting I pulled him into danger.
But it also means more manpower, more connections, and the weight of Carelli backing if this turns into all-out war.
"Call him," I decide. "Greer's family. Hayes will help."
Cain nods and moves toward the bar to make calls. I follow him back into the main room where my crew has already started generating leads. Lex approaches with his phone.
"Got three possible locations where Okafors run interrogations," he says. "Warehouse in the shipping district, abandoned factory near the docks, and a storage facility on the east side. Sending addresses now."
My phone buzzes with the information. Three locations, which means splitting our forces or hitting them sequentially. Both options risk giving Ezinne time to move Greer or finish what she started.
"We hit all three simultaneously," I decide. "Divide into teams, coordinate timing, converge within a fifteen-minute window. If he's not at your location, you regroup here and we reassess."
People start organizing into groups. Cain returns, his expression telling me Hayes is on board.
"He's mobilizing his crew," Cain reports. "Wants to meet at the shipping district warehouse in forty-five minutes. He also said—" He hesitates.
"What?"
"He said Lilah's going to lose her mind when she finds out. Wanted to know if you understood what you've done to her family."
Guilt tries to surface but I shove it down.
Lilah's fear is valid—she watched Dylan destroy her and now she's watching Greer choose the same dangerous path.
But Greer's situation is different because I'm different.
Dylan was a predator. I'm someone who gave Greer exactly what he was looking for when he walked into that fight club searching for something real.
"Tell Hayes I understand perfectly," I say. "Tell him I'm getting his brother-in-law back tonight, and after that, Lilah can hate me all she wants."
Cain relays the message, then pockets his phone. "Arsenal?"
"Everything." I head for the back room where we keep the serious weapons. "We're going in prepared for war."
The arsenal consists of everything my father accumulated over decades—rifles, handguns, shotguns, tactical gear, enough ammunition to supply a small army. I start pulling weapons, checking loads, making sure nothing jams. Cain works beside me with practiced efficiency.
"You ready for this?" he asks quietly.
"For what?"
"Scorched earth." He slides a fresh magazine into a Glock. "Because that's where we're headed. You go after Greer this hard, you kill Ezinne for taking him, the Okafors won't stop until one of you is dead. This becomes total war."
"Good." I strap a shoulder holster over my black tank top, feeling the familiar weight settle.
"I'm tired of playing defense. They burned my warehouse, destroyed my father's gym, killed civilians in my territory, and now they took the person I—" The words still feel foreign but I force them out.
"The person I love. They started this war. I'm going to finish it."
Cain watches me for a moment, then nods slowly. "Your father would be proud. Malcolm always said you'd make enemies pay double for crossing the Bennett name."
"This isn't about the Bennett name." I meet his eyes. "This is about Greer. This is about getting him back before Ezinne breaks something in him that can't be fixed. This is about showing anyone who thinks they can take what's mine exactly what that costs."
"Then let's go get your man." Cain shoulders his rifle. "Because I'm pretty sure if anyone can survive Ezinne until we get there, it's the stubborn analyst who earned your respect one body at a time."
We return to the main room loaded with weapons, crew assembled and organized into strike teams. Lex has the warehouse.
Marco—who abandoned his bar to help—has the factory.
Cain and I will take the storage facility with the bulk of our forces because it's the most likely location based on Ezinne's patterns.
Hayes's crew will provide backup and additional coverage at all three sites.
"Forty minutes," I tell everyone. "Coordinate your approaches, keep comms open, and remember—we want Greer back alive and Ezinne breathing long enough to answer questions about their operations. Anyone else in the way is fair game."
The crew disperses to vehicles, energy running high and violent. These people respect strength, loyalty, and the willingness to burn down the world for your own. They see what I'm doing for Greer and it cements their devotion—because if I'll do this for him, I'll do it for any of them.
Cain heads for his motorcycle. I move toward my Challenger, then stop.
"Cain."
He turns.
"Thank you." The words feel inadequate. "For making me say it. For not letting me hide from what he means to me."
"You don't hide from anything, Z." He swings onto his bike. "You just needed someone to call you on your bullshit so you could stop pretending this was about strategy instead of your heart."
My heart. The organ I've protected so carefully, surrounded with walls and violence and the kind of isolation that kept me safe.
Greer walked right through those defenses like they were paper.
And now someone took him, hurt him, tried to use him as leverage against me.
I slide into the Challenger, engine rumbling to life beneath me. My phone shows the storage facility address, twenty minutes away if I drive fast.
I'll be there in twelve.
The anger that's been simmering since I found that empty room crystallizes into something cold and lethal. This isn't panic anymore. This isn't fear making me reckless.
This is precision fury, controlled and devastating.
Ezinne Okafor made a fundamental miscalculation. She thought taking Greer would make me weak, desperate, willing to trade myself to get him back.
She doesn't understand that taking him didn't create a weakness.
It created a weapon pointed directly at her heart.
And I'm about to pull the trigger.