Page 57 of Oliver

I stepped forward. “Where is it?”

“In the lining of the training facility’s emergency AED box,” he said, smiling. “Hidden in plain sight.”

“Why tell us?”

He laughed. “Because if I disappear, there are ten others who will burn down your world looking for it. She doesn’t even know what she has.”

My hand curled into a fist.

“And if she ever goes public,” he added, “she’ll be dead within twenty-four hours.”

I hit him.

Hard.

He hit the floor with blood on his lip, and that smug smile was still twitching.

“Your mistake,” I said, “was underestimating the kind of man who’d go to hell and back for her.”

Raven slapped cuffs on him while Cyclone disabled the security feeds. We got out the same way we came in—fast, quiet, and with Vale gagged in the back of a blacked-out SUV.

Once we were clear, I dialed her.

“Em? We’ve got him.”

Her breath caught. “And the truth?”

“He gave us everything. You weren’t just a witness. You’re holding the key.”

Silence.

Then: “Then it’s not over.”

“No, sweetheart,” I said. “But we’ve got the upper hand now.”

40

Emery

California

The call ended, and for a long moment, I just sat there, watching Olly playing with his dog.

So, Vale hadn’t just been running weapons. He’d been logging every shady transaction, every off-the-books op, every name involved. And I’d seen something I shouldn’t have.But what I didn’t know was that I held the damn key.

It wasn’t just about me anymore.

It never had been.

I stood and walked slowly to the kitchen sink, rinsing out my tea mug with shaking hands. But not from fear.

From fury.

He had tried to erase me. Reduce me to a missing person, a problem that disappeared quietly. And now that they had him in custody, he was playing games. Threatening shadow retaliation. Acting like he still held power.

He doesn’t.

Not anymore.

---