Page 56 of Steel's Secret
Her car. Covered in frost. One tire is marked with a chalk X.
Another click.
A message:Ask the President how long he can keep her.
The room goes silent. Utterly, terrifyingly silent.
Something in my spine locks. Something old. Something primal. Something my father used to keep on a leash and told me never to let loose unless I wanted war.
War just put its fucking hand on my throat.
Rock clears his throat. “Steel.”
“Everyone out.” My voice doesn’t rise. It doesn’t have to. It lands like a hammer.
Rampage leaves first. Crusher follows with a clenched jaw. Draft, Rock, Throttle, Hurricane, Honor, August, and Collateral Damage exit one by one. The prospects, Niko, Killian, Nova, Caine, Will, and James follow the patch members out. City hesitates, eyes flicking between me and the screen.
“City,” I say quietly.
He nods and slips out the door. The moment the latch clicks shut, I drop into the chair, elbows on my knees, and head in my hands.
They were watching her hours before they hit her office. Hours before they stole the deed. Hours before, I tore three men apart behind the bakery. And still, they’re escalating.
I pull my phone out with shaking hands. Her messages sit there like wounds.
Aria: Just… let me know you’re okay. Please.
I close my eyes and picture her sitting in that ruined office, trying to hold herself together, unaware that the Syndicate had a camera pointed at her window.
I slam a fist onto the table, making the wood crack. The anger is too big for my skin. Too sharp for my ribs. Too much for the lie I’ve wrapped around us.
My phone buzzes. Another message. This time it’s not Aria. Unknown number. I already know what it is, but I open it anyway.
It’s a voice note.
I hit play. A man’s voice, low, mocking, too close to a microphone, whispers. “She screams easily.”
Something inside me snaps so violently I feel the break go all the way down my spine.
The phone shatters in my grip. Glass bites my palm. Blood follows, but I don’t feel any of it.
I stand, grab my cut, a spare burner, a gun, and I walk out.
Crusher moves into my path, one hand up. “Steel, think.”
“I am thinking,” I snarl. “And what I’m thinking is that someone needs to bleed.”
“This is what they want,” he warns. “They’re baiting you.”
“They already have me,” I growl, stepping past him. “Now I’m baiting them.”
“Steel.” I don’t stop walking. Because now the lie is dead. Now the war is real. Now it’s her or them. And the Syndicate is about to learn the same truth three scouts learned in the alley. I don’t lose the people I care about. Not again. Not ever.
Not Aria.
