Chapter 63
HARLAN - DOVE CONTAINED
We don't get to quit just because the system failed. That’s when we fight harder.
I hadn’t slept in days. Not really. I’d moved from room to room in the cabin, restless, checking on everyone like it mattered, like I could keep them safe by proximity alone.
Jack was passed out on the couch with a pile of files as a pillow.
Ava was awake when I checked an hour ago, laptop light casting her in blue.
I knew she was unravelling; we all were.
Gray was up at the island typing away. I don't know when he managed to sleep, but he hadn’t stopped digging.
And Remi...
No call. No update. No check-in from Clutch either. That silence echoed louder than any warning call. I had tried to reach out to anyone I could without giving away her location or ours.
I kissed the top of Ava's hair and then stepped outside with my burner, dialled the Internal Affairs contact I trusted. I had files prepped, timelines written, names organized... We were done playing nice.
“Agent Russell,” a voice answered.
“Harlan Gray. I have a volatile data package I need to send you, flagged under the Redemption Tipline.”
A beat. “...You’re the Chief who walked out?”
“They asked me to... but it was time to get this sorted.”
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere safe. And not staying put for long.”
“I need to verify...”
“You’ll find sealed case records accessed from an unauthorized account, files routed to a federal clerk’s inbox tied to Judge Everett Morris, and manipulation of internal charges dating back over a decade.
It's all in the package. You verify it, you’ll want more.
.. but maybe you guys can do some of the legwork this time. ”
Silence, then: “We’ll be in touch.”
I ended the call and immediately sent the same package to Kane’s encrypted server. Then again, through a blind drop Ava helped set up. IA. FBI. Press.
Redundancy was survival now.
Inside, I rejoined Gray at the kitchen table. He looked up with the kind of eyes that meant no good news.
“Still nothing?” I asked.
“Burner’s on, but no movement on GPS. Either they ditched the phone, or she left it behind.”
“She wouldn’t do that.”
“I know. Which is worse.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “Any chatter?”
“Erin’s laying low. Too low. Bishop's still active, though. Looks like he’s trying to clean house, redirect suspicion toward Jack, even Ava. There’s a press release scheduled for tomorrow.”
I clenched my jaw. “We need to pre-empt it.”
He nodded. “I’ve got timestamps, logs, everything prepped. Jack said he’ll record a video if we need it.”
I glanced at the wall clock. 7:03 AM. Too early to move, too late to wait.
Gray finally spoke. “She has to be ok... right?”
“Ya,” I said with a croak. “She has to be.”
“But?”
I met his eyes. “But every day we don’t hear from her; I start preparing for the worst.”
Ava emerged from the hallway, hoodie pulled tight, laptop under one arm and a file in the other.
“Judge Morris had three sealed complaints filed against him in the late ‘90s,” she said, voice scratchy. “All dismissed. Two different counties. One was from an intern who later recanted. The other two? Gone. Erased. And I just started digging.”
Gray’s eyes darkened. “This goes deeper than just Erin.”
“We knew that already,” I said. “Now we prove it.”
I tapped the phone again, testing the relay system, then stood and faced them both.
“From this point on, we assume every message is monitored. Every file flagged. Every move watched.”
The room fell silent.
Outside, the woods looked the same. Calm. Quiet.
But inside me, something had shifted.
Not just anger. Not just resolve.
It was the weight of knowing I’d already let too much slide. That I’d told myself for too long, I was doing the best I could inside a broken system.
But now we were outside it.
And we weren’t going back.
By late afternoon, the cabin had settled into its usual rhythm, tired bodies, sharp minds. Ava was sorting through transcripts with a pen clamped between her teeth. Jack paced as he dictated voice notes into his burner. Gray hadn’t looked away from his laptop in over two hours.
I had half a dozen tabs open across the cabin’s rigged comm setup, rerouting everything through Kane’s black site relays. It wasn’t pretty, but it was private. For now.
Then a sound cut through the quiet: Ping. Ping. Ping.
Gray’s head snapped up. “Shit...”
“What is it?” I asked, already crossing the room.
“Chatter. A lot of it.” He was already typing, pulling up overlapping encrypted threads. “Something just lit up the back channels, internal groups, MC boards, encrypted strings Kane flagged for us.”
Jack leaned over his shoulder as Gray angled the screen toward us. Text streamed like a flood.
“Dawnbreakers outpost confirmed,” Ava read aloud, brow furrowed. “Courier aborted. Reaper circle prepping breach. Dove contained.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Jack demanded.
Gray’s jaw tightened. “Dawnbreakers is the MC. Courier’s Clutch. Dove… is Remi.”
I froze. “Contained?”
“Could mean locked down. Could mean surrounded.” Gray scrolled faster. “Hold up, there’s more, cross-thread chatter: ‘If breach fails, fallback order clears the nest. No survivors.’”
Ava went pale. “They’re talking about the club.”
My chest tightened like someone had cinched a belt around my ribs.
“Any location?” I asked.
Gray switched to a signal-trace overlay. “Last ping from Remi’s burner... Fuck it's gone, dead. I can't find it anymore.”
Silence fell like a hammer.
Jack broke it first, voice low. “Dead battery. Swapped SIM. Could be anything.”
“Or” Ava whispered, “they found her.”
I forced myself to stay steady. “Gray. What are they saying now?”
He scrolled, then cursed under his breath. “Reaper strings just went dark. They wiped the channel.”
“What’s the last thing you got?” I asked.
He hesitated, then read it out: “‘Reaper entry confirmed. Lights out if retrieval fails.’”
The words hit like ice water down my spine.
I grabbed my jacket. “We need eyes on the club.”
Gray snapped his laptop shut. “If they’re moving, they’re not broadcasting it anymore.”
Ava stepped forward, voice trembling but steady. “If they hit the club, everyone inside is collateral.”
Jack’s gaze met mine. “Then we make damn sure it doesn’t come to that.”
This time, I didn’t hesitate.
If we were too late, I wanted to know now.
And if we weren’t...
God help the ones who were hunting her.