Page 43 of Shadow's Edge

JAGGER

The silence was suffocating.

“Santino was tipped off.” Data’s voice was flat. Factual.

And I snapped. I shot up from my chair, rage detonating inside me like a goddamn bomb. The chairexplodedagainst the wall, slamming into the dent that Noah had put there before,making the hole even bigger, making the roomshakewith the force of it.

“Sit down, son,” Duke ordered, his voice dropping into thatno-bullshittone.

“Fuck that!” I roared.

My hands clenched into fists as I turned, stalking toward him,fury radiating off me in waves. “You said she’d be safe!”

I got up in his space. I hadneverseen anyone challenge Duke head-on, and a small part of my brain told me I was making adangerous fucking mistake, but I didn’t care. Kyle could have beenkilledtonight because someone hadset her up.

Duke’s jawflexed, his bodycoiled, his patiencethin as razor wire. “Shewould have been,” he ground out, his voicejust as lethal as mine.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, Preacher. His arms were crossed, but his eyes were locked on Kyle. His face was a mix ofanger and something else—something I wasn’t used to seeing from him.

Concern.

Duke’s next words hithard. “Santino got a text attwenty-one-hundred hours.” Silence. “It was a photo of Kyle along with her name, sent from anuntraceable number.” He exhaled slowly, his nostrils flaring. “The only message attached was…‘this is who you’re looking at.’”

My visionreddened at this information, and Kyle stiffened.

Her fingerscurled into her lap, tight enough to turn her knuckles white.

“Now that just pisses me off,” she muttered, her voice cold.

My blood was still boiling, still rushing too fast, but I forced myself to step back, muscles thrumming like a live wire. Kyle wasin danger, and we definitely had arat in the Compound.

“What do we do now?” she asked, voice clipped.

Duke’s nostrils flared again, hiscomposure cracking for half a second. “I don’t know right now,”he snapped, the frustration thick in his voice.

I felt my breath slow, my mind sharpening past the anger, intosomething else. Strategy. Duke didn’t say“I don’t know”often.Ever. But this wasn’t just a bad situation, it was a fuckingmess.

I shifted, stepping behind Kyle, resting a hand on her shoulder, needing her to know I was there.

Duke exhaled sharply. “But as soon as I do,” he growled, voice like crushed glass, “we’re going to fucking end this shit once and for all.”

Silence, the kind that waslouder than any explosion. Then, Kyle’s lips twitched. It wasn’t a smile, it was something sharper. Deadlier.

“Good,” she said, her voicerazor-edged.

Because whoever had done this was going to fucking regret it.

Chapter 10

Kyle

It had been a week since the gathering. A week of waiting, and nothing else had happened.

Well,yet.

But the silence feltwrong.

It wasn’t relief that we were all feeling about this—not even close. What we were experiencing was the kind of silence thatcoiledin your gut like a snake before it struck. A predator circling, watching, waiting for the perfect moment to sink its fangs in. The Knights felt it too. They were used to shit like this, too long stretches of unease before everything went sideways, but even they were getting twitchy. Their movements were sharper, their tempers shorter. Everyone knew the hit was coming.

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