Page 126 of Priest

Ink nodded. “Short-band radios. Backup hand signals if they jam us.”

“And nobody freelances,” I said, letting my gaze move over every man at the table before it came back to Archangel. “You see Blue, you call it. You don’t drag her through crossfire trying to be a hero.”

“Same goes for the others inside,” Archangel replied. “We prioritize the living.”

His words were clean. Clinical.

But there was honor in them.

Not soft honor. Not clean-hands honor. This was the kind built in gray rooms by men who knew how ugly the world got when everyone with a badge had to wait for permission.

That was Fallen Angels, then.

Not law.

Not outlaw.

Something between the two, walking a blade nobody else wanted to touch.

Archangel held my gaze. “You willing to burn the building if that’s what keeps them from moving people out?”

“If it comes to that,” I said, voice low, “I’ll salt the ground after.”

That settled something between us.

Around the table, my officers straightened. Not from fear. From clarity. The tension that had been chaotic earlier had direction now, edges and weight and a target waiting at the end of it.

Archangel gathered the file, but left the map spread open. “One more thing.”

Every eye came back to him.

“If federal channels light up after this, you let us handle the noise. You don’t answer questions without me in the room. You don’t volunteer details. You don’t put your people in cuffs because you got emotional after the smoke cleared.”

Graves’s mouth curved, cold and humorless. “You always this bossy in another man’s house?”

Archangel looked at him. “Only when I’m keeping that man out of prison.”

A rough sound moved through Nomad. Almost a laugh. Almost.

I stared at Archangel for another beat. “And what’s the price?”

His expression didn’t change, but something in his eyes sharpened like he’d been waiting for the question.

Smart man.

“Information later,” he said. “Not tonight. Not while your woman’s in that building. But one day, I’ll need a door opened in Saints territory, and when I ask, you’ll remember I brought you this.”

There was the heavy price.

Clean. Honest. Dangerous.

I respected it more than a lie.

“You ask,” I said. “Doesn’t mean I say yes.”

For the first time, Archangel smiled. Barely. “Would’ve been disappointed if you did.”

I looked to my officers. “Gear up. We move in twenty.”