Page 98 of Twisted Steel

“He’ll get me,” I say.

Savage’s eyes narrow.“Steel.”

I meet his stare.“But not blind.”

Raven steps between us, which is either brave or stupid.“No.He gets all of us.”

Savage’s jaw flexes.“Raven...”

She points toward the ambulance.“He used Harper because he thinks women are leverage.Again.I am getting tired of men being unimaginative.”

“She’s right,” Saint says, and Savage looks at him with something like betrayal on his face.Saint shrugs.“She usually is right when it’s inconvenient.”

Raven’s eyes stay on mine.“You go in there only as the monster, and he wins.You go in there as the man Harper asked to come back, and you might actually save her.”

“I’ll save her.”

“I know.”Her voice drops.“But save yourself too, Steel.She’ll need both.”

I hate that.I hate that she sees too much.I hate that Harper is bleeding somewhere because Reaper wanted to prove love is a weakness.

****

Reaper chose to hidein an old slaughterhouse.Subtle bastard.

The building squats at the edge of the industrial district, windows broken, walls tagged, rusted hooks still hanging from ceiling rails visible through gaps in the roof.Saint’s drone finds four men outside, maybe six inside.Heat signatures are dirty because the building holds the day’s warmth.

No clean count.No clean line.

But I don’t need clean.I need Harper.

Savage lays out the plan in a whisper over the hood of the van.Fury takes west.Saint cuts power.Crimson and two men hold the south exit.Savage moves through the front with three brothers.

Raven listens, arms crossed, face pale beneath the harsh moonlight.

Savage looks at her.“You stay in the van.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

She smiles without humor.“Try again.”

His eyes go flat.“This isn’t the time.”

“Exactly.So stop wasting it.”

The two of them stare at each other, and for half a second I see the whole of their relationship written between them.Blood.Want.War.Choice.A man trying to keep a woman behind glass and a woman teaching him how expensive cages can be.

Savage loses first.Or maybe he chooses.

“Back line,” he says.“With Saint.”

Raven nods.“See?Growth.”

Saint mutters, “I hate being assigned guard duty.”

I tune out their bickering and walk away, breathing through the rage so I can plan properly.Because I’m going exactly where Reaper expects.The loading bay.