Page 44 of Protecting Lanie

"Already working on it," Seth muttered, typing furiously at his laptop. "They’ve got a tight system, but I can crack it. Give me five."

Archer nodded, scanning the room until his gaze landed on King, who stood with his arms crossed, his expression unreadable.

"You got a bad feeling about this, or is that just your usual scowl?" Archer asked.

King exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. "We’ve done a dozen of these ops, but something about this one feels off. Molina’s been quiet—too quiet—the past few days.”

Coop nodded. “Yeah, it’s like he’s waiting for us."

"Let him wait," Archer growled. "We’ll make sure he doesn’t walk away from this one."

Reyna looked up from her tablet, her expression grim. "We still haven’t confirmed who his inside man is. Someone at Club Southside fed him info on Lanie. If we don’t plug that leak, we’re walking into a setup."

Archer clenched his jaw. "Then we adjust. We assume they know we’re coming and hit them harder."

The team murmured agreement. He’d dealt with men like Molina before—slippery bastards who thrived on control and manipulation. And if Molina had half a brain, he’d already expected an attack.

Which meant Archer had to stay ahead. But they had one wild card on this op—Lanie.

His gut twisted. He and Lanie had argued about her involvement just this morning. The last thing he needed was her testing his patience or his orders again. She’d agreed—grudgingly—to stay out of the op and let Cerberus handle it.

Yet something about the way she’d said it hadn’t set right with him.

Archer pulled out his phone, ready to check on her, when Seth’s voice cut through the tension.

"Got it!" Seth’s fingers flew over the keyboard, pulling up security feeds from the estate. Grainy images filled the monitors, showing men stationed at key entrances, a dozen or so guards patrolling the perimeter, and inside—a locked basement filled with women.

"Holy shit," Reyna muttered, staring at the screen.

Archer’s blood went ice cold.

"How many?" he asked, his voice tight.

"At least ten, maybe more," Seth confirmed.

Archer exhaled, forcing himself to stay focused. "We move in as planned. No mistakes. No unnecessary risks."

His phone buzzed. He glanced down. And everything stopped.

A text message appeared on his phone:

You won’t let me do this my way, so I’m doing it on my own. I need to finish this, Archer.

Archer went still, his fingers curling around the phone as a slow, burning rage built in his chest.

"Where the fuck is Lanie?" he asked, his voice dangerously calm.

Silence. Then Reyna’s tablet beeped, her eyes widening as she scanned the screen.

"Two of our guys are down. She’s gone," Reyna confirmed. "Slipped away twenty minutes ago and caught a cab. It was headed toward...”

"The estate," Archer finished, his voice like steel. His jaw clenched so tightly his teeth ached. "That stubborn, reckless little...”

"She’s going to him," King realized, his tone dark. "She’s handing herself over."

Archer shoved his chair back, already moving. "No. She’s pretending to hand herself over. And when I get my hands on her, she’s going to wish she hadn’t."

"She could be buying us time," Logan pointed out.

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